Video: Full 2024 Festival of Speed Timed Shootout

Of course, realistically, there are only a handful of contenders that are in with a shout of taking overall victory, but all the cars are divided into classes that give each entrant their own chance of victory.

The battle for outright victory in this year’s Timed Shootout was between four-time Rallycross champion Scott Speed in the Subaru WRX: Project Midnight and two-time Le Mans winner Romain Dumas in the Ford Supervan 4.2. Where the next fastest drivers were putting in 47-second runs in qualifying, Speed and Dumas posted near-identical 45-second times. It all came down to who could repeat or improve on that performance, keep cool and keep it smooth.

Needless to say, not everyone in the Shootout managed to keep it clean come the Final on Sunday. A Ferrari 512 BBLM, Glickenhaus 004C and Travis Pastrana, who had been one of the fastest drivers of the weekend in the Subaru GL ‘Huckster’, all came to blows with the bales on their final runs. Even the Czinger 21C, which with Chris Ward at the wheel became the world's fastest production car on the Hill, sacrificed a wingmirror on its way up the Hill.

All we’ll say here is that the 2024 Timed Shootout winner was a deserved one.