Who will be on top of the world after the 99th running of the Race to the Clouds, the 2021 Pikes Peak hillclimb, this coming Sunday 27th June? Everything from a bespoke Bentley to home-built specials, electric saloons, open-wheelers and SUVs will be taking on the 156 turns of the 12.4-mile climb up the iconic mountain in Colorado, all aiming to get within sight of the remarkable 7 minutes 57 seconds that it took the Volkswagen ID.R Pikes Peak electric racer to reach the 14,000ft summit in 2018.
2021 Pikes Peak hillclimb preview
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VW is not there this year, its mission to get the ID brand on everyone’s lips now more established. It is doubtful it needs to be there to defend its overall race title. Its astonishing battery-powered projectile was far quicker than anything else to have ever taken on what is often billed the world’s most challenging hillclimb, and with precipitous drops and no guard rails definitely the scariest. At least it’s no longer all gravel surface.
Romain Dumas was the driver of the record-breaking VW three years ago, just as he was when he set an electric car record in the ID.R up the Goodwood hill at the Festival of Speed presented by Mastercard in 2019 (and would have been the driver at last year’s SpeedWeek too, had VW made it over). But this year the French double Le Mans winner will be driving a Porsche, a 911 GT2 RS Clubsport.
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Standard and modified Porsches have long been a favourite at Pikes Peak, so much so that these days there’s a class for nothing but Porsches. The GT2 RS Clubsport competing in the Time Attack 1 class will be among the quickest – the class record stands at 9 minutes 23 seconds – but challenges will come in the open class where three highly modded Porsches will compete – including a local crowd favourite, a 1970 Porsche 914 “Wide Body”.
Meanwhile we can cheer on great British brawn in the form of the most extreme road-going Bentley ever built, the Continental GT3 Pikes Peak. A Bentley in this most American of events sounds a little unlikely, but with 750PS (552kW), 1000Nm (740lb ft), all-wheel-drive and 30 per cent more downforce than the standard Continental GT3, it’s been a surprise success.
Bentley currently holds SUV and production car records at Pikes Peak, achieved in 2018 and 2019, and with its latest hill racer will be aiming for the Time Attack 1 win, giving the British firm a Pikes Peak triple crown. In the hot seat with a mission to get to the top in under 9 minutes (at an average speed of more than 78mph) will be three-time Pikes Peak champion Rhys Millen.
Good luck Rhys, and good luck too to Brit drivers Ant Anstead, the TV motoring pundit who is driving an Acura, and Robin Shute in his 2018 Wolf GB08 open-wheeler who is renewing his attempt to become the first British driver to take overall victory on the mountain.
The first Race to the Clouds was in 1916 and by our reckoning it’s just as scary today.
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