This was my third trip to the peak. First time up the mountain for the race in 25 years.
Things I missed: The dirt. Pavement makes it an entirely different race. While there was still slipping and sliding, it wasn't an all hang out on every corner with gravel flying and dust in the air. Being paved isn't a bad thing, just different.
I missed the stock car and semi classes too. Something about an old school NASCAR car making those wondrous sounds going up made an old school guy like me smile. Sideways semi's were just fun.
Things I loved: The speeds. 25 years ago the racers were just breaking the 12 minute barrier, yesterday they were talking about the possibilities of getting in to the high 7's. (It was done a few years back but they thought the Ford Lightning EV was going to smash it)
Things that were new since last time: Environmentalists got rid of the dirt road, Insurance companies changed the event for spectators. It was bound to happen. Back in 98/99 it was pull your pickup anywhere you wanted, drop the tailgate, and watch the race from 4 feet away. Now it is well defined spectator areas, all behind fences, and a lot of "NO" signs everywhere. The other thing was EV's. I'm a fan of EV's but no sound coming out of them sucks. Again, that's the old school V8 guy talking. But man oh man, did that Ford Lightning haul a55.
Let's talk about EV's. While there were many cheers and jeers, not unlike here on BITOG, when the vehicle isn't effected by altitude it is a game changer. The discussion was the same years ago when they were deciding if EFI was to be allowed or was it breaking the spirit of the race. Technology changes, I don't think there was a single carburetor on the mountain. There were tons of EV's in the parking lots too. The EV race cars did have to have a cheesy alarm on them so people knew when they were coming. Insurance regulation I think.
This year I went as a volunteer. On Friday I worked Fan Fest load in downtown (edyvw showed this part well, lots of booths, swag, cars and drivers). I heard the total attendance was over 35,000 people. Quite the event, it was free too.
For the load-in on Saturday I worked a section called Ski Area. At just under 11,000' Ski Area is up there, but still below timberline. This year it was camping only (no race day only spectators allowed) so it was pretty mellow considering. I was responsible for parking 50 campers in a giant dirt lot. Everyone cooperated, and while it was 10 hours in the sun, it went relatively well. The hardest part was telling the couple of campers that didn't read directions beforehand that they couldn't use charcoal grills, only propane stoves allowed. Other campers fed them in the end though! A big soaking rain came in just after everyone was settled at 6pm which I was thankful for, and when it cleared, the sunset was amazing. I wished at that point I had a good camera because you knew exactly what "purple mountains majesty" really meant! It was also cool you could see the road to my house from Ski Area.
Race Day! My job on Sunday was to direct people to the spectator area and keep them from cutting across the road. Everyone had to use the crosswalk for good reason. I quickly discovered my Event Support badge got my anywhere. So I was next to the race officials and safety crews much of the race, my views of the action kept me smiling all day. I also had a race radio so I could listen to the race officials. Mostly they kept track of car location and starting line pacing. Interesting though, there usually was 2 or 3 cars on the mountain at the same time. Spacing was 4 minutes between cars starting. If a car red flagged, the racers on the course behind the red flagged car got to go back down the mountain and go again.
With cars breaking, you just never know how long the event is going to last. While it was a gorgeous day, there were a lot of red flags and course cleanup when someone dropped fluid, or went off the road and they had to get the safety teams going. Racing started at 7:30am and by noon I think we were at 25 out of 61 cars. It had the makings of coming off the mountain in the dark.
One thing that makes the event special is the racers. When a racer finishes the race they are on the top of the mountain for the whole day. No one comes down until the race is over (except for do-overs). Well same thing goes for broken cars too. There are a couple of "Pikes Peak royalty" families that run the mountain. First and most well known is the Unser family from Albuquerque. The second is the Vahsholtz family out of Woodland Park, the local mountain town to Pikes Peak. Third generation Codie Vahsholtz broke right at Ski Area. He was rightfully disappointed, he was going for 3 in a row class champion and he had the car for King of the Mountain this year. He had a brake issue, kinda important to have brakes. Anyhow he composed himself and went into the spectator areas and just hung out with the fans. I probably sat with him for 15 minutes on a rock, he was showing me the different lines to take on the corner. We also talked some about Carlin Dunne who died on the mountain racing the now discontinued motorcycle class which Codie also raced. In the end, he was hanging out with us for over 7 hours. Another racer broke close to the end, and he chose to let fans gather round the car while he showed all the features and cool things about it. Just a fun experience.
There were some memorable cars in the different classes. If you couldn't tell my preferences yet, the V8 cars sounded the best, but oh my, the Por-shees sing a wonderful song. A lot of popping and snarling from all of them. Just racing fun. We had a car spin out in front of us which caused some excitement, but he never went off course and actually finished the race. An old Quattro was pretty cool to see, and there was a late 60's Chevy C-10 truck, with a goofy 2000-ish grill on the front of it, running a ex-Nascar Dodge V8. Got a lot of cheers. The Ford Lightning EV was King of the Mountain, even with a complete shut off of power in the first stage of the race. I bet Ford had $3M in that truck.
At the end of the event, which thankfully was around 5 pm I think, all the racers come down the mountain in a parade, and the fans are allowed to come on the road, just had to stay behind the white lines on the side. The the spectators drive down from the higher points on the mountain (I was told Devils Playground had over 1000 cars) and you wait until it's your areas turn. I didn't have to fight in too much of it since I still had to go empty trash cans so I was last off the mountain. Even with two lanes coming down, and some mandatory brake temperature check stations, its slow going getting everyone down. Much like any event with a lot of people. Fortunately I didn't have to drive down the canyon on US 24 with most everyone, I was 15 minutes up Ute Pass to home.
Pictures to come in my next post. I'm sure I'm forgetting something, so my apologies!
