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MotorsportThe 80th Race To The CloudsFalken Tire Pikes Peak International Hill Climb"The challenge is to beat the Hill," said Saab's Per Eklund. In that, this year's 80th running of the Falken Tire Pikes Peak International Hill Climb was no different than any of the previous 79. But this year, the famously changeable mountain seemed content to sit back and watch the proceedings. Perhaps it was because Colorado's year-long drought had dried the road to the point the various anti-dust treatments couldn't be used and had left its surface covered in a pebbly gravel some competitors likened to driving in snow. Or perhaps it was because of the extremely high fire danger that had closed the surrounding national forest, cancelled the one-night-a-year camping on the mountain and kept a worried National Forest Service from issuing the necessary permits until two days before the first practice.
David Donner, despite a water temperature gauge reading off the scale and an oil pressure gauge that read zero in his Donner-Dykstra open wheeler, hung on to finish the 156-turn, 12.42-mile course in 10:52.38 and won his second overall title. Eklund was second overall and first in Unlimited in his 750-hp Saab 9-3 Viggen. Twenty-year-old open wheel driver Jimmy Keeney was third overall, Stig Blomqvist was fourth in his Unlimited Ford RS200, and the SCCA's defending ProRally Champion, Mark Lovell, was fifth overall.
Lovell's 11:52.69 run in his Prodrive-built Open class Subaru WRX, with Steve Turvey co-driving, highlighted the return of SCCA ProRally to the storied hillclimb, and the first time a Brit has won here. Rally cars were first seen in the Race to the Clouds in 1981, but this is the first time the PPIHC has been included as part of the ProRally championship. Paul Choiniere and Cindy Krolikowski finished second in their Hyundai Tiburon, despite a flat left-front tire. Lauchlin O'Sullivan and Matt Chester were third in their Mitsubishi Lancer EVO 6.5. Julie Lin started therapy several months ago to help cure her fear of heights and co-drove husband Wolfgang Hoeck to the Group N win, the pair finishing in 13:31.51, just 2 sec. ahead of Tim O'Neill and Ole Holter's WRX. Peter Workum and Alex Gelsomino were third. This year was limited to just Open Class and Group N entries, 17 in all, and awarded only Manufacturers Championship points. Look for a full rally based around the Hill Climb next year.
PPIHC officials reported surprisingly strong fan interest in the ProRally cars, which is good given the small entry list in High Performance Showroom Stock and Pikes Peak Open. World events and a weak Japanese economy combined to decimate these two classes. On a high note, Jeff Zwart debuted a new Porsche GT2 and set a new two-wheel-drive record while winning HPSS. Blake Fuller triumphed over Koichi Horiuchi in PPO.
The Unser family has 37 wins on "Unser Mountain," starting with Uncle Louis in 1934, but Leonard and Clint Vahsholtz are well on their way to establishing their own family dynasty. Leonard's win in the Super Stock Truck class tied him with Bobby Unser's 13 career victories and, when his son Clint won the Super Stock Car class, the pair moved ahead of Bobby and Robby Unser 23-21 atop the career father-son win list. Clint has now won ten in a row, three wins on a motorcycle and seven straight Super Stock Car victories.