It's Called Pikes Peak race to the Clouds but it's the Longest Uphill Drag Race in the USA

[71350SS+454]

I thought I knew what Pikes Peak was all about but I really was way behind information wise about one of America's Iconic race events. I did however know about the Unser families stranglehold on the race. Their family ruled from way back in the 30's till the Europeans and the japanese took it over with their out of this world technological improvements starting in the late 80's & then the 90's.

Sometime in the 2000's they had to pave the road because of and you're not going to believe this ---Gravel pollution -- WHAT ???
that's what it was, the gravel was polluting the streams and if it was really killing the fish that spawned there then its was worth paving it. Anyway after all that the electric cars stole the mountain with their out of the world low end instant torque. It seems they are only limited by rules not allowing them to recharge the batteries while their race is done.
Anyway the only thing I'm disappointed about is there's not enough 40's 50's and 60's sprint car and big car footage of the unpaved road. Those guys would make those weenues with their drifting look like the pansies they are. It took real stones to run flat out around a dirt road turn knowing there's some big cliffs with huge drop-offs if you screw up. Hope you people like it.

 

[Shovelrick]

IMHO they should’ve removed the gravel and left it Dirt, separate the Men from the Techno Boys, made a separate race division for EV’s and Gas cars too

 

[Molly's 70]

I can't believe all the new Greenies that migrated to Colorado haven't voted to shut this down. With all that noise & exhaust pollution, gravel pollution. Carbon Credits need to be purchased to make this right.

 

[Shovelrick]

I can't believe all the new Greenies that migrated to Colorado haven't voted to shut this down. With all that noise & exhaust pollution, gravel pollution. Carbon Credits need to be purchased to make this right.

EV racers, No Nothing sound, fumes and No Excitement IMO

 

[71350SS+454]

The main thing is this isn't only the racers using this road it's a public road for all to use year round or until the snow shuts it down in the winter. At first the road was all dirt and then for many years half the road was gravelled and 1/2 was left dirt. Then as more and more people visited the mountain they graveled half the road and then partially paved it and then finally they caved in and did the whole road, top to bottom.
There's one scene in the video where a fan or pedestrian or someone runs across the race track (or road) and a race car almost runs him over. He had to run his ass off to get out of the way and almost didn't make it. There's race fans lining the sides of the road at the lower elevations but not so many as the road goes higher up.
There are many different classes available and I remember in the 80's there was a guy that showed up every year in the stock car class and won it a couple of times in a row driving a Ford fairmont ( like the one Bob Glidden used to run ) but in a stock car not a pro stocker. So there were many classes available to the lower buck racer and I always wanted to take an A body stock car there to try and win it. None of the big race teams went after the Pikes Peak race and most of those lower classes were mainly left to the low buck racers.
For many years the race was sanctioned by USAC and the top unlimited classes are the ones mainly talked about in this video. The early years the racers used race cars that were like the ones they used at the Indianapolis 500 but by the late 70's and then into the 80's the unlimited cars became 4WD and rear engined affairs specifically made for that one race.

I really hate when they take an iconic American thing and turn it into something else. Does anyone else remember when the buzz word of the 80's was "globalization" like when they said they had to switch American cars to metric sizes. We've been on a downhill slope ever since then, and it's a dam shame.