This year marks the 91st running of the “Race to the Clouds”, the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb. This is the second oldest motorsports race in America and the 2013 edition is happening this week.
The hill climb is run on a 12.42 mile course with 156 turns that starts at 9,390 feet and finishes at the 14,110 foot summit of Pikes Peak. The current record was set by Rhys Millen in 2012 with a time of 09:46.164.
Over the years many different types of vehicles have raced this famous hill climb event. Although most have been cars there have been allot of trucks as well, even a semi truck.
Here are a couple of vintage videos showing how it was in the early days of the event. Unfortunately the entire road has been paved now…
1916, The first Pikes Peak Hill Climb
1929 Pikes Peak Hill Climb. The winner that year was Edward Phillips, driving the Shultz Stutz 8 featured in the video, with a time of 18:22.