New Pikes Peak record

[Nikki]

Sadly no RS200's took part in this years' race for whatever reason but the race was apparently quite sensational with a new established record for the run by Nobuhiro Tajima beating the 10 minutes barrier by over 8 seconds !

New record:
Nobuhiro Tajima - Suzuki SX4 in 9:51.278

[Justin Smith]

I asked Geoff last weekend why the 200 did not make it to the US this year and he said it was a long story which boiled down to the fact that they were not confident enough that they had it all 100% and they didn't want to try it without more preparation.

I guess we'll be resurrecting this thread next year

[Nikki]

Thanks for the update Justin...

For the record here is the on-board camera video of the full climb run by Nobuhiro Tajima:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=yo ... VAJaZAV-gQ

[tbtstt]

Damn shame that the Mach 2 car never made it out there, but better to try next year with a well prepared car than half-arsing it this year!

[Nikki]

Damn shame that the Mach 2 car never made it out there, but better to try next year with a well prepared car than half-arsing it this year!

I would tend to agree though it looks like things are about to drastically change at Pikes Peak, possibly making 4WD cars not so competitive any more. From January next year the last 3-odd miles left of gravel are going to be paved making the entire climb asphalted.

This is also the main reason why the record has constantly improved in recent years, as more and more asphalt portions have been added. Once it will be all paved, unless it rains or snows (in which case the record will not be beaten anyway) I can foresee single seater open cars going up considerably faster.

The end of an era ?