Pikes Peak Entries—Some Electric, Some ICE—Will Race to the Clouds on June 25

Pikes Peak is never boring—and never predictable. Just when you think your latest, greatest, highest-tech entry is going to win everything, it rains. Or snows. Or both. Since the mountain rises 14,115 feet into the strato-cumulous, poking up through the atmosphere and catching whatever weather is passing by, you never know what’s going to happen. Sometimes it makes its own weather.

The “Race to the Clouds” started in 1916, and for the first 86 years it was run on dirt. The road started seeing asphalt in 2002, a process that took nine years. The whole course was paved by the end of calendar year 2011. For years racers tried to break the elusive 10-minute barrier, coming agonizingly close many times. In 2011, with 75% of the course paved, past winner Nobuhiro “Monster” Tajima finally broke it at 9:51 in a Suzuki SX4. From 2012 on, the course was 100% paved. In 2018 Romain Dumas drove a purpose-built VW I.D.R electric supercar prototype up the hill in a record-obliterating 7:57.148 and that figure has stood as an, “It’ll never be broken” mark since. It will remain—until it’s broken.

Tech inspection is Tuesday, June 19, practice begins June 20 and runs through June 23, and the race is Sunday, June 25. While there are 70 entries this year, we haven’t met them all. But here are some of the more interesting drives up the mountain.

Randy Pobst’s Tesla Model S Plaid ‘Dark Helmet’

After his unfortunate off two years ago, when racing great Randy Pobst flew over a bump and off the track not far from the summit, or last year when the windshield fogged up and Pobst couldn’t navigate Tesla’s complicated 17-inch touch screen to turn on the defrost, this year the 90-plus-pro-wins Pobst has a new car and a much better understanding of Pikes Peak’s wild whoop-dee-doos and Tesla’s sub-menus.

“I’m coming back with the Unplugged Performance Tesla Model S Plaid we call Dark Helmet,” Pobst announced on his Instagram.

The Model S is the work of noted Tesla tuner Unplugged Performance, which is as close to an AMG or an M as Tesla’s likely to get. Dark Helmet’s modifications include massive aero add-ons front and rear, Ohlins TTX 4-way coilovers, Unplugged Performance full suspension links package, carbon-ceramic brakes, carbon-fiber widebody, and 330/710-19 Yokohama A005 slicks.

Pobst’s Insta posts showed a series of big-bump parking-lot testing runs at Pikes Peak International Raceway, so with that and, presumably, a tutorial on the touchscreen, Pobst has no excuses this year.

ZwartSpeed Porsches

Among the Porsche entries on the mountain this year will be longtime racer/filmmaker Jeff Zwart.

“The ZwartSpeed cars have landed for the 2023 season,” Zwart announced on Instagram. He will be running not just Pikes Peak but the entire Colorado Hillclimb Association season, the first run of which is Pikes Peak. Zwart will pilot a 935/19 in the GT3 Hill Climb Cup, in addition to coaching the GT4 Clubsport class again.

Porsche Pikes Peak Trophy By Yokohama

Yokohama Tire is a big supporter of Pikes Peak and returns this year headlining an entire division of Porsches. The Trophy class is made up of six Porsche Cayman GT4s from all over the country all running ADVAN A052® tires. Last year one of the PPPTrophy drivers was Loni Unser, keeping the family name alive at Pikes Peak where her uncles, granduncles, and great-grandparent drove to an unprecedented and likely never-to-be-repeated 25 overall wins. This year Loni Unser will be driving a 2023 Acura Integra. David Donohue, from another famous family, will pilot another Porsche—not a Cayman but a 2019 Porsche GT2 RS Clubsport, also riding on Yokohama A005/A006s.

Acura Going All Out

What year is it? 1998? With the Integra nameplate back on the road and race track, it can be hard to tell. But that’s all part of Acura’s plan for victory at Pikes Peak, with four separate entries in this year’s race. Fourth-generation Pikes Peak racer Loni Unser will be driving the official Honda Performance Development Integra Type S, shown here, in the Exhibition division while Acura engineer Paul Hubers will try to keep up behind the wheel of an Integra 1.5T built by the Honda of America Racing Team.

Rounding out the Exhibition category for Acura, fellow Acura engineer and Pikes Peak veteran Jordan Guitar will wheel an Acura TLX Type S also built by the Honda of America Racing Team. And while the competitive focus will fall on Acura’s sedans, the brand is taking the chance to do some aerodynamic testing too, as the Acura NSX Type S Active Aero Study will be driven by Honda engineer James Robinson in the Time Attack 1 class. Robinson is notorious for setting the current Hybrid fuel class record (10:01.913) in an NSX.

Radford 62-2

Radford was started by four guys who liked cars: TV personality Ant Anstead, F1 champ Jenson Button, designer Mark Stubbs, and lawyer Roger Beale. Together they bought the institution formerly known as Bondurant and then started making cars of their own, firstly the Lotus-based Radford 62-2. The race version is shown here.

“We have been busy,” the lads said last month. “And about to embark on a very busy and action-packed summer. Pikes Peak is upon us. Our Radford ‘Pikes Peak Edition’ Type 62-2 is to make its debut next month at the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, during the event’s 101st running on Sunday, 25 June.”

The driver will not be one of the four.