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The Pikes Peak International Hill Climb (PPIHC), also known as The Race to the Clouds, is an annual automobile and motorcycle hillclimb to the summit of Pikes Peak in Colorado, USA. The track measures over 156 turns, climbing from the start at Mile 7 on Pikes Peak Highway, to the finish at , on grades averaging 7.2%.〔''PPIHC race overview'', http://www.ppihc.com/2014-spectator-guide/〕 It used to consist of both gravel and paved sections, however as of August 2011, the highway is fully paved and as a result all subsequent runnings will be on tarmac from start to finish. The race is self sanctioned and has taken place since 1916.〔 It is currently contested by a variety of classes of cars, trucks, motorcycles and quads. There are often numerous new classes tried and discarded year-to-year. On average there are 130 competitors. The PPIHC operates as the Pikes Peak Auto Hill Climb Educational Museum to organize the annual motorsports event. ==History== The first running of the Pikes Peak Hill Climb was promoted by Spencer Penrose. Penrose had finished widening the narrow carriage road into a much wider "Pikes Peak Highway." He decided to encourage tourists to visit by creating a race to the clouds. The oldest class is the Open Wheel division which has been run since 1916 and has been won by such names as Mario Andretti, Al Unser, Bobby Unser, and Robby Unser (the current class record holder, achieving 10 minutes 5.85 seconds in 1994). On July 4, 1966, Bobby Unser won the event overall for the eighth time in ten years. The event was part of the AAA and USAC IndyCar championship from 1946 to 1970. First in the Stock Car class was Nick Sanborn Jr in an Oldsmobile Toronado.〔''Competition Press & Autoweek'', July 23, 1966, Vol.16, No.29, Pages 1, 3.〕 The overall record is held by Sébastien Loeb who recorded a time of 8 minutes 13.878 seconds on June 30, 2013 driving the 875 hp mid-engined Peugeot 208 T16 Pikes Peak, breaking the previous record (set in 2011 by Nobuhiro Tajima) by over a minute and a half. The first Penrose Trophy was awarded in 1916 to Rea Lentz with a time of 20:55.60.〔(Race Winners by Year ) - PPIHC official website〕〔(Pikes Peak History ) - PikesPeak.us.com〕 In 1984 the first European racers took part in the PPIHC with Norwegian Rallycrosser Martin Schanche (Ford Escort Mk3 4x4) and French Rally driver Michèle Mouton (Audi Sport quattro), thereby starting a new era for European teams in the almost unknown American hillclimb. While Schanche failed to set a new track record, due to a flat right front tyre, Mouton (together with her World Rally Championship co-driver Fabrizia Pons from Italy) won the Open Rally category, but also failed to break the current overall track record. In 1989, an award-winning short film about the 1988 event was released by French director Jean-Louis Mourey. The film, titled ''Climb Dance'', captured the efforts of Finnish former World Rally Champion Ari Vatanen, as he won the event in a record-breaking time with his turbocharged Peugeot 405 Turbo-16. The 2011 running was the last running of the Pikes Peak Hill Climb that had dirt sections of the course, for approximately 30% of the route, as Colorado Springs is being forced by a Sierra Club lawsuit to pave the road all the way to the summit.〔''CNN'', April 15, 1999, http://articles.cnn.com/1999-04-15/nature/9904_15_pikes.peak.enn_1_settlement-clean-water-act-toll-road?_s=PM:NATURE〕 The paving project was completed in August, 2011. The likes of Hill Climb champion Rod Millen have warned that paving the road will put an end to the race. However, the 2012 race saw over 170 racer registrations by December 2011, compared with 46 at the same time in 2011. Registration for the 2012 event had to be stopped to allow management of all the registrations they have received. Consideration was made to create a qualifying system for the 2012 race, and to run the 2013 race as a two-day event. The 2012 race, originally scheduled for July 8, was postponed until August 12 due to the Waldo Canyon fire. The 2012 race saw numerous unusual occurrences, namely a larger field than ever before and the longest race day in the race's known history. The 2012, 90th running of the race was the first time the race has been run on all tarmac and saw the toppling of several records, notably the overall record, being set by first Romain Dumas in the Open Division only to be overturned later in the day by Rhys Millen, son of the famed Rod Millen, in the Time Attack Division. Nobuhiro Tajima, the 2011 winner and at the time overall record holder, running in the Electric Division saw a surprising upset when his car caught fire in the lower portion of the course causing a DNF. One of the unusual highlights, and proof that tarmac has changed the race; Mike Ryan spun his big rig in a hairpin in a section called the "W"s, slamming into the guard rail, he then managed to execute a three point turn and continued on course, at which point he broke his old record by 5 seconds.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Mike Ryan Sets New Pikes Peak Record! )〕 The race also saw the first ever motorcycle to achieve a sub 10 minute time with Carlin Dunne in the 1205 Division riding a Ducati pulling out a 9:52.819 (only a bit over a second slower than the 2011 overall record). Due to the race's postponement, weather also caused issues. Towards the end of the raceday, freezing rain and snow closed in on the summit, causing a race stoppage and the eventual relocation of the finish line to Glen Cove. 2013 saw the nine-minute barrier shattered by WRC legend Sébastien Loeb, with a time of 8:13.878, while Rhys Millen ended up second with 9:02.192, beating his own record by more than 44 seconds.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=8:13.878—Sebastien Loeb vaporizes the Pikes Peak record )〕 Jean-Philippe Dayrault finished third with a time of 9:42.740, and Paul Dallenbach fourth with a time of 9:46.001, making it four drivers to beat the record set only the previous year. 2015 was the first time in the history of the race that an electric car won in all classes. Second place was earned by an electric car, too. Already in 2014, electric cars were at the places 2 and 3.〔(Electric power lights up Pikes Peak )〕〔(Electric car wins title at Pikes Peak race )〕〔(Rhys Millen wins Pikes Peak under all-electric power )〕 In an interview given by the winning driver Rhys Millen, he told, that on half way he lost more or less the half of his six engines, so that he had to finish with only the half power of the car. From testing drives they expected a run 30 seconds faster at the end.〔(video: Rhys Millen winnig run at Pikes Peak 2015 and an interview at the end of the video with Rhys Millen )〕 ==Current racing classes== 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Pikes Peak International Hill Climb」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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