Pikes Peak Recap

[trent06]

My trip started out on Friday by waking up at 4:30 AM to head out to the Prescott airport, to MEET two guys and fly with them up to Colorado Springs, Colorado in a Beechcraft Bonaza V-tail. Having never met either of te two guys I was flying with they did a pretty good job of making the flight comfortable, but telling jokes etc, more on that later. LOL We got on the plane and headed out trying to beat the weather etc thaat you have to deal with when flying in a small plane. During the flight we fly over Sedona Red Rock, 4-corners of AZ, Colo, Utah, NM. also seeing the Meteor Crater in AZ, Shiprock Mountain in Colorado, Giant Pacman of Colo. etc. Once landed in Colorado Springs we grab our bags and head to the hotel to meet up with the team, which is where I got the connection to fly up with these 2 guys. After talking with them earlier in the week we were racing quad 450 and had qualified 6th out of 13. We meet up at the hotel just as the other people from the team are heading to take a nap from the last day of qualifying. Its about 2:30 by now and we decide to head to the top of the hill to check it out. Upon driving up we smell tons of people who have been smoking their brakes. With about 1/4 mile to reach the top a car infront of us over heats so we stop to allow them to pull off. After that we hit th gas to clear the summit and nothing. We have valve lock, so the forest service ranger walks down form the overheated car and says to us in my best southern 70 year old accent. "Yup you boyz have valve lock I ownly see tis bout 35 times aday" That is when your gas starts boiling so you arent getting fuel to the motor. We let it sit for abotu fifteen minutes and finish the trip upon reaching the top I have one of their world famous doughnuts, and snap a ton of pictures before returning on down the hill. As you reach Glen Cove you are stopped to have you brake temp. checked and anything over 300 degrees is told to stop and let them cool off. LOL! Well we got the high score for the day! 768 degrees! Hahahaha gotta love rental cars. The best part of it is the driver was trying to explain to me and Ken the pilot of the plane how he was barely using his brakes! After that pretty low key until we got to the hotel.

 

[randy68]

Kewl story! One bad azz plane also!

 

[07FJRog]

nice pics, thanks for sharing

 

[trent06]

Next part leading up to the race day should be up tonight, or tomorow morning...

 

[onebuilder]

More pics! Glad you guys had fun. Lets race the TT next year

When we get back from Telluride we will have to exchange pics.

 

[trent06]

Once getting back to the hotel we tossed on the team race shirts and headed down to fan fest. Fan fest is similar to an off-road contingency, but for Pikes Peak this only has the number one qualifiers set u with their cars on display and a few other special others. The first car I saw was Monster Tajima and then made my way on down looking at all the others as well and got to see a Moto X show in between. After that we headed to an awesome Mexican food restaurant in downtown Colorado Springs. Back to my previous post about the jokes Shawn whom was one of the people flying with me said what I think is one of the absolute funniest jokes I have heard in a while.

“A second grade teacher was asking her students to use the word fascinate in a sentence. Little Jenni raises her and says I would like to try, and the teacher responds go for it Jenni. Little Jenni says last weekend my family and I went to Disneyland and it was fascinating. The teacher replies that’s a great sentence Jenni but you used the word fascinating and I wanted the word fascinate. So Suzy raised her hand and says I can do that. The teachers says go ahead. Suzy says, Yesterday I went to the zoo and I was fascinated by the size of the elephants. Once again the teacher responds with that’s a great sentence, but you used the word fascinated and I wanted the word fascinate. So then little Jimmy raises his hand. And the teacher says yes Jimmy. Jimmy says I would like to try. The teacher knowing jimmy is typically the problem student thinks how can Jimmy mess this up and says go for it. Little Jimmy says we my mother’s friend has a t-shirt with ten buttons but since she has really huge boobs she can only fascinate.

After that it was an early night as the following day was an off day and we headed north to Denver and then to Boulder Colorado to see some of the team’s family. Got some good pictures of the Air Force Academy, the stadium the Denver Broncos play at, and some of Pikes Peak looking up. (Interesting enough the AirForce Academy had a swine flu breakout with about 30 kids so it was on lock down and no one has been allowed to enter or leave) The last two pictures show Pikes Peak in the clouds from the I-25 I think it is. Pretty cool! After that an early night as 2 AM Arizona time came early the day of the race, to get things squared away.

 

[bomber]

Which Mexican restaurant did you go to? Nice pics and write-ups btw! I lived there for 6 yrs and never made it to the Pikes Peak race bc every summer we came to CA to visit fam for a couple weeks during the same time.

 

[Old School 8]

The Doherty Family at Pikes Peak in 1996

 

[scottm]

That is awesome - looking forward to the rest of the story! I plan to race PP someday, and I spend a lot of time watching videos of it. While you were there, did you happen to find out why pro-trucks are not allowed to practice?

I think what was happening on the peak is 'vapor lock'. rather than 'valve lock'. Its from fuel vaporizing in the line, causing a loss of flow to the engine. It used to be common on cars and trucks with mechanical fuel pumps located on the engine, because the pumps pulled the fuel forward under suction, past the exhaust system, until it boils. I have never heard of it happening on a modern car, as pumps are in the tank and push the fuel forward under pressure.

 

[trent06]

The Doherty Family at Pikes Peak in 1996

Awesome Mike, were you up there during a race?

That is awesome - looking forward to the rest of the story! I plan to race PP someday, and I spend a lot of time watching videos of it. While you were there, did you happen to find out why pro-trucks are not allowed to practice?

I think what was happening on the peak is 'vapor lock'. rather than 'valve lock'. Its from fuel vaporizing in the line, causing a loss of flow to the engine. It used to be common on cars and trucks with mechanical fuel pumps located on the engine, because the pumps pulled the fuel forward under suction, past the exhaust system, until it boils. I have never heard of it happening on a modern car, as pumps are in the tank and push the fuel forward under pressure.

Yes it was vapor lock I could have defined/explained what happened and knew it was vapor lock when on the hill but when I was writing the story trying to catch back up with sleep I had brain fade and wrote valve lock...LOL Happens to the best of us.

The last part of the story should be up tonight on tommorow morning early...

P.S. I am not sure why the Pro Trucks arent allowed to practice, Ill ask my buddy who was racing since he was at all the practice days to see if he knows what the deal is, since all other cars/trucks and the semi's get to practice. I didnt make it up to Colorado until just after the last qualifying day so I dont know but when I get the answer Ill post...

 

[cixelsyd]

PPIHC.com has the protrucks practicing all three days starting with the top section on the first day. The rule book says that the protrucks can't do any testing on Pikes Peak. Why that is i don't know.

 

[trent06]

Sunday morning came as early as ever and it was time to head up the hill, heading out we were lucky enough to get to bypass all the fans wanting to watch the hill climb and got to head straight through the check stand and on into the pit area just below the start line, once their the quad was unloaded and it was back to sleeping in the truck. At about 6 am the rest of the team showed up that wanted the extra sleep in the hotel, but had to wait in the lines down below. A few of the team finished getting the quad ready and we walked around checking out the other vehicles, etc. As the race neared the majority of the team walked up past the start line about 3-4 turns to watch the race. Which is also where the majority of my pictures were taken. I was extremely impressed with what some of the older cars could do in such a short time period, and how wild it has to be to race a dirt bike of the hill starting five wide! Some of my favorites going by were the sidehacks, vintage motorcycles, quads, and of course the open unlimited cars and 2wd unlimited cars. I soon figured out that I could enjoy the race more by watching the cars go by, and really notice how fast they were going if I wasn’t taking pictures so after the first few classes they are few and far between with only a point and shoot camera. The parade that all the competitors do down the hill is an awesome experience where all the spectators merge to the center of the road and hi-five all the racers back down the hill. After that we headed back to the hotel to get some quality R-N-R and headed to a restaurant called “The Mason Jar.” Again after that it was an early night because of the long drive home instead of flying in the plane. From Colorado Springs we headed south down through Trinidad, NM to Las Vegas, Sante Fe, Albuquerque, and on into Arizona. I would never volunteer to drive through New Mexico and the only real reason I would head back to New Mexico would be to buy fireworks! I would also like to thank Michael Taylor quad #626 for giving me the opportunity to come to this race and hope that next year I am racing in it.

Here is a photo gallery from Pikes Peak as well from their website.
http://www.ppihc.com/gallery.aspx?categoryid=6274&photomode=2&tabid=10

And here is a picture of #626
http://www.ppihc.com/detail.aspx?ca...ery.aspx?categoryid=6277&photomode=3&tabid=10

 

[trent06]

If you look on the Pikes Peak Hill Climb website in their photo gallery from 2009 you can see in the practice photos that the Protrucks did practice.

This is also my favorite picture from the event!!!

This Monkey is a die hard!

http://www.ppihc.com/detail.aspx?ca...ery.aspx?categoryid=6279&photomode=3&tabid=10

 

[TROPHYSEDAN]

Trent thanks for the up date. P P is one of those races you will never forget. what about the simi. crazy to watch it burn rubber around the turns and still grabbing gears. coming down the hill and the fans high fiving the racers is even cooler. plans to go back soon. i want to go back in a stock car or a open wheel car. me and my son are talking crap about racing next year against each other. congrats to your team. Dennis

 

[Old School 8]

Awesome Mike, were you up there during a race?..

Yes Trent, we went to check the race out. We also enjoyed a week of sight-seeing around that area, as part of a vacation, and the race was part of that vaction. We watched from the start area.

A side note: We saw Ivan Stuart walking around the start area during the race but I was not able to talk to him. He was there checking out the race, as a possible future Pro-truck event. (I'm not sure of the year they first ran Pro-trucks).

I'd like to go back some day. Maybe someday, they'll have a class 8 catagory !

 

[pappawheely]

I had the pleasure of meeting Mike Ryan today. We killed a set of tires.

 

[TROPHYSEDAN]

That was one of the coolest things to see at P P was a simi drifting around a turn grabbing gears. i hope that know he has KING shocks he aint going to try and jump it. just kidding. Mike killer shots. I have plans to head back soon.

 

[trent06]

Mike! Killer shots!!!! Yes and the KING shocks on his truck have to be one off! I have a picture I will post of them...

Mike any idea why his turbo went south at Pikes Peak ending his day?

 

[ML8on]

Yes and the KING shocks on his truck have to be one off! QUOTE]

Those shocks are the 3.0 Pure Race coil overs...same that most of the Trophy Trucks out there.

King does make shocks (2.5" Shocks) for motorhomes and 18 wheelers as well.
http://www.roadkingshocks.com/

 

[pappawheely]

Mike! Killer shots!!!! Yes and the KING shocks on his truck have to be one off! I have a picture I will post of them...

Mike any idea why his turbo went south at Pikes Peak ending his day?

Not sure about the turbo Trent other than turbos blow (pun intended). The Kings look really trick on the truck. Mike's truck is really clean and reminds me of a Pro-4 the way the motor is mounted way low in the chassis and the front end design is so compact. The truck has a compound turbo set-up that builds 95 lbs. of boost and generates 1,800 horsepower and over 3000 ft. lbs. of torque.