pikes peak hill climb

[dmckim]

louis unser first car up the hill. photo by les ward in the darrin mckim collection.

[attackofthe]

Very cool, I discovered the site by searching for Pikes Peak Sprint Car. Thanks!

[83x]

Here's a picture I took in 1968. Thats Mario in the Dean Van Lines Spl.
Same car he used at Indy. The car had a fiberglass tub they had the
whole bottom of the car taped from side to side with duct tape to keep
the rocks from breakin it.

[attackofthe]

Here's a picture I took in 1968. Thats Mario in the Dean Van Lines Spl.
Same car he used at Indy. The car had a fiberglass tub they had the
whole bottom of the car taped from side to side with duct tape to keep
the rocks from breakin it.

That's unbelievable. What was it like to go to Pikes Peak in the 60s? What classes interested you most?

[Mike Croley]

Great photo Bill . I really miss the Hillclimb . It isn't such a big event now as far as big name drivers showing up , but back when it was part of USAC , just about all of the greats came to race . The entire Unser family , Curtis Turner , David Pearson , Parnelli Jones , Bud Tinglstad , Rick Mears , Mario Andretti , Paul Goldsmith .... thats just some of the ones i remember watching . And the local drivers always gave those guys a run for their money . I remember getting up there early in the morning for practice sessions and parking in Santas Workshop parking lot waiting for the cars to assemble and then head on up to the starting line . A lot of guys drove their race cars up to Santas , and everyone drove them from there on up . I've never heard a better sound than those racing engines reverberating off the mountain in the early morning darkness before the sun came up .
Jim Davidson posts on this site and i'm hoping he adds some photos and some stories on his racing experiences on the Hill . Theres surprisingly little on here about Pikes Peak considering that it's one of the oldest and most famous races in the world .

[83x]

It isn't what it use to be, they have about ten classes with about
two to three cars a class, no over night camping, limited ticket sales.
Remember when they had the night before the Hill Climb at Pikes Peak
had midgets, modifieds, and stock cars. Those were some of the biggest
crowds they ever had. Then after the races head up the hill and party.
If you remember Santas Workshop parking lot, got to remember Peak Treat
that little diner in cascade, you could stop there for breakfast and see the
Unsers, Mario, Mears, and a lot more.
In about 65 I was in high school we used to go up for qualifing, get up
about 3:00 am and head up in the dark. I was going up Ute Pass passing
some of the cars going up. all of a sudden i'm passing a light Yellow Holly Farms fairlane #26 (Curtis Turner). The funny thing was they were pulling
it with a 49 or 50 Chevy pick up with a tow bar. One year I was up there
next to the road taking pictures I had taken a few and here came Unser
I got a great picture of the front wheel as I was diving out of the way, no body drove the hill like the Unsers.
Heres some more pics. #1 is Bobby Unser, #2 Al Unser, #3 Grier Manning,
#4 Dick Heikes, #5 Wes Vandervoort, #6 Bill Daniels, #7 Frank Sanborn,
#8 Nick Sanborn, #9 Del Moore, #10 Frank Peterson

[attackofthe]

Great stuff, what a treat.

[Mike Croley]

I sure do remember the Peak Treat , had breakfast there every time i went to Pikes Peak . My dad ran the Goodyear store in the Springs , and when Goodyear decided to build race tires for the Hillclimb they used his store as the race tire headquarters . I remember the very first shipment of race tires coming in . My dad made arangements to meet the Unsers at the shop when they got into town ( about 8 at night ) so they could pick up their tires . They were the very first . A pick up truck pulled into the shop with Unsers Garage painted on the doors and a couple of teenagers got out . Bobby and Al , in fact i don't think Al was old enough to race the Peak then . I was lucky enough to meet a lot of the drivers that way .
Several years later the Goodyear race tire rep managed to get me a ride along with Bobby Unser during practice in the Toronado . Sadly , i had gone on a camping trip with relatives and didn't know about it until i got back .

[dannyracer6]

great pricures...I got to go to the hill climb only once during my stay in the Springs, I believe it was 1970 and I think that was the year that Bill Daniels ran a 70 monte carlo. In fact, I was working for Daniels then and we prepped the car , a yellow one, over on 8th street before it was delivered to the main shop on Weber street for them to convert it to a hill climb car. When it came in, it was a totally stock big block Monte. Not sure how he did, but I think he had some problems during the run. Not sure where the car ended up after that.
You might know about that, Bill. We moved away in Dec. of 71.

Dan

[dmckim]

well it only took a few months nice to see other pics heres a few more.

[bobjeffreson]

Not sure if you guys have seen this award winning footage.
It's Finnish World Rally Champ Ari Vatanen, climbing Pikes Peak 1988 in his Peugeot Rally car. Through my sister-in-law, I had the distinct pleasure of meeting Ari in January of this year in Sydney and we had a terrific chat about this run. He was the most unassuming, gentle man one could wish to meet......unlike someone on the edge in this video.
Enjoy Ari on Pikes Peak....

YouTube- climb dance

[Mike Croley]

dmckim , i love those photos .

[Olen McGuire]

Amazing, great video Bob!! The in car shots were just like you were driving it yourself, and not to many get to see that helicopter footage. I like it when the driver is shielding his eyes from the sun with his hands while he's driving, now that is scary!! Thanks for the thrill Bob. ~Olen

[Mike Croley]

bobjeffreson , i hadn't seen that video before . Ari was an excellent driver in rally cars and it shows in this video . That gives people who weren't able to see the race before the road was partly paved , and before it was Pennsupressed , what it was like to race up there . At that time ( and maybe still ) there were NO guardrails at all on the entire length of the road except for a 50 ft. long section at the area called Bottomless Pit . And the name fits , believe me . It took some real nerve to race up there , and leaves you in awe over the guys who were able to win .

[webby]

Not sure if you guys have seen this award winning footage.
It's Finnish World Rally Champ Ari Vatanen, climbing Pikes Peak 1988 in his Peugeot Rally car. Through my sister-in-law, I had the distinct pleasure of meeting Ari in January of this year in Sydney and we had a terrific chat about this run. He was the most unassuming, gentle man one could wish to meet......unlike someone on the edge in this video.
Enjoy Ari on Pikes Peak....No doubt that takes some large nads to go that fast up Pikes Peak when the sun is in your eyes like that. Cool video.

It's weird... I live less that 60 minutes from Pikes Peak and I've never attended the event.

[sramoa]

Our nation is very small and sometimes our have some good race car drivers.For example:Ferenc Szisz who won the first Grand Prix in 1906.
Two very good hungarian drivers tried to Pike's Peak event.
In 1996 Kristóf Huszti tried with an Mitsubishi Eclipse car-I don't have any info for him result,but Huszti died in 2003 a tragically bike accident.He was the founder the hungarian Mitsubishi tuning company:K-Speed Garage.
Last year Krisztián Antal tried to race in Pike's Peak but he was a very unfortunalely.He like U.S.A. but he never was fortunately there.First time he took a chance ran an Indy car,but the sponsor man(who call Antal) missing when Antal arrived to US.I have a photo when he sitting a car.Second time:last year entered PPIHC with an own 450HP Toyota Celica.He was again unfortunatelly.He arrived in Miami and waiting there for the custom about three weeks.When he was a ready starting the race.He didn't ran,but later out of race ran one time.
Possible this year one more time trying again.
One more East European news:I heard entering a Romanian Dacia Duster(I think this car better France car!)
I hope this story was interesting!

[Olen McGuire]

I hope this story was interesting!

Hey Richard, it's good to see you back. That's what this site is for; sharing your auto memories with us all.

[LittleFauss]

.....'Those are some prized collections you guys' have of Pikes Peak, especially all of 83x's personal color shots of 1968. What made that shot of Andretti's (by then, Overseas National Airways) car even more surprising was, not only was it a full-blown Indy car but it still had the DOHC Indy Ford V8 with the HUGE air cleaners on it! And Mario didn't even win the race that year. This picture posted is Andretti going up the hill the following year on June 29th, 1969. If anyone knows where this particular car came from, I'd really be interested in knowing. Because Mario was still runing the old Kuzma 4-bar car with the 255 Offy and Granatelli had the two new Grant King cars built for the Plymouth V8 engine for Greg Weld and Art Pollard to run on the mile dirt tracks in USAC. The car does look like a Grant King springer???

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5138/5551434082_ee73d71622_b.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/34494273@N05/5551434082/)

[JimmyK]

I think I posted this before. Despite the fading, I still like the action shot with the backdrop of the mountain view.