1am: woke up
2am: went for a two hour drive to Colorado Springs
4am...ish: discovered that a bunch of other people had the same idea, and a fun drive up a beautiful mountain was ruined by near stand-still traffic. These people were coming out from all over, too! Some guys I sat with claimed to be from Austria, and another nearby group sounded like they were from Ukraine or something.
830am: some of these people started to get a bit more enthusiastic about going for a drive than I. Maniacs! Just look what they did to the road!
At least I had this small window of a view to look at while I paitiently waited for them to tire:
7pm ish: the maniacs decided they were finished just as it started to snow/rain. Just my luck. I spent the next hour or so waiting for everyone to clear the mountain in turn.
10pm: got back home, covered my sun-burned face and arms in aloe, then went to sleep. One of the longest days of the year, wasted.
Yeah, well, we'll see who has the last laugh. I got pictures of most of the hooligans and will be turning them into the authorities. In order of appearance:
100th Anniversary (94th running) of the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb
Sunday, June 26, 2016
I guess this guy was just getting a feel for the track. He wasn't on it too hard, and then reported over the radio the road conditions for the bikers. There was ice near the summit at the start, so officials tried to clear that up before sending more racers out.
Acura was the main sponsor after Gran Turismo. This was the first of their three pace cars, which was followed up by... some sedan and SUV, I don't know or care what computer part number they were named after.
I'm not huge on bikes, so I didn't capture them all. Also, excuse the zoomed-out images. It's my first time taking action shots with this camera, so I was playing it safe. And to pile on one more excuse, the best spot for spectating, Devil's Playground, was full before I got there. So I don't really have any variety in angles here... next year I'll leave earlier.
Doo doo-doo. There is an awful lot of just sitting and waiting at PPIHC. Between red flags and gaps between the drivers, it was a very long day.
This guy was being red-flagged as he rounded this corner, but he ignored it and kept on it. From what I heard, the rider before him hit a guardrail.
Safety car goes up, followed shortly after by an ambulance, then a medical chopper. I believe the rider was flown to the hospital. The flagged rider is sent back down the mountain to try again.
These guys were insane to watch! The balls on that "monkey"!
This was my view for the day. George's Corner at Cove Creek. No ground-level spectating allowed here, unfortunately.
There were I think three overtakings today.
As clear a sign as any that the days of Pikes Peak being a rally course are gone.
Millen making his EV record-setting run.
All-electric NSX making its climb. It was almost hilarious watching any electric vehicle drive past - and there were a lot, including bikes - because on a count of no engine noise, they all had to use these sirens that sounded like cheap car alarms just so marshals, other drivers, etc could hear them coming.
Open-wheelers was another class I wasn't much interested in, so I didn't take many photos of them.
Mr. Escudo himself, "Monster" Tajima in an EV. I think he placed third or so; definitely not King of the Mountain anymore.
2am: went for a two hour drive to Colorado Springs
4am...ish: discovered that a bunch of other people had the same idea, and a fun drive up a beautiful mountain was ruined by near stand-still traffic. These people were coming out from all over, too! Some guys I sat with claimed to be from Austria, and another nearby group sounded like they were from Ukraine or something.
830am: some of these people started to get a bit more enthusiastic about going for a drive than I. Maniacs! Just look what they did to the road!
At least I had this small window of a view to look at while I paitiently waited for them to tire:
7pm ish: the maniacs decided they were finished just as it started to snow/rain. Just my luck. I spent the next hour or so waiting for everyone to clear the mountain in turn.
10pm: got back home, covered my sun-burned face and arms in aloe, then went to sleep. One of the longest days of the year, wasted.
Yeah, well, we'll see who has the last laugh. I got pictures of most of the hooligans and will be turning them into the authorities. In order of appearance:
100th Anniversary (94th running) of the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb
Sunday, June 26, 2016
I guess this guy was just getting a feel for the track. He wasn't on it too hard, and then reported over the radio the road conditions for the bikers. There was ice near the summit at the start, so officials tried to clear that up before sending more racers out.
Acura was the main sponsor after Gran Turismo. This was the first of their three pace cars, which was followed up by... some sedan and SUV, I don't know or care what computer part number they were named after.
I'm not huge on bikes, so I didn't capture them all. Also, excuse the zoomed-out images. It's my first time taking action shots with this camera, so I was playing it safe. And to pile on one more excuse, the best spot for spectating, Devil's Playground, was full before I got there. So I don't really have any variety in angles here... next year I'll leave earlier.
Doo doo-doo. There is an awful lot of just sitting and waiting at PPIHC. Between red flags and gaps between the drivers, it was a very long day.
This guy was being red-flagged as he rounded this corner, but he ignored it and kept on it. From what I heard, the rider before him hit a guardrail.
Safety car goes up, followed shortly after by an ambulance, then a medical chopper. I believe the rider was flown to the hospital. The flagged rider is sent back down the mountain to try again.
These guys were insane to watch! The balls on that "monkey"!
This was my view for the day. George's Corner at Cove Creek. No ground-level spectating allowed here, unfortunately.
There were I think three overtakings today.
As clear a sign as any that the days of Pikes Peak being a rally course are gone.
Millen making his EV record-setting run.
All-electric NSX making its climb. It was almost hilarious watching any electric vehicle drive past - and there were a lot, including bikes - because on a count of no engine noise, they all had to use these sirens that sounded like cheap car alarms just so marshals, other drivers, etc could hear them coming.
Open-wheelers was another class I wasn't much interested in, so I didn't take many photos of them.
Mr. Escudo himself, "Monster" Tajima in an EV. I think he placed third or so; definitely not King of the Mountain anymore.
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