Pikes Peak 2011

The infernal trio

With his outrageous Dacia in the ‘Unlimited’ class Jean-Phillipe Dayraut managed a brilliant third place in the rankings at the end of the dash to the top of the hill. His time of 10 minutes and 17 seconds was only 24 seconds slower than the 2011 winner, Nobuhiro Tajima. The racer from Japan in his mighty Suzuki SX4 broke all previous records with the first ever time under ten minutes. Second to the summit was Rhys Millen in a Hyundai RMR PM580.

It was only last December that the decision was made to participate in this year’s Pikes Peak hill-climb. When he reached the finish Jean-Phillipe Dayraut was fully aware of how unlikely his result was: “It was the most incredible and most insane thing I have ever done”.

Getting down to business

The French driver’s performance in his Romanian auto is all the more astonishing when one bears in mind that he had only three days for training runs to familiarize himself with the challenging track to the top. Dayraut is an experienced motor sport driver but his achievement is nevertheless amazing. Getting to know the 20 kilometre long course with its 126 corners in such a short time… and then as a newcomer driver, making it onto the victor’s podium… is a very special accomplishment even for a veteran. This was abundantly clear to the man himself after his almost unbelievable drive: “It was the most incredible and most insane thing I have ever done”.