Pikes Peak 2012 – Open Wheel

I was shooting at 11 mile which is in the last section of the Pikes Peak Highway that was paved after last years race to complete the paving process.   Since I never had the opportunity to shoot here when it was dirt, but fellow My Life at Speeder, Dave Philip, shot at the same corner a couple of years ago and we dug up  a similar image from the 2009 race when this section was still dirt to give a feel for how much this corner has changed since last years race.

The Open Wheel Division is the class that set the early benchmarks in speed.  Names like Ak Miller, many Unser’s including Jerry, Bobby and Al Jr. running the front-engined sprint cars.  But we have new hero’s, local hero’s from rookie Wyatt Dallenbach (son of Wally Dallenbach Jr.), to veterans like Spencer Steele, Dave and Lori Wood, Chris Strauch,  Conner Billingsly, and many others who bring their cars to the mountain, year after year for the one chance to be the fastest to the summit; running race cars very similar to the low-slung, rear-engined, open-wheel cars that started dominating the hill climb, starting in the early 70’s.  Drivers that are not so well known to the world outside of Colorado Springs as some, but hero’s none the less.  So here they are, the Open Wheel Division of  90th running of the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb.

The following drivers ran on Sunday, but did not make a full qualifying runs:
#12 Wells Coyote, Driver: Lori Wood
#35 Wells Coyote, Driver: Todd Cook

Pictures are from the starting grid on race day.  Thanks for the photos, Dave Philip!