The event, now known as Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, is the second oldest motor racing event in America behind the Indianapolis 500.
It is a hill climb in every sense of the word as long as you don’t think a hill as a gentle gradient. Rather you think of it as some way towards being a mountain.
The hill climb is 20 kilometres long from the bottom to the top. It raises just over one point four kilometres at the top it is 4000 300 metres above sea level.
By comparison that’s close to being half way up Mt. Everest.
It’s got 156 corners which is a challenge to any driver but the environment just adds to the task.
The first record was set in 1969 and was just under 21 minutes.
It’s been broken many times but just recently a Volkswagen special has broken the record well and truly and to talk about that I have on the line Kurt McGuinness the public relations manager for Volkswagen Australia.
