- Nobuhiro "Monster" Tajima won the 89th Pikes Peak International Hill Climb Sunday.
- The 60-year-old Japanese driver clocked 9 minutes, 51.28 seconds to break the 10-minute mark.
- Tajima won the race for the sixth year in a row in his Suzuki Hill Climb Special.
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado — Nobuhiro "Monster" Tajima, king of the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, roared to his sixth straight victory time Sunday, breaking the 10-minute barrier in the process.
Tajima's Suzuki Hill Climb Special stopped the timer at 9 minutes, 51.28 seconds to end the long assault on the record. Drivers have been shooting for the mark since Rod Millen, a five-time champion of the Unlimited class, won in 10:04.06 in 1994.
The 89th edition of the historic race was the last before the entire 12.42-mile course will be covered with asphalt pavement. For many years after the first race in 1916, the road to the top of the iconic Colorado mountain was all gravel. Not quite three miles of unpaved surface remains.
Nobuhiro, 60, broke the mark of 10:01.408 he established in winning the race in 2007. Rhys Millen, Rod Millen's son, finished 2nd at 10:09.24. Jean Philippe Dayraut was 3rd with a time of 10:17.71.
Rod Millen returned to action in the two-wheel-drive Time Attack class for production cars and won with a time of 11:04.912.
Iuko Hanawa drove the purpose-built Summit HER-02 to victory in the electric vehicle class with a time of 12:20.084. Chad Hord in a Nissan Leaf, the only other entry in the class, completed the course with a clocking of 14:33.429.
Inside Line says: The Monster finally broke the magic 10-minute barrier, achieving his goal before the course changed to all-pavement. — David Green, Correspondent
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agentorange says:
01:17 PM, 06/28/2011
That is a serious cow-catcher on that car.:) Brilliant achievement. Can we have an article on the build, please?
gam2 says:
09:58 AM, 06/28/2011
How much of the course was paved when Millen ran it in 1994?
actualsize says:
10:14 AM, 06/27/2011
Awesome. Now Suzuki can look forward to selling two more Kizashis. ;)
Seriously, great job Tajima-san.
poorjoe says:
09:15 AM, 06/27/2011
At sixty years old - that is a role-model.
Embodiment of the cliche "if you never slow down, you never grow old."
igo1 says:
09:12 AM, 06/27/2011
He is an amazing guy just not only he won the race in six years in straight and broke 10min barrier at age 60. He is also the owner and promoter of the monster company and car dealerships, one of the main engineers at the moster company. Wow.
sinna46 says:
08:53 AM, 06/27/2011
Wow! If you have ever been up the road to the summit, you know what an accomplishment this is.