Two-time Le Mans overall winner Romain Dumas continues to shine at Pikes Peak. The Frenchman claimed his fifth overall title at the 102nd running of the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb last weekend and did it in style with Ford Performance.
Dumas, who still holds the 2018 Pikes Peak record of 7:57.148 lapped in an electric Volkswagen ID.R, once again went fastest in an EV, but this time his weapon was the awesome Ford F-1600 150hp Lightning SuperTruck.
His race-day time over the 12.42-mile course was 8:53.563, nearly seven seconds ahead of the other runners. And it came just days after setting a new qualifying record for the Open class with a time of 3:32.831, more than seven seconds faster than the previous record of 3:39.939 set by the 2023 Ford Performance SuperVan 4.2.
His winning run was made even more impressive when he overcame a technical problem en route to the summit.
The problem forced him to a full stop, which delayed him by about 26 seconds. Fortunately, he was able to quickly complete a full SuperTruck reset and continue his climb, pushing to the limit to secure first place in the 61-car field.
“The run was very difficult,” Dumas recounted. “I don’t know what happened at the start — the car shut itself off completely, it’s never happened before. I didn’t panic, I just looked at the numbers and everything looked OK, I did a power cycle myself and was able to reboot.
“They were telling me on the radio that there was a red flag because I suppose they saw I was stopped on the track but I had already restarted so I didn’t know whether to stop or not – there was a bit of confusion! At the first split I saw that I was 26 seconds off my provisional (time) so I knew OK, I just had to push and it should be OK.
“It is an honor to achieve this victory with Ford Performance at the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb,” he added. “Everything about this event is a challenge because it’s not like any other form of racing, you only have one shot. We faced a challenge at the start, but that only gave me more determination to make up for lost time in the rest of the race.”
Mark Rushbrook, global director of Ford Performance Motorsports, added: “The progress that Ford electric cars have made to face and meet the most demanding challenges is a major testament to the hard work and commitment our teams have put into the program.
“We learned a lot from the SuperVan 4.2 in last year’s Pikes Peak International Hill Climb and were able to apply that knowledge to this year’s run – it just goes up and up from there.”
Developed in collaboration with STARD (Stohl Advanced Research and Development), the Ford Performance F-150 Lightning SuperTruck is the latest machine in the Ford Performance Electric Demonstrator program.
It follows on from the impressive 2000hp EV SuperVan 4.2 which took on Pikes Peak last year and broke the lap record at Bathurst in February.
The second fastest time at this year’s PPIHC was 9:04.454 by Unlimited class winner Christian Merli, who was entered in a Wolf Aurobay GB08 2.0 HP.
Other class winners included WRC veteran Dani Sordo (Exhibition) who managed a 9:30s.852 aboard a Hyundai Ioniq 5 N TA and David Donohue (Time Attack 1) who topped the mountain in 9:49.029s in his Porsche 911 2014 Turbo R.
Katherine Legge also took part, her run of 10:51.359 in the Acura Integra good for 27th and fifth in Time Attack 1.
FIA WEC TV pit reporter Bruce Jouanny was unfortunately dnf in the spectacular Quarkus P3.
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Images courtesy of PPIHC & Ford