I just got back from my trip to the Pikes Peak Hill Climb. Colorado is a beautiful part of the country, absolutely magnificent. I headed up on Saturday at 6AM (the day of the race) to Devil's Playground (13000 ft). You could get a great view of some turns and could get *very* close to the cars! The cars started racing at about 10AM, and everything was great! I saw some exhibition cars (like Jesse James in the Monster Garage SUV), and the ProRally cars as well as some ATVs and motorcycles.
At 12 there was a break so I ate some lunch up there. 1PM rolls around and the cars are about to start again, but these clouds come rolling in surrounding Devil's playground. Then lightning started to strike all around us, so everyone heads back to their cars and the race is delayed until it clears up. Clear up? Ha! It started to hail pretty hard for a while... then starts snowing for about an hour. They decide to cancel the upper portion of the race and continue racing the bottom portion of Pikes Peak. BUT, we cannot leave Devils playground! So, I end up sitting in the car for 5 hours until the race finished and we could leave.
Aside from that, the racing was awesome!!!
Cliff notes: I fly to Colorado to watch Pikes Peak, I see 2 hours of racing. The weather gets bad and they cancel my part of the mountain leaving me stranded there for 5 more hours.
Claude wrote:
Very spectacular shots Ed - in those two racing hours !!
Claude
Yeah, I was actually quite upset. I didn't feel like I got nearly enough shots. I was planning on doing alot more shooting in the afternoon, especially since Prorally ran again! But I missed all that, and only got a handful of cars.
MotionBoy2 wrote:
Beautiful work Ed! I only got down to practice, but it was a fun.
Yeah, I saw the pics you posted! It was cool you got to talk to that driver after he wrecked. I was at the Subaru dealership at some event and it was cool meeting Robbie Unser and watching him drive that Sti simulator.
Great shots, you really get some extreme weather up there, I thought we got some weird stuff in Ireland.
Like the panned shots of the Evo5, the Turqouise one with the jap driver/co. The first is a really good shot too as is the ones with the blank background, just the trees in the distance, quality.
Would love to get out there someday but imagine if I planned a holiday around it and the weather came down like this! Now that would be bad.
MotionBoy2 wrote:
Hey ed how crowded was it? I am curious you said you left at 6 that seems pretty late.
I was staying in Colorado springs so it was very close by, and we just needed to get up there before 7:15 when the closed the gates. We actually left just a bit before 6, it wasn't too crowded. Anyone could get a nice spot to watch, there was plenty of space.
farky wrote:
Would love to get out there someday but imagine if I planned a holiday around it and the weather came down like this! Now that would be bad.
Thanks for the comments. That's kind of what happened to me, flew out there and only saw part of the race. But I hear some people went down on foot to watch the rest. The weather was only extreme at the top of Pikes Peak where I was watching.
Glad you posted shots of the Mopar car, that thing is very cool looking. Sorry to hear about the weather. Is this a event you attend every year? If so, I hope you have better luck next year.
