Romain Dumas scored a second career overall Le Mans 24 Hours win this year, and over the weekend scored another impressive ‘double’.
The French Porsche factory LMP1 driver managed a second career overall win in the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb.
Dumas, driving his own four wheel drive Norma M20 RD Limited prototype beat defending Champion Rhys Millen by 5.67 seconds, scoring the second fastest ever time in the event (8:51.445).
“It’s incredible! To win the 24 Hours of Le Mans and Pikes Peak within days, it’s beyond my dreams ! I don’t know if it’s sunk in yet,” said Dumas.
“The win was the objective from the word go, but it wasn’t an easy challenge. There were expectations because we had to better our performance from two years ago, and we knew the electric prototypes would be quick and our car was still new. We wanted to show our level of performance. We didn’t quite do that, to be honest, but we had a drilled hose and a little brakes issue on the final part. We won anyway and that’s the main thing and I’m very happy. »
Developed together between the Norbert Santos and Romain Dumas teams, the Norma M20 RD Limited Spec-2016 had completed its first roll out less than a month before the 2016 edition of Pikes Peak.
It was then a race against the clock. A race that quickened its pace on Friday following engine troubles.
“24 hours ago, this win was unimaginable,” said Dumas. ‘“I have no words to explain the work put in by the team, especially this week and even more so since Friday morning. This team, with the help from Norbert Santos, it’s my pride. The guys didn’t sleep while they were putting the car back together. We really had our backs to the wall but we did it.
“We could have done better in terms of the time, that’s certain. But this event is so unique. Pikes Peak has a point in common with Le Mans : you never know what to expect and you have to put all the right puzzle pieces together the day of. So when there’s a victory at the end of it all, it’s a huge satisfaction.”
