Two-time overall Le Mans 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 so in fine style with Ford Performance.
Dumas, who still holds the all-time Pikes Peak record of 7:57.148 set in an electric Volkswagen ID.R in 2018, once again ran fastest in an EV, but this time his weapon of choice was the astonishing 1,600 bhp Ford F-150 Lightning SuperTruck.
His race day time on the 12.42-mile route was a 8:53.563, almost seven seconds clear of the other runners. And it came just days after he set a new qualifying record for the Open Class with a time of 3:32.831, over seven seconds faster than the previous record of 3:39.939 set by the Ford Performance SuperVan 4.2 in 2023.
Making his winning run more impressive was the fact that he overcame a technical issue on his way to the summit.
The problem forced him to come to a complete stop, delaying him by around 26 seconds. Thankfully he was able to complete a full reset of SuperTruck quickly, and continue his climb, pushing himself to the limit to ensure he claimed the top spot in the 61-car field.
“The run was very difficult,” recounted Dumas. “I don’t know what happened at the start — the car just switched off completely on its own, it never happened before. I didn’t panic, I just looked at the numbers and everything was looking OK, I made a power cycle on my own and was able to restart.
“On the radio, they were telling me there was a red flag, because I assume they saw that I was stopped on track, but I already restarted so I didn’t know if I should stop or not — there was a little bit of confusion! At the first split, I saw that I was 26 seconds slower compared to my provisional (time) so I knew that OK, I just had to push and it should be OK.
“I’m honoured 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 is unlike any other form of racing, you only have one shot. We faced a challenge early on but that only gave me more determination to make up the lost time in the rest of the run.”
Mark Rushbrook, the global director of Ford Performance Motorsports added: “The progression of Ford EVs taking on and completing the toughest challenges is a major testament to the hard work and dedication our teams have put into the programme.
“We learned a great deal from 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’s onwards and upwards from here.”
The Ford Performance F-150 Lightning SuperTruck, developed in collaboration with STARD (Stohl Advanced Research and Development), is the latest machine to turn heads from Ford Performance’s Electric Demonstrator programme.
It follows the epic 2000hp EV SuperVan 4.2 which took on Pikes Peak last year and broke the lap record at Bathurst back in February.
The second fastest time at this year’s PPIHC was a 9:04.454 from the winner of the Unlimited class Christian Merli, who was entered in a Wolf Aurobay GB08 2.0 HP.
Other class winners included WRC veteran Dani Sordo (Exhibition) who managed to set a 9:30s.852 aboard a Hyundai Ioniq 5 N TA and. David Donohue (Time Attack 1) who scaled the mountain in 9:49.029 with his 2014 Porsche 911 Turbo R.
Katherine Legge also took part, her 10:51.359 run in an Acura Integra was good enough for 27th and fifth in Time Attack 1.
FIA WEC TV pit reporter Bruce Jouanny was sadly a dnf in the spectacular Quarkus P3.
Images courtesy of PPIHC & Ford
