Pikes Peak Testing Days June 9th/10th

With only 4 weeks to go to the "Race to the Clouds", I used the opportunity to participate in the testing weekend on June9th/10th in order to familiarize myself with the car and with the mountain. It was a great experience! This is a fantastic mountain, a fantastic race track! (sometimes even a bit scaring....). A tremendeous experience. Todd Landon, his wife Kristin Stewart and John Kollars did a great job in perparing everything and in supporting me and my team mate Ralf Christensen from Sweden (unfortunately the Unser deal did not work out due to lack of sponsoring support). It was strange to discover, that Ralf and I where racing last years Panamericana rigth behind each other (I was car nr. 361 and he was nr.362!) and we haven't really talked to each other.....Ralf was second placed overall in the 2006 Panamericana and had won the Historic C category that year. On Pikes Peak he drives a powerful Mustang Shelby and he did set some impressive times......

Got up at 3:00 a.m. This morning. Left the hotel in Manitou Springs at 3:45, checked in at the Pikes Peak Highway tollgate at 4:15. First training session started at 5:30. We did 2 short runs for warming up and 5 runs from the Starting grid until Glenn Cove. Car handles nicely, and runs well. No issues at all. Building up confidence in tires, brakes, handling and Road conditions. It's a marvelous track......I am glad to be here! Tomorrow - same place, same station - we will be in the upper section, from Glenn Cove to the summit.

2nd day testing on Pikes Peak: Upper section, from Glenn Cove to the Summit. Beautiful and scary....I did 5 runs (because I run out of fuel just at the start of run 6). The upper section is partly extremely fast and you go through blind corners in 4th gear and the are no guardrails, but a cliff where you could crash down several hundert meters.....maybe need a brain surgery in order to get faster? ;-)

I was happy with the test - the car handles very well - but probably I still need to find some time in order to assure qualification for the race.....There are lots of powerful cars and well experienced racers at the start......I am looking forward to come back for the race!