Racing in the 100th Anniversary Pikes Peak Int’l Hill Climb on a Victory Empulse RR

Tension in the pit mounted as the start of the 100th Anniversary Pikes Peak International Hill Climb was placed on temporary delay. Race officials relayed periodic updates received from the mountain’s 14,414-foot summit: Road conditions had improved yet remained far from favorable due a storm that had passed through during the night.

Should I have found comfort in the news that trucks had been dispatched to break up ice covering the pavement through Olympic, a fast right-hand sweeper nearing the finish? Like many of the 12.42-mile course’s 156 turns, this unnerving corner is lined on the outside by a narrow dirt shoulder and sheer drop! I was also informed that the road was wet beyond Boulder Park and was encouraged to exercise caution over the final 2 miles. This notorious section is also characterized by nasty pavement heaves and undulations created by the cold at high elevation. Great!

All this information carried added personal significance: I had the distinction of being the very first competitor on course for this historic Race to the Clouds. Leading off the 100-vehicle field composed of 35 bikes, sidecars, and quads followed by a variety of race cars could be construed as an “honor,” but it was one my Victory Racing team and I hadn’t wished upon ourselves. While several bystanders expressed their view of this seeming injustice, I knew what I had signed up for when entering the event on a Victory Empulse RR prototype electric racebike. The Electric bike class was first in the day’s program, and the rules logically state that run order within each is fastest to slowest to avoid being held up by a slower rider despite the one-minute start interval separating competitors. So as fast qualifier among electrics, naturally I was lead man.

“We must get the program started,” came notice in an apologetic tone from Jim Vidmar, assistant director of motorcycle competition. “It’s time to go.” I was ready as my crew removed tire warmers from my Dunlop Sportmax D211 GP-A Pro radials. Mentally preparing for this moment, I had spent the waking hours following our 1:10 a.m. departure from the hotel repeatedly visualizing a perfect run from bottom to top. I had confidence in the bike and my knowledge of where to position it on the road approaching each and every corner. While I also felt confident in the braking points I had established during practice runs, my experience gained from racing here the previous two years has taught me that road grip can be quite different on race day. And in the back of my mind I could only imagine what I might encounter from Boulder Park to the finish… I was eager to get on with it.

Three deep breaths as the Tag Heuer clock counted down to zero. While this was my cue to leave the line, the official timing transponder loop is positioned at the apex of the first left turn several hundred feet up the road. Most competitors hug the inside rounding this turn, but I have my own unique approach. I roll away a bit on the slow side then set up wide to allow me to square off the turn-in and hit the official start line with the throttle pinned, gaining what feels like a 10-mph advantage as I trip the clock while the un-scrubbed rear tire squirms under load. Flipping full tilt into the following right produces more tire movement as the chassis takes a set. The intensity of the flying start proves a perfect cure for stomach butterflies that had swarmed during the delay. Down to business!

One of the biggest challenges of this race is to quickly find your rhythm at speed. There’s no morning practice and there’s no sighting lap. Everybody hits the “track” blind. In fact, even in practice and qualifying, you never get to run the full course all at once.

Our team’s preparation for this year’s hill climb began months in advance and included two test days at Thunderhill Raceway located in Northern California. This was my first taste of an electric racebike, so the test provided an opportunity for me to get familiar with riding the Victory Empulse RR at speed. It was also my introduction to working with Team Manager Brian Wismann and Chief Mechanic Richie Tatum. The Victory effort this year was a two-rider team with 2014 Pikes Peak motorcycle champion Jeremy Toye riding the Project 156 prototype V-twin I had ridden in last year’s event. Victory marketing made much of the gas and electric inter-team rivalry with a Thunder versus Lightning campaign where fans could choose a side. For my part, I do love a gasoline engine and still hold a personal interest in 156, but I have to say that helping to develop a racebike from scratch like that added a lot to the challenge of racing up the mountain. While the Empulse RR is a prototype as well, comfort comes in the fact this purpose-built e-racer is well proven, having seen continual refinement over the past half decade in the capa­ble hands of racers Shane Turpin and Eric Bostrom.

Although new to racing Pikes, my crew had done their homework, were very professional, and I liked Wismann’s methodical approach. I also found the Empulse RR, itself a naked conversion of the 2015 Isle of Man TT Zero podium finisher, easy to adapt to while repetitiously lapping the short circuit. Same corner every two minutes and only 15 of them to remember? Easy! Hitting the mountain for our first mid-June pre-event test was a completely different experience.

The best way I can describe the difference between riding electric and gas is the lack of traditional sensory cues I find helpful in gauging corner-entry speed. The electric gives no audible input from exhaust note or tactile change in engine vibration, which is strange enough, but the thing I missed most on this direct-drive e-racer was a gearbox. For me, gear selection provides a strong speed reference when stretching out, say, fourth gear each time on approach to a particular sweeper. Several times aboard the electric smooth Empulse RR I felt I was approaching a corner going faster than previous runs, but how much faster?

Compounding the challenge is the limited practice competitors get at Pikes. During the test weekend and four morning practice sessions leading into race day we had at most five practice runs through a particular section. The course is divided into thirds for practice with cars occu­pying two sections and bikes on the other with the only complete course run coming on race day. The Empulse RR was literally plug ’n’ play and ran flawlessly throughout the week, allowing me to focus on building speed with every pass up a given section. In the end, we posted the quickest time of all bikes on the middle and top sections of the mountain.

The final practice day, motorcycles run the bottom section of the mountain. This is also qualifying. Each competitor's quickest time determines the race run order within his respective class. Here the altitude-immune Empulse RR powertrain, an advantage up on the top sections, faced added challenge from the air-breathing internal combustion competition since this is where the gas bikes would make the most power. We held our own, posting the second-quickest overall time behind a KTM 1290 Super Duke R ridden by Cycle News tester Rennie Scaysbrook, and were well clear of the Zero FXS entries in our class. Toye and Project 156 qualified a credible fourth among all bikes.

With a King of the Mountain overall motorcycle crown within reach, we were chasing more than a class victory. Not far into the race run I could feel looseness in front and rear cornering grip as I ran a slightly hotter pace than in qualifying. During my rookie run two years ago I encountered a similar situation, resulting in several front tucks and rear slides that fooled me into suspecting possible bike or tire issues. This time I maintained faith in the equipment and focused on smoothing my input. I also stuck to my game plan of being more selective of which corners warrant the added risk in crossing over the road-bordering white paint line at the apex.

I continued hitting my marks through the middle section on the climb from Glen Cove to Devil’s Playground, a section rising above the tree line with 10 tight hairpins packed within three breathtaking miles. A slither and slip drive through the left/right transition exiting a technical hairpin named Start of 1st Leg put me to the very edge of the road and a bit close for comfort.

That moment was nothing compared with what transpired a few miles farther up course while rounding the 100-mph double left leading into Upper Gravel Pit. The fast line required crossing over an oil stain (dropped by a car earlier in the week) through the heart of the corner. I felt a hint of front tire movement as I began crossing the dark streak and reacted by relaxing my turn in. This was soon followed by another slip ’n’ grip as I drifted wide across the double yellow center paint line. I was soon out of road and off onto the dirt shoulder at speed! Fortunately I was able to skirt along the road’s edge and veer back on track, making for some pretty dramatic onboard video in the process.

Boulder Park was fast approaching. As anticipated, damp patches turned to slick wet road as I slowed for the normally fast left bend below Cog Cut hairpin, the very corner that claimed the life of a fellow competitor last year. More wet and dry patches braking for Cog and a fully wet road through Olympic and the final left-hand climb to the finish culminated the run.

My time of 10:17.813 remained on top of the leaderboard as the remaining electric bikes, followed by several more motorcycle divisions, crossed the stripe. Then came a lengthy delay due to multiple red-flag incidents. The road was 99-percent dry when top qualifier Scaysbrook began his run. The first-year competitor had a rookie moment with a crash and remount in Elk Park that cost him a potential overall win. Next to arrive was Kawasaki Z1000-mounted Frenchman Bruno Langlois. He trailed my times through the first three sections, but the 2013 Pikes Peak Champion made good use of improved road conditions near the summit to clobber my time in the last sector to take the overall win with a time of 10:13.106.

Finishing first in class and second overall has resonated a huge success with Victory Motorcycles. Being an analytical type, I’ve examined data recorded by my bike’s MoTeC system to learn that in the final 2,200 feet of a 12.42-mile race I was five seconds slower than my practice time over that same stretch in dry conditions.

Being a competitive person, this knowledge lends good reason for a return to Pikes in 2017. As so often in racing competition, there remains a mountain of unfinished business to settle.