THE ROAD TO GLORY
PPIHC QUALIFYING RESULTS AND HIGHLIGHTS
JUNE 18, 2025
Colorado Springs, CO — The Broadmoor Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, presented by Gran Turismo welcomed all competitors back to the mountain today as practice and qualifying sessions continued.
Day #2: Tuesday, June 18
Lower Section (Qualifying): Time Attack 1, Pikes Peak GT4 Trophy by Yokohama, Exhibition
Middle Section: Unlimited, Open Wheel
Upper Section: Pikes Peak Open
Lower Section (Qualifying): Time Attack 1, Exhibition, and Pikes Peak GT4 Trophy by Yokohama entries traded the summit for the start line on Wednesday, but the storylines were quite similar.
Yesterday, Robb Holland led the Time Attack 1 division and was second fastest overall; today, nobody in any division was faster. In the third run, Holland’s 4:11.547 would edge out Walker’s 4:12.921 by just over a second for overall top honors; in the fourth, he’d improve to 4:09.157 to defend the mark.
TA1 racers would take four of the top five overall times on the day, with Kathryn Mead (4:12.554) and Damien Bradley (4:17.413) setting theirs on the last run, and Toshiki Yoshioka (4:17.563) doing so on the third.
In Pikes Peak GT4 Trophy by Yokohama, Steve Wetterau, the sole Turbo-powered entry, laid down a 4:19.334 on the third run of the day. The five-driver division was closely matched all day, with roughly 16 seconds separating the fastest car from the slowest. Emelia Hartford, behind the wheel of a Porsche 718 was quickest in the normally aspirated class.
Zachary Sober’s sophomore attempt at Pikes Peak saw him post a top-five run in Time Attack 1 division in Wednesday qualifying. So far, the Houston native is pleased with the work he’s done to his Subaru WRX to track down more speed since his seventh place finish in TA1 last year.
“All of the modifications I made over the last year seem to be paying off bigtime,” Sober explained. “You hear everyone talk about cooling issues, and you don’t realize how bad it is until you run it yourself. You can do everything you want at sea level, but up here it’s completely different. We’re also running a much better tire this year. I’m having fun, and I couldn’t be happier with the result of today—I think I’m like 12 seconds faster than last year.”
23-year-old Lance Fenderson is one of the most inspiring stories on the mountain this year, as the quadriplegic racer looks to conquer the mountain with a hand-controlled 2020 BMW M2 CS Racing. The rookie driver faced some extra adversity in pre-event testing with an incident, but after his Rooster Hall Racing team replaced the front clip, Fenderson’s speed and confidence have been building with every run.
“A lot of it has just been getting comfortable in the car,” said Fenderson. “The car is super new to me, and after the accident on Saturday the whole crew put an unbelievable amount of work into getting back here. So it’s kind of been shaking it down, getting comfortable, and progressing slowly—respecting the mountain and getting up to speed. We’ll get there by race day, but you have to get to race day, so that’s our goal right now.”
Dai Yoshihara will be the first driver up the mountain on Sunday in the Honda CR-V e:FCEV, the first hydrogen-powered vehicle to ever compete in the Race to the Clouds, and one of three Exhibition entries this year. Yoshihara, who boasts an Unlimited division win in 2020, has enjoyed the challenge of adapting to something completely different so far this week.
“This car is a hydrogen fuel cell EV, so it’s very different,” Yoshihara noted. “As a driver, it’s about getting the best out of it, so I have to change my driving style to keep up the momentum. So far the car has been running pretty strong. In the first run, I pushed quite a bit because the car doesn’t have much power, but the road condition was colder and there was a little moisture here and there. We adjusted the tire pressures to get a little more momentum, and it worked out that the second run was a little bit faster and the third run was even faster. So I think that was a combination of the road condition and our car setup.”
Middle Section – After setting their qualifying times on Tuesday, the Unlimited and Open Wheel divisions headed further up the mountain to begin their practice of the middle section on Wednesday. As was the case yesterday, Simone Faggioli’s 2018 Nova Proto NP01 Bardahl was fastest of the group with a 2:18.030, leading all competitors by more than 14 seconds and the Unlimited division by 17.
Unlimited and Open Wheel competitors alternated the five fastest times on the day, with Dan Novembre’s 2:32.080 pacing the Open Wheel competitors at second in the group. Unlimited racer David Donner, Open Wheel veteran Codie Vahsholtz, and Unlimited driver Robin Shute completed the overall top five.
Upper Section – Pikes Peak Open took on its second practice day of race week with a visit to the top of the mountain on Wednesday. Romain Dumas’ Ford Super Mustang Mach-E EV remained the class of the group, completing the section in just 2:24.090 in its second of three passes on the day.
Following Dumas once again were BBi Autosport Porsche teammates Jeff Zwart and Loni Unser, with Zwart posting an impressive 2:30.700 on his final pass in his 1997 Porsche Carrera and Unser delivering a 2:40.540 in her 2023 Porsche 911 Turbo Cup.
Veteran Jimmy Ford and rookie Tracy Gaudu completed the top five on the day.
JUNE 18 RESULTS
TOMORROW ON THE MOUNTAIN:
Practice/Qualifying Day #3: Thursday, June 19
Lower (Qualifying): Pikes Peak Open
Middle: Time Attack 1, Pikes Peak GT4 Trophy by Yokohama, Exhibition
Upper: Unlimited, Open Wheel
Practice and Qualifying Groups Qualification times will be based on the competitor’s best time in the Lower Section during Qualifying held Tuesday, June 17 – Thursday, June 19. Run order will be determined based on qualification times.
by Chris Leone, PPIHC Contributor
Photos by: Larry Chen Photo, Jason Zindroski, Luis Garcia
