Conquering the Peak

STARTING OFF AT MILE 7 ON THE PIKES Peak Highway in Colorado, the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb is one of the most hallowed motorsport races around the world. It is the second oldest race in America. The entire 20km course had been fully paved in August 2011. Yet the task of climbing up nearly 1440m, negotiating 156 corners along the way, remains daunting. No wonder it is called the ‘Race to the Clouds’.

The overall course record may take some mighty effort to be toppled as Sebastien Loeb’s mind-boggling run 2013 still stands to this day. In the previous year, Ducati claimed the course record for the motorcycles, thanks to Carlin Dunne and his Multistrada. They became the first to break into the ten-minute barrier with a time of 9 minutes 52.82 seconds. The record stood until this year when Chris Fillmore went 3.5 seconds faster on the KTM 1290 Super Duke R.

Former AMA Supercross racer, Fillmore had been working on the project closely with the KTM itself as the company helped him tune the bike to tackle the nasty nature of the Peak. The main hurdle in setting up the bike was to get the suspension setup as the course is known to be extremely bumpy. The equipment used was straight off KTM’s PowerPart range and not some spacecraft wizardry.

Fillmore’s run itself was quite exhilarating to watch. The way the course changes from flowing corners to extremely ascending switchbacks to flat-out blind sweepers is simply awe-inspiring. With Chris’ POV footage, you can clearly imagine the thin line he was treading between keeping the gas whacked open and not ending up taking a quick leap down into the valley. Fillmore’s record time of 9 minutes 49.26 seconds will take a superhuman effort to beat.