Local drivers to take on Pikes Peak

James and Nick Robinson are poised to climb a hill on Sunday, but it has nothing to do with a nursery rhyme.

The brothers, with support from a dozen of their associates from the Honda plant outside Marysville, are in Colorado. That’s where the Robinsons will assault Pikes Peak, taking part in the 95th automotive climb to the top of the 14,112-foot mountain.

Their passion springs from a scary ride as youngsters in the back of a truck, up the winding, 12.42-mile road grazing sheer drop-offs along the way.

“We have pretty vivid memories of when our parents took us there and we had a very harrowing ride up and down the mountain,” James Robinson said. “Even though we were growing up in western New York state, you had a very good understanding about that mountain and the race there.”

The residents of Raymond in Union County are into it for the joy, and for the glory it can bring to the Acura vehicles they steer. And this won’t be their first timed trips. Nick, 44, won the Time Attack 2 class last year in an Acura NSX, and James, 38, went up the first time in 2011 in a Honda Fit.

“Back in 2011, that’s when we got the bug,” James said.

This time James will drive the NSX in the Time Attack 1 class, and Nick will drive an Acura TLX-A Spec in the exhibition class. They will be among 52 car entries in six classifications; there also are 29 motorcycle entries.

In qualifying Friday on the lower third of the course, James wound up No. 2 in his class and Nick took No. 1 in his.

That’s important because the top qualifiers get the earlier start times Sunday. As the day wears on, weather conditions usually skid toward sketchy in the afternoon. As for the overall danger, though, Nick said that’s overplayed.

He said drivers study the course through the week during trial runs on different thirds but never all together until race day.

“It’s a very kind of calculated run for Sunday,” he said. "It’s not so much about bravado, just going out there and letting it all hang out. In our regular day-to-day work for our company we’re developing new vehicles and there are risks involved with some of that, too. We try understand all the variables, we mitigate the risks as much as possible, then we operate within that sort of safety envelope.”