Little known but courageous Greg Tracy at Pikes Peak
6-21-2010
by
moto123.com
The Pikes Peak Hillclimb is a race up 36km of mixed paved and dirt road that goes through 156 turns on the way to a summit at 4,300m, after starting at 2,866m, already high enough for mere mortal to run out of oxygen.
This Greg Tracy guy rides a 2010 Ducati Multistrada up that hill at a quick but safe pace – a good thing as the price of an error is heavy. The view as you go up is spectacular, but our man sees none of it, I am sure.
The quickest four wheelers, 800hp four-wheel-drive monsters, cover the distance in just over 10 minutes, and the quickest bike come in about one minute behind!
Seems to me the critical success factor is to commit all 156 corners to memory, then run fast while leaving a margin of error - one that gets progressively smaller as knowledge and confidence builds.
This Tracy guy has done that and he is good. I would love to see a nutter like Travis Pastrana go up that hill on a bike – bet you he would beat the cars!