Pikes Peak attracts the weird, wonderful and beautiful for ’23

This June a packed entry of modified and madcap machines will once again reach for the stars in the 101st running of the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, with a host of fantastic beasts primed to tackle the ascent.

First run in 1916, this year 70 crews will tackle the 12.42-mile track in Colorado, which hits 14,115ft at its summit. Such is the appeal of the event that the last three outright winners are all back, with Robin Shute (2019, 2021 and 2022 winner) looking for his fourth victory in the Wolf prototype, while 2020 victor Clint Vahsholtz will drive a KTM X-Bow GT4 Evo.

More unusually, outright record holder Romain Dumas swaps the insane Volkswagen ID.R for an even more bizarre all-electric project when he attempts to coax the new 2000bhp Ford Performance SuperVan 4 up the run.

Of the new entries, this project from Radford catches the eye. The company – formed by F1 world champion Jenson Button, Ant Anstead and Mark Stubbs – will field a specially modified version of its Lotus-based Type 62-2 for rallycross star Tanner Foust to drive. Boasting 700bhp, typically wild Pikes Peak aero and weighing just over 800kg, it should provide a heap of entertainment. Foust said: “It has basically nothing shared with the road car. It shares the design ethos and some components, but everything else is modified or bespoke.”

The daughter of late rally star Ken Block will also use the event to pay tribute to her father. Lia Block, 16, will conduct an untimed demo run in Ken’s Porsche 911-based 1400bhp ‘Hoonipigasus’, the very car Ken hoped to drive at the event prior to his death in January.