Two-time Le Mans overall winner Romain Dumas continues to shine at Pikes Peak. The Frenchman claimed his fifth overall title at the 102nd Pikes Peak International Hill Climb last weekend and did so in great style with Ford Performance.
Dumas, who still holds the all-time Pikes Peak record of 7:57.148 set in 2018 with an electric Volkswagen ID.R, was once again fastest in an electric vehicle, but this time his weapon of choice was the amazing 1,600-horsepower Ford F-150 Lightning SuperTruck.
His race day time on the 12.42-mile course was 8:53.563, nearly seven seconds faster than the other runners. And that came just days after he set a new Open Class qualifying record with a time of 3:32.831, over seven seconds faster than the previous record of 3:39.939 set by the Ford Performance SuperVan 4.2 in 2023.
His winning run was made even more impressive by the fact that he overcame a technical problem on the way to the summit.
The problem forced him to a complete stop, delaying him by about 26 seconds. Fortunately, he was able to quickly reset SuperTruck completely and continue his climb, pushing himself to the limit and securing the top spot in the 61-car field.
“The run was very difficult,” said Dumas. “I don’t know what happened at the beginning – the car just turned itself off, that’s never happened before. I didn’t panic, I just looked at the numbers and everything looked OK, I did a power cycle myself and was able to restart.”
“Over the radio they told me there was a red flag because I guess they saw that I had stopped on the track, but I had already restarted so I didn’t know if I should stop or not – there was a bit of confusion! At the first split I saw that I was 26 seconds slower compared to my provisional (time), so I knew it was OK, I just had to push on the gas and then it should be OK.
“I’m honored to have achieved this victory at the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb with Ford Performance,” he added. “Everything about this race is a challenge because it’s different than any other type of race, you only get one chance. We faced a challenge early on, but that only made me more determined to make up for lost time as the race went on.”
Mark Rushbrook, global director of Ford Performance Motorsports, added: “The ability of Ford electric vehicles to take on and overcome the most difficult challenges is a major testament to the hard work and dedication our teams have put into the program.
“We learned a lot from the SuperVan 4.2 at last year’s Pikes Peak International Hill Climb and were able to apply that knowledge to this year’s race – it’s onwards and upwards from here.”
Developed in collaboration with STARD (Stohl Advanced Research and Development), the Ford Performance F-150 Lightning SuperTruck is the latest machine from Ford Performance’s Electric Demonstrator program to make waves.
It follows the epic 2000bhp EV SuperVan 4.2 that competed at Pikes Peak last year and broke the lap record at Bathurst in February.
The second fastest time at this year’s PPIHC was 9:04.454 by Unlimited class winner Christian Merli, who started in a Wolf Aurobay GB08 2.0 HP.
Other class winners included WRC veteran Dani Sordo (Exhibition), who drove a Hyundai Ioniq 5 N TA with a time of 9:30.852, and David Donohue (Time Attack 1), who climbed the mountain in 9:49.029 with his 2014 Porsche 911 Turbo R.
Katherine Legge also took part; her time of 10:51.359 in an Acura Integra was enough for 27th place and 5th place in Time Attack 1.
FIA WEC TV pit reporter Bruce Jouanny unfortunately retired from the spectacular Quarkus P3.
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Images courtesy of PPIHC & Ford