A partnership among Porsche and Pirelli conquered the June 27 Pikes Peak International Hill Climb with a record-smashing run by Jeff Zwart in his Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car equipped with P Zero racing tires.
After obliterating the qualifying record earlier in the weekend by 18 seconds, Zwart broke the existing Time Attack class record by 38 seconds in his official race day run up the 12.42-mile mountain course on Sunday. The victory was Zwart’s seventh triumph on the 156-turn hill climb layout and he literally “left in the dust” a full field of other two-wheel drive and four-wheel drive competitors that came up short on a variety of other tires from several different manufacturers, according to Rafael Navarro III, director of motorsports and media relations.
“This was a banner day for Pirelli and we are honored to have been part of it with Porsche and Jeff Zwart,” Navarro says.
“Combining Porsche’s fine engineers with our equally experienced technical staff at Pirelli and a talented rally and hill climb specialist like Jeff provided the necessary ingredients we needed to achieve this outstanding result on what may be the toughest circuit of any kind in North America,” he adds.
“The performance of the P Zeros and the Porsche GT3 Cup were equally impressive and this is a victory that will take its rightful place in Pirelli’s more than a century of motorsports achievements,” Navarro points out.
“Jeff’s amazing new two-wheel drive record could only be achieved with the outstanding cooperation between Porsche and Pirelli and, of course, Jeff’s great vision to conquer the hill and his amazing driving skills,” says Paul Ritchie, president and CEO of Porsche Motorsport North America.
The P Zero tires that Zwart used for his record-run were actually the same wet-weather Pirellis that have been successful in Grand-Am Rolex Series GT competition since 2008.
Zwart’s 2007 GT3 Cup car, which was updated to 2010 specifications, was the only Porsche competing at Pikes Peak. It was also the fastest production-based car of the event and Zwart’s time of 11:31.095 was the sixth fastest overall behind three Unlimited Class and two Open Wheels cars, which all produced at least 600-plus horsepower.
Nobuhiro Tajima won the hill climb overall in a turbocharged eight-cylinder Suzuki 4WD one-off race car in the Unlimited Class.
“It was a perfect day and the perfect combination of the right tires on a great car,” Zwart says.
He notes that “I was amazed at the way the Pirellis handled the transition from asphalt to gravel to asphalt to gravel. The predictability of the tires and feedback from the car was extremely good in very different situations going up the mountain.”
The legendary hill climb course begins at 9,390 feet, finishes at the 14,110 foot summit of Pikes Peak and features a surface which is paved near the beginning and the end and, for the most part, run on gravel.
“The tires maintained perfect wear and temperature throughout the climb,” Zwart continues. “This was key as the single most difficult section is near the top of the mountain because of the high-speed asphalt section that notoriously wears tires out before you transition to the fastest gravel section of the course. I was able to transition to the high speed gravel without hesitation as I had complete grip, control and acceleration through the slow speed corners to finish the strong run.”
The Pikes Peak International Hill Climb is the second-oldest auto race in America, behind only the Indianapolis 500, and a long-standing tradition in Colorado Springs and the Pikes Peak Region. First contested in 1916, this past weekend marked the 88th running of the “Race to the Clouds.”
For more information, visit www.us.pirelli.com.
