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Time Attack @ Pikes Peak International Raceway (PPIR) - May 2017

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About 90 miles south of Denver, Colorado lies  Pikes Peak International Raceway, a race track with a bit of racing history under its belt.  It hosted NASCAR Truck and Busch series races until 2008, where it was suspended from future NASCAR races.  Since then, they've hosted Indy Racing League races as well as more amateur style races like Time Attack, Drifting, and open lapping days.  

This was our first time to the event and we had to see what it was all about after hearing about the unique format from some local friends at  Squad Mod Garage.  Once a month, entrants will bring their car to PPIR ready to see a new layout of their infield track which is designed by a series of cones and moveable walls.  There are several classes similar to Autocross events such as Rear Wheel Drive A, RWD B, AWD A, and so on.  Each driver has 5 attempts for a best time of the day and is awarded points according to their rank in their class.  Once the season is complete, the driver adds up the points from all of their races and is ranked accordingly compared to the other drivers (I believe that the two lowest races are dropped from their total scores).

It was a great time as a spectator to see street cars and dedicated track cars alike run their paces against the clock.  An aspect that I enjoyed most of the format is that every driver has the same amount of preparation for the track and has to learn as they go.  Besides a morning walk of the track, there are no practice runs to find the best corner speeds and braking points or anything like that.  It's really on the fly and if you are serious about your ranking, I'm guessing this can be quite stressful.

On to the pics...

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