COLORADO SPRINGS — The Pikes Peak International Hill Climb is set to start on June 25th. The iconic race is the second oldest in the country and regularly draws crowds of thousands every year.
This weekend, the organization held a kickoff event for fans to get up close and personal with some cars racing on the mountain.
”It’s definitely satisfying to get to the top," said three-time competitor Trevor Aweida. “It’s also a mountain, right? So it’s changing every year, nothing is ever the same. So it’s always exciting to see what we have in store”.
This year 70 racers are set to compete in six different divisions.
“This is an iconic race all around the world, not just in Colorado. This is the second oldest race in America behind the Indy 500, so we’ve been around a long time," said the race historian
and communications director Lisa Haight.
Sylas Montgomery has been racing for the past 9 years and says he's looking forward to getting on Pikes Peak for the first time.
“We basically took an old Silver Crown chassis, so it was built for ovals, mile and a half ovals, and converted it to a road course car," said Montgomery.
David Hackl has been competing in the hill climb for the last 10 years, and says getting on the mountain is a thrill.
“Anything can happen, we race in hail, snow, sleet, rain, graupel," said Hackl.
His advice for young children wanting to be a racecar driver? Legos. He says getting creative and working with your hands at a young age is invaluable.
“You just follow that passion, don’t let anyone take it away from you, and once that fire gets lit, don’t ever try and put it out… just follow it”.
You canbuy tickets to watch the race here.
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