The 2025 Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, better known as the "Race to the Clouds," marked its 103rd running on June 22, once again crowning Colorado’s iconic reputation as the crucible where automotive innovation collides with gravity, weather, and sheer nerve.

Founded in 1916, Pikes Peak is the second oldest motorsports race in the United States, famous, or maybe infamous, for its punishing 12.42-mile climb and 156 turns, climbing nearly 4,800 feet from the Start Line at 9,390 feet to the summit at 14,115. Over the decades, big brands, grassroots garage teams, and the who’s who of hillclimb legends have risked it all on these slopes, making it a must-watch event for car enthusiasts and an engineering benchmark for the world’s bravest manufacturers and tuners.

Coming into 2025, most of the talk centered on whether the new breed of electric and hybrid entries, especially Hyundai’s Ioniq 5 N with Evasive Motorsports’ return, could threaten the established internal-combustion teams or even chase Loeb’s untouchable 2013 all-time record. Aero kits, cooling solutions, and tire compounds were under the microscope, with engineers and drivers laser-focused on thermal management and brake fade at altitude. Familiar names like Rob Walker and Tom Tang returned to challenge the mountain, with social media fueling speculation that this year might finally see someone close the gap to those storied sub-9-minute glory days.

For me, the actual race day delivered all the drama PPIHC regulars expect. Overnight rain gave way to quickly warming skies, tossing teams a classic Pikes Peak curveball as the track surface transitioned from damp patches to rapidly heating tarmac. 

The run order favored the faster classes early, with Unlimited and Pikes Peak Open contenders chasing cool, dense air. A mid-race stoppage for a sudden fog roll-in: a notorious Mile 16 phenomenon, forced split-second strategy adjustments, shaking up the running order and putting extra stress on cooling systems and heat-soaked tires in the final miles.

Veteran Rob Walker, piloting Evasive’s exhibition-class entry, clinched first in class with a time that bested several of the higher-horsepower builds, proving again how much driving discipline and clever energy management can tip the scales on the hill. Tom Tang delivered a clean, fast ascent to finish 11th overall and 6th in Unlimited, while newcomer entries in GT4 and Time Attack delivered a mix of heartbreak (with two DNFs to overheating) and surprise personal bests for privateers.

From an engineering angle, the day’s fluctuating temperatures and thin high-altitude air challenged every team’s cooling and aero setup.  Much like in my world of paint protection films- you can only theoretically model so much until the mountain reveals the weak spots in your material stack-up.

Walker took Exhibition, Tang P6 in Unlimited, and less than half the grid saw the summit without major drama. The 2025 box score: no all-time record fell, but the relentless chase and the spectacle of engineering on the edge remained as fierce, and as pure, as ever.

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Wessen Char is UPPF’s petrolhead who still mourns the loss of Saab (and drove her 9-5 NG till 2025). She travels between US and Europe to cover auto events. She acknowledges the chic tech of EVs but wonders if the inexorable move to everything digital is ultimately all-better. Analogue had more soul somehow :)


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