Danny George Pikes Peak 2014

Danny George at Pikes Peak – Qualifying, Fan Fest and Race Day

Danny qualified in 7th place in Pikes Peak Open class on Friday. Open Class is a catch all class at Pikes Peak that pretty much anything goes as long as it still somewhat looks like a car.

Friday night in downtown Colorado Springs is a huge street party with all the race cars. We took the car there and handed out several boxes of Danny George swag.

Saturday is a day off for racing and practice. We did the final prep on the car and took it up to the start line to set up the pits in the forrest just off the main road. While there on Saturday, we took the time to try to make the mountain latrines from the start line up to the top smell a little better on race day :-)

During all the practice runs they had us running on the mountain from 5am to 9am. The weather was cool those days and also it was super early. We’d added the water spray system to hep keep his rear mounted radiator keep the engine coolant temps down and it was all working fine.

[MORE]

But on race day it was much warmer and we didn’t run until about 2:30 pm. It was hot and the cooling system did what it could until about halfway up. He blew a radiator hose connection from the excess coolant pressure and that parked him.

Danny’s driving was excellent. He never put a wheel off all week and his times steadily came down. Even on race day, his splits compared to the cars that qualified around him were much faster. The Danny George Team will be back next year with better ducting and a larger cooling system. Also with some real aero for the altitude.

Bottom line I had a lot of fun. It was interesting to see the changes in the mountain and the cars now that it is fully paved. As a spectator the race is very different now. Before it was like watching drifting with dirt rooster tails instead of tire smoke. Now that it is paved… it isn’t so exciting to watch the cars. As a driver it is nuts still with all the crazy drop offs. (I think I personally won the Overloaded Box Van Downhill Class 2 out of 4 of the days)

All the guys on the team really put in a great effort. Kyle had the tuning spot on for the altitude, he even came up a week before the event to gather data at altitude, and he is a top mechanic too. Jon helped with logistics, pics and video and let us all crash at his place. Steven and Matt helped with fabrication and wrenching. Loren was seemingly everywhere along with his dad Mark getting impossible shots.

We all had to adapt to the up at 3am schedule and then dealing with working on the car, and catching naps when possible. Everyone worked together so well. No prima donnas or cat fights, no hurt feelings or finger pointing. Working with these guys was a pleasure.

Thanks for the opportunity orange people!
@whosdannygeorge @loreninhd @thatbimmerguy @sheckwelds @klracingdevelopment #pikespeak #ppihc #dannygeorgeandfriends

Well… that is the official story. Here is the true story captured on video… :