The awards ceremony is Monday morning, which is a change from last year to give officials time to verify results and address any issues. It is held at the Penrose House. A very cool place with lots of history. Judging from the official timing results we have some awards to collect.
Rodney is confirmed third in Unlimited (11th overall) and receives his trophy standing shoulder to shoulder with Romain Dumas. Not bad for a rookie whos car first ran 10 days ago 🙂
The Open class in which Jonathan took second is combined with Open Wheel class for awards. It is not entirely clear why (both classes have 8 entries, the minimum is 6) but this is not a surprise since it was announced prior to the race. So Jonathan is third overall in the combined Pikes Peak Challenge class, out of the total 16 combined class entries (9th overall out of 100).
So, two cars, two trophies. I’m pleased, especially in light of how many times it didn’t look like we were going to make it at all. But there is always the other side – we wanted to do better, get into the 9s, win both classes. Leaves something for next year.
After the ceremony is done we take a team photo outside then stop by the museum and take a couple more pictures with the original Penrose Cup. The team, from left to right: Ray (guest crew member), Chris (intern), Rodney, Morgan, myself, Jonathan, Jay, Tristan, Jake (intern). I am extremely impressed and proud of the work everyone has done. We’ve dealt with many challenges and the whole crew just powered through it all, everyone doing their part calmly and efficiently.
Around noon we check out of the house and do the long but thankfully uneventful 1,300 mile drive back. Then the following day I drive Pete’s truck and trailer up to Seattle to drop them off, bringing the Fiat along as my return ticket. I’m now done driving for a while.
Here are the race run videos. Unfortunately there was a problem with the SD card in Rodney’s forward facing camera, so we only got rear-facing footage from his car.
The cars are now back in the shop and we are in the process of cleaning them up, going through the list of maintenance and planning the updates/upgrades/development. The D2 will get a paddle shifter, enclosed bodywork and a whole lot of refinement. D1 will get attention to engine tuning and some minor tweaks. The owner of this year’s D2RS is already thinking of his next Palatov so the car is for sale. Asking price is $105K for the D2RS in as-raced condition with body replacement/upgrades/development/support available separately. Contact me if interested.
We will start work on sponsor materials next week. Many thanks go out to all our supporters, both commercial and individual, who have made our success possible. We couldn’t have done it without you!
In the meantime, here are some cool shots taken by Nick Cress of Rockit West Media
We will now actually take the long weekend off and will jump right into all of our projects next week. Lots was learned in this year’s race and I’m eager to apply the lessons to making our cars and other products even better. Racing does improve the breed.