Romain Dumas almost touches the sky at Pikes Peak

Despite poor conditions due to rain and hail at the finish, Romain Dumas set the fastest time in the Open class and failed ... by only 17 thousandths of a second to beat the overall winner, Rhys Millen, a specialist in the discipline who set a new record for the legendary hillclimb in Colorado. 

Dumas, winner of the 2010 '24 Heures du Mans', and currently third in the drivers' standing in the FIA World Endurance Series, had primarily come to learn: "For a first participation, we couldn’t hope for more. This win in Pikes Peak Open, in a legendary race, is the fruits of efforts begun at the end of 2007 when I entered rallying. I came here with my own team who perfectly prepared the car at Pôle Mécanique d’Alès, and we really enjoyed ourselves during the week. It was a very good sporting and human adventure « The overall assessment is obviously positive » he said after this big discovery. We confirmed our good form in testing by dominating the Pikes Peak Open class. That was our original goal in terms of a result. I said it several times before, our goal along with the team was also to familiarise ourselves with this very unique environment, to learn the course, and to gather as much information as possible for the future. That’s the case, there’s no doubt about it. Pikes Peak is a legendary race that you have to tame and it takes time. We arrived here on Monday, we had never run here…The team was excellent and there are several positive points."

Having passed through single seaters, and then SuperGT (called JGTC at that time) in Japan, Romain Dumas also has a remarkable track record in endurance racing with a victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, two at the 24 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, four wins to 24 hours of Nürburgring and a magnificent victory at the 12 Hours of Sebring with the Porsche RS Spyder. He has also returned to his first love, rallying for several years with a Porsche prepared by his own team. He can now add one more line to his business card ...

Dave Davies (quote from driver press release)