However, the race does not stop for a team’s celebration, even if it is a new record. Other drivers still need their shot, and once you’re on top, you stay there until everyone comes down together. A Honda Civic TCR had already headed up the mountain behind Yoshihara, followed by a Porsche 911, and after that, a 2014 Volkswagen Golf. Actually the Volkswagen Golf of British racer Jim Morris.
While Acura’s Integra race car originated in the same factory that built the Integra road cars and still had a VIN, Morris’s Golf was a completely custom-built race car wearing a Golf body. Well, a Golf body and a bonkers aero kit. Under the hood sits a turbocharged 2.0-liter engine that produces over 500 hp, giving it a 140-hp advantage over Yoshihara’s Integra. And when he reached the top, just three cars behind Yoshihara, Morris’s official time read 10:33.104. Seven hundredths of a second faster. It required just three more racers, and Dai Yoshihara was no longer the fastest man to race a front-wheel-drive car up Pikes Peak.
Seven-hundredth of a second. About the time it takes to blink, if that. So much difference as to almost nothing, and yet, in racing, it proved to be the difference between setting a new record and maintaining it for another year. Absolutely heartbreaking. But the mountain didn’t care. Pikes Peak is a cruel, unforgiving mountain, and it refuses to play favorites. Your time is your time, and if someone else’s time is faster, so be it. Come back and try again next year. If you have the courage to risk it all again, this is it.
Later that night, when Yoshihara joined some of us for a cigar after the race, the mood was light, but no one was celebrating. At least, not really. The race went as well as it could have, but a fraction of a second here and a fraction of a second there adds up. Still, if Yoshihara was heartbroken, he did an impressive job of hiding it. He had a job to do. He did it well. He just got a little unlucky. Besides, there’s always next year. The mountain is not going anywhere. There is time in this. Certainly longer than us. We were on that mountain, and we are on this earth, for two eyelids at the most. But Pikes Peak will remain long after we are gone. Still cold and indifferent, but standing there, daring whoever comes next to test how fast they can run to the top.
