Throwback Gallery: 2017 Mount Washington Climb to the Clouds
What follows is the coverage I wrote for Motorsports Marketing Resources and a gallery of some of my favorite images from this unforgettable event.
When you think of the oldest, longest running motorsport events in North America you probably automatically think of the Indianapolis 500 (first run in 1911) or the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb (1916). However, the Mount Washington Climb to the Clouds has them both beat with the first race up the Auto Road taking place in 1904. Harry Harkness, driving a Mercedes, set the initial benchmark up the 7.4 mile course in 24 minutes 37.6 seconds. Over the years that time has been reset many times and heading into the 2017 edition the record stood at 6 minutes 9.09 seconds.
David Higgins, the record holder coming into the weekend, and his Subaru Rally Team USA (SRTUSA) teammate, Travis Pastrana, each armed with a Subaru WRX STI rally car producing somewhere in the vicinity of 600-hp, were set to duke it out in a game of top trumps to see who could get up the mountain quickest. Sub six minutes were almost a given. Each driver would get two attempts to set a fast time, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Sadly, the back and forth chase for the record the fans were all hoping to see came to a shocking early end when Higgins, during his morning run, lost control at the Cragway spectator area, clipped a large rock at the edge of the course, and pirouetted off the road. Landing on the mountainside shrubbery. Higgins was unhurt in the crash, but the extensive damage to his Subaru WRX STi meant he was unable to continue.
"It was going really well up until it went really bad," said Higgins "It's one of those events that you put so much work into one small run, so the disappointment is massive. If you are going fast enough to win the event you are going fast enough to crash." This left Pastrana to go it alone and he did not disappoint. On his first run of the day, he shattered the old record by posting a blistering time of 5 minutes 46.28 seconds.
"I can't say enough how fun these cars are to drive, and thank Subaru for providing one to me. I hope this record can stand for a little while," said Pastrana, "On our first run I leaned on the tires too much on the bottom half, which made the top half very loose and scary but really fun, I was sideways a lot but I'm sure I lost some time. On the second run I conserved the tires and drove cleaner. I really didn't expect to drop the record further."
In the afternoon, with Higgins waving the green flag at the start line to persuade him on, Pastrana did drop the record further taking off an additional 1.56 seconds and finishing with a scantly believable time of 5:44.72.
Finishing second overall, and first in the Open Class, with a time of 6:26.75 was Dan November in the black #28 2016 November Special, a home built, open-wheeled hill climb special.
Rounding out the overall podium was Todd Cook in his blue #4 2000 Wells Coyote reaching the finish in 6:28.63.
Organizers stated the 2017 Climb to the Clouds featured the largest racing field in the history of the event with 75 entries coming from around the world to test their mettle on the Mount Washington Auto Road.
Pastrana summed up the draw, "This road is such a challenge; it's probably the toughest road to drive flat-out in the world."
