For those of you who don’t know, the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb is actually one of the oldest motor sports races in U.S.A. In fact, this year it marked its 90th running of the “Race to the Clouds”. A seven-time champion’s world record was beaten by Rhys Millen who was behind the wheel of a 700-hp Hyundai Genesis Coupe racecar. While Rhys has brought the Pikes Peak race record back to his family, it was a record-breaking event in other ways, too.

Unfortunately, the 2012 Pikes Peak International Hill Climb featured lots of wrecks, including eight red flags and over a dozen driver visits to the hospital. The reason these accidents took place is certainly because this isn’t a race for pro drivers solely, but for rookies as well. The nearly century-old race had in fact a fully paved course for the first time, but let’s get back to the winner. Rhys’s official time on the course was 9:46.164 while last year the fastest time went to Monster Tajima, and it was 9:51.278.

Millen nearly broke the 10-minute barrier in 2011, but apparently he was lacking something. Well, this year he fitted a turbocharger to the V6 engine, added a wide body aero package, improved brake calipers, equipped the Genesis Coupe with custom HRE wheels wrapped in Hankook tires (to be exact, the F200 slick race tires) and voilà the victory is his. Check out more pictures of the specially-prepped Hyundai Genesis Coupe and the race report below:

An absolute winner of  this year’s “Race to the Clouds” is certainly Rhys Millen who not only took the overall victory at the 2012 Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, but with the impressive 9:46.164 he also set a new world record. Congratulations Rhys! The vid below is taken on the last day of practice at the 2012 Pikes Peak International Hill Climb. See Rhys Millen driving!

As for ‘Monster’ Tajima and his E-runner, the racecar lost its power after only three corners. So he had to pull over. Sadly, the previous record holder had to drop out of the race, but he announced he would be back the next year. Among the potential winners was the Frenchman Romain Dumas whos time on the course was 9:46.18. He and his 997 Porsche 911 GT3 R showed the second fastest time of the day. The third fastest time went to Carlin Dunne on a Ducati motorcycle.

They say, Pikes Peak became one of the most dangerous places to race. As I’ve already mentioned, there were numerous wrecks this year. Here are two terrifying crashes that happened on that day which thankfully resulted in only minor injuries for drivers, Jeremy Foley and Paul Dallenbach.

Image Credit: Carscoop, Autoblog

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