october-2009

PHOTOGRAPHS BY BRYAN OLLER (TOP), COURTESY OF PAUL WEBB
TURN, TURN, TURN Grönholm negotiates one
of the course’s many switchbacks.
MARCUS GRÖNHOLM doesn’t look nervous,
but he probably should be. The gravel
road beyond his steering wheel
disappears into the clouds, so he can’t
see the next hairpin turn or the sheer
2,000-foot drop just beyond. And
though he’s a veteran racer, a two-time
World Rally Champion and one of
the best wheelmen in the world, he’s a
rookie at the Pikes Peak International
Hill Climb. Yesterday’s practice run
up through 156 precarious corners
was his fi rst time on the course and
nearly his last: As he was speeding
sports
Higher Power
With 156 blind turns and dizzying drops, the Pikes Peak
International Hill Climb is one of racing’s toughest challenges.
Superstar driver Marcus Grönholm aims to set a new course
record—on his very fi rst try. // BY KELLY BASTONE
into a turn, the hood of his turbocharged,
800-horsepower Ford Fiesta
came unlatched and fl ipped up onto
the windshield, obscuring everything
except the milky Colorado fog in the side
window.
CULTURE | OCTOBER 2009
So today, less than 24 hours before the
race, Grönholm pilots a Ford Flex SUV
slowly up Pikes Peak’s steep, snarled
curves for a fi nal “walk-through” of
the course. He motors past wind-raked
high-country grasses and boulder fi elds.
Meanwhile, in the passenger seat, codriver
Timo Alanne recites the features
of each of the road’s twists, switchbacks
and straightaways, like a tutor drilling a
student for a physics fi nal.
Any student would be anxious about
this test, where the penalty for braking a
split second too late is a long swan dive
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