- Romain Dumas and Ford have won the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb.
- Dumas piloted the F-150 Lightning SuperTruck and finished with a time of 8:53.553.
- The duo won despite an issue, which forced the truck to stop in the middle of the race.
Hyundai made a splash at the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, but it was Ford that ruled the day. Their F-150 Lightning SuperTruck dominated the event as Romain Dumas rocketed up the 12.4 mile (20 km) long course in 8 minutes and 53.553 seconds.
That made the SuperTruck the fastest of all 61 competitors and the model finished more than 10 seconds ahead of second place Christian Merli, who was piloting a 2024 Wolf GB08 and finished with a time of 9:04.454. Rounding out the top three fastest drivers was Dani Sordo in the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N TA, which completed the course in 9:30.852.
More: Ford F-150 Lightning SuperTruck Has Three Motors And 1400+ HP
While Ford claimed top honors, the F-150 Lightning SuperTruck was slower than last year’s SuperVan 4.2 which posted a time of 8:47.682. However, the result isn’t surprising as the SuperTruck suffered a “technical issue” and had to come to a complete stop in the middle of its run.
Dumas “completely reset” the truck and got it back in working order. That’s good news, but the issue added about 26 seconds onto his time.
The issue had to be frustrating, but Dumas took it in stride by saying, “Everything about this event is a challenge because it is unlike any other form of racing, you only have one shot. We faced a challenge early on but that only gave me more determination to make up the lost time in the rest of the run.”
In other news, Ford revealed their previous statement saying the SuperTruck had a tri-motor powertrain producing more than 1,400 hp (1,044 kW / 1,419 PS) was conservative. In fact, it produced 1,600 hp (1,193 kW / 1,622 PS) which makes it more than three times as powerful as the standard electric pickup.
