The organizers of the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb have announced that motorcycles will not compete in the 2020 race.
This year’s event was marred by the death of four-time event winner Carlin Dunne who crashed near the finish line on his Ducati. Motorsport reports that shortly after Dunne’s untimely death, the board of directors convened to review the incident.
In a statement issued over the weekend, they confirmed that “there will be no motorcycle program offered in 2020 so that race organizers can gather data and analytics to review more thoroughly the impact on the overall event in the absence of this program.”
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Pikes Peak Hillclimb chairman Tom Osborne said that a decision on the long-term future of motorcycles at the event will be made in late 2020.
“Motorcycles have been a part of the PPIHC for the past 29 years, and their history on America’s Mountain dates back to the inaugural running in 1916,” Osborne said. “That said, the motorcycle program hasn’t been an annual event. They have run 41 of the 97 years we’ve been racing on Pikes Peak. It’s just time to take a hard look at every aspect of the race, including the motorcycle program, and determine whether or not the event may change.”
Interestingly, the mother of Dunne, Romie Gallardo, does not want the motorcycle category to be canceled.
“I know for a fact that he would not want the motorcycle program to end,” she said. “He would want us to learn from this tragedy. He would encourage the official accident reconstruction authorities do what they are trained to do, and for the race officials to implement additional safety precautions required.”