As part of the Scion Racing contingent, Ken Gushi climbs to the infamous Pikes Peak 14,115ft summit in a super quick 10 minute and 30.188 seconds with an average speed of 68.551mph and claims 3rd place (17th overall, out of 130racers) in the tough 18-car field of the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb Time Attack 1 division (just behind two heavily modified 911 Cup race cars).
The Broadmoor Pikes Peak International Hill Climb is the second oldest race in America and is respected worldwide. It is not only difficult because of the dangerous blind corners and deadly cliffs, but the unusual nature of the race. The full 152 turn course is actually a public road that is only opened up to be raced once a year and competitors get just one chance to clock a time over the 4,720ft climb. Thats not to say, it's a one day race. Their is also a grueling week of 3:00am set-ups and practices on each sections of the course. 2014 was the GReddy Racing Team's 3rd assault with Scion Racing, but the first with our revised Drift FR-S ver1.5, lucky number #86. (our two previous races were with our GReddy Turbo tC and our now 2014 crew-chief, Takeshi Aizawa) It is also Ken's third consecutive race up the mountain (the past two years, he was driving the famous Lexus CCSR) The combination of Ken Gushi and the GReddy Performance x Hankook Tire x Scion Racing FR-S proved to be great combination, netting both Ken and GReddy our fastest time yet. [see how we converted our 2012-13 Formula Drift FR-S from Drift-spec to Hill Climb Spec...]
Converting our 2012-13 pro Drift FR-S over to a hill climb spec didn't go off without it's share adjustments that had to be overcome. The result was the car had to miss out on the lower section practice and qualifying day. This meant the Ken would have to run at the very end of the event. Luckily for the Team, when Ken did get to leave the starting line after 4:00pm MT, he was experienced enough put together a good run with an aggressive top section run. Sector 1 - 1:55.961, Sector 2 - 2.33.575, Sector 3 - 3:01.889 and Sector 4 - 2.58.763!
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Special thanks to our partners: Scion Racing, Hankook Tire, Takata Racing, Turbo by Garrett, Rocket Bunny, Rays Engineering/Gram Lights, OS Giken, KW Suspension, SPL Parts, WPC Treatment, Supertech, Bluemoon Performance, FMT-Tuned by N8, Ignite Racing Fuels, Motec USA, AEM electronics, APR Performance, Project Mu, Driveshaft Shop, Spin Imaging, JonSibal, Revolutions Performance, TRUST and Scion
