Jonny Lieberman: The Fun and Trepidation of Preparing to Race at Pikes Peak
Hanging with legends while getting to know my Pikes Peak race car, the Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 Clubsport.
I turned 47 years old on May 10, and I left my house that morning at 6:40 a.m. in a Bentley GT Speed. I arrived at Willow Springs International Raceway an hour later and, as I signed the track waiver to get in, I saw Dwain Dement of Vision Motorsports. He was helping unload the 2019 Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 Clubsport I'll drive at the end of June in the 100th running of the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb. Jeff Zwart, the coach of the class I'm running in—the Porsche Pikes Peak Trophy by Yokohama—invited me to Willow to shake down my race car alongside him and his fellow Pikes Peak Open class competitor Rhys Millen. Between Zwart and Millen, we're talking41years of Pikes Peak experience.
Even better was the fact Tanner Foust showed up to hang with Millen and the people who built Millen's insane car, Emotion Engineering. Why better? This Porsche 718 GT4 Clubsport is literally the same car Foust drove last year at Pikes Peak and won the class with. I had many questions, and Foust gave me 20 minutes of supremely helpful advice about not only the race in general but also the Porsche's specific tendencies on the mountain. One of my coaches, Jamie Morrow, commented that during our simulator work it seemed like pulling the righthand paddle for second gear under full throttle works like traction-control intervention: As soon as the Cayman GT4 Clubsport's rear begins to step out, swapping cogs for the overly long second gear drops the torque enough to calm the car. Yup, Foust confirmed, that's exactly how it works. By my count, there are at least 24 first-gear corners on Pikes, so getting this theory confirmed is a huge deal. And that was just one of half a dozen things Foust taught me.
Zwart had phoned the week before to explain we'd lost our Streets of Willow testing to some silly car show and asked if I was OK with running the smaller Horse Thief Mile track instead. We'd probably be able to turn a session or two out on the big track, as well. Zwart also said that, for whatever reason, Millen prefers Horse Thief to Streets. I of course said everything was fine, as I'd only seen "my" race car once nearly five months earlier at the Porsche Experience Center in Los Angeles. The fine folks at Porsche Motorsport North America are kind enough to house and maintain it there, where I'd sat in it. And that was the extent of my wheel time in the car I'd soon race at one of the world's most insane motorsports events. The track didn't matter, I explained to Zwart; even a parking lot autocross would be useful, as I needed time behind the wheel.
I spent a few minutes with Millen as he explained why Horse Thief Mile—a tiny drift track—is ideal for shaking down Pikes Peak cars. It's the back-to-back-to-back hairpin corners, kids. Horse Thief has three of them, and though they aren't quite as tight as the ones on Pikes (in the Cayman they were all second-gear corners), they're good enough.
Ken Block's new, strangely namedHoonipigasus is getting all the press when it comes the wild Pikes Peak Open class (the Hoonigan people are marketing geniuses), but 25-time veteran, 13-time class champion, and two-time overall winner Millen has an equally mental and monstrous ride up the mountain this year. As mentioned, it's made by Emotion Engineering, is called the Porsche GT3R Twin Turbo, and just like Block's car, it produces 1,400 hp at sea level. It may not have the Hoonipigasus' GPS-controlled damping technology, but as Pikes was just repaved, Millen may not need it. Plus, as Block told me at his car's debut party, he's run Pikes exactly once before. When it was dirt.
Last year I stood at the start line and watched Millen's ultimately ill-fated attempt to deliver Bentley a Pikes Peak hat trick. Now I was standing in the pits and talking shop with him less than a year later. To call it an "odd" feeling is an understatement and a half. The experience was surreal, because as much as I tried to soak up the knowledge he dropped, I was also fanboying out, as well as seeing our conversation from outside my body. Millen stressed, as several others have, I'm not racing against anyone or anything save for the mountain itself. Solid advice—which of course I quickly forgot the moment I was back on Horse Thief and saw Millen's blue beast enter the track. "I know he can pass me," I said to myself. "But I'm going to make him earn it."
Did I and my 420-hp baby race car manage to fend off the great Rhys Millen in his insane weapon? No, of course not. His car was having some cooling issues, and he quickly left the racing surface. My point is, I have the attention span of a goldfish and am probably too old a dog to learn new tricks. But what fun!
Zwart, meanwhile, is the Pikes Peak Obi-Wan Kenobi. He's probably Yoda, but Yoda ain't nearly as cool as Zwart. Nor would Yoda be driving a million-dollar drop-dead gorgeous "new" Porsche 935 up Pikes for his 17th race. When Zwart speaks, you listen. And when you listen, odds are high you'll learn.
We talked about my car setup for Pikes. He explained that because the "track" is really three circuits in one, he wanted to go with an old-school strategy. Namely, no negative camber whatsoever. Counterintuitive perhaps, but because there are all those first-gear corners, a large portion of the braking happens (or ideallyshouldhappen) in a straight line. Tires without any camber have a larger contact patch than when wheels are tilted at an angle. This not only improves braking but also helps keep the tires in better shape for the race's duration. "It's like you're setting up for a skidpad," he tells me with a hint and glint of been-there-and-seen-everything in his eye. Yes, Obi-Wan.
