Jeff Zwart, from Woody Creek, Colo., completed his 1138-mile journey from Los Angeles to Colorado Springs in the new Porsche 911 GT2 RS – achieving an amazing 22.6 miles-per-gallon with the 620 horsepower sports car – and now focuses on final qualifying for Sunday’s Pikes Peak Hillclimb race.
“Needless to say, we have the only street-legal car in the top tier of this year’s Pikes Peak entry list, and people are amazed that we earned 22.6 mpg in such a high performance car while driving it to the event,” said Zwart, a seven-time Pikes Peak champion. “Both on the street and on the mountain, this car has the heart of a lion, but the feel of a lamb – a great combination for the Porsche owner. During the first days of practice, despite my two decades of experience at Pikes Peak, I have to get used to the fact that I have all this horsepower, yet the car is quiet and feels like a passenger car at race speed. Also, with most of the mountain now paved, the extra power means that turns come up even faster than before,” said Zwart. Zwart, a commercial film director, will defend his 2WD Time Attack class championship from last year, when he smashed the class record by more than 30 seconds in a modified Porsche 911 GT3 Cup road racing car. He returns to his roots at Pikes Peak – testing the limits of the ultimate street Porsche on the mountain.
This year, he will be challenged in the class by rally and Pikes Peak veteran Rod Millen, who has entered a full-bown racing Hyundai Genesis. Ironically, Millen and Zwart won an SCCA PRO Rally championship together in 1990. The course is even more challenging for the veteran Pikes Peak competitors this year, as there are only two miles of gravel left on the mountain, which is slowly being paved completely to help attract additional tourist traffic. By next year, the road, which starts at 9,390 feet above sea level, and ends at 14,110 feet above sea level, will be all tarmac. According to Zwart, Millen has been a little faster during the first practice session, but Zwart hinted that the team has some things up its sleeve for race day. “Rod (Millen) is a great Pikes Peak veteran, but we’ll have something for him on Sunday. Zwart has won his class at Pikes Peak – all in Porsche Turbo street cars – in 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, and 2002 – plus his 2010 win in the naturally aspirated 911 GT3 Cup, setting new class records four times. Recently, he co-drove a Porsche Cayenne with Pikes Peak veteran Paul Dallenbach at the challenging TransSyberia Rally (Moscow to Mongolia) in 2007. He also has an SCCA PRO Rally Championship (1990 with Rod Millen) and a SCORE Baja 1000 class win (2004) to his credit. The 89th running of Pikes Peak will run Sunday beginning at 9:00 AM MDT.
Results will be posted on the official Pikes Peak web site – www.ppihc.com
Source: Porsche
