Sébastien Loeb. Ari Vatanen. Michèle Mouton. Marcus Grönholm. These former World Rally Championship drivers have done it. Now Dani Sordo is doing it too.
This weekend, Hyundai’s part-time WRC driver will compete at the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, adding himself to a list that features some of the most illustrious names in global motorsport.
Sordo will drive an all-electric Ioniq 5 N TA Spec in the Time Attack class for modified production cars. While the car won’t have the performance to deliver overall victory, a class win is within reach for Sordo; the three-time WRC winner has already topped his class during the first two days of practice.
It’s been far from smooth sailing for the Bryan Herta Autosport-run Hyundai effort in the lead-up to Pikes Peak, though.
Hyundai had entered four cars into the Time Attack class – but it's down to three after Dallenbach's testing accident
Hyundai’s original four-car squadron was slimmed to three when Paul Dallenbach, driving one of the two production-spec Ioniq 5 Ns, had an accident in testing that broke his leg and fractured his back; Dallenbach underwent successful surgery and expects to attend the race in a non-driving capacity. Former Hoonigan team member Ron Zaras is piloting the remaining Ioniq 5 N.
There was also a late driver change in the other Time Attack-spec Ioniq 5 N, as four-time overall Pikes Peak winner Robin Shute was replaced by Randy Pobst from the second day of practice.
The Ioniq 5 NA TA Spec that Sordo will be driving still has the standard 84kWh battery, charging system and electric motors but with some software improvements, the power output is up 37bhp to 678bhp. But the biggest difference is how it looks – the aero package has the traditional massive wings that dominate Pikes Peak car design.
But that isn’t the fastest car taking on the 156 corners and 4700-feet climb to the summit of Pikes Peak this year. Leading the way so far in practice is the Open-class Ford F150 Lightning Supertruck, co-developed by Ford Design and former WRC driver Manfred Stohl’s STARD outfit.
Four-time king of the mountain Romain Dumas is hoping to add a fifth Pikes Peak win at the wheel of the Ford F150 Lightning Supertruck
Romain Dumas is back in the Ford line-up again this year, having narrowly missed out on overall victory last year aboard the Ford Performance Supervan 4 at last year’s edition. This time the all-time record-holder on the mountain – he broke the eight-minute mark driving the Volkswagen I.D. R in 2018 – has a 1400bhp truck, rather than van, underneath him, hoping to defeat the Wolf cars that have dominated recent years.
Last year Shute defeated Dumas by eight seconds in the fight for overall victory, with the former driving a Wolf TSC-FS in 2023. This year multiple European hill climb champion Christian Merli is driving a brand new Wolf Aurobay GB08 – but it’s his first time competing on the famous hill.
Merli isn’t the only high-profile rookie this year. Former IndyCar driver Katherine Legge is at the wheel of a brand-new Acura Integra and was fastest in the Time Attack class on the second day of practice.
