2026 Pikes Peak International Hill Climb - Fastest BMW Once Again At America’s Mountain During The 104th Running Of The Race To The Clouds - 2nd Place In Unlimited Production Class - 15th Overall
As many readers know, I was pretty torn after 2025’s reduced race distance, and on the fence about whether or not to even try and go back for another attempt. But after digesting what took place last year, and reflecting on how I would feel if I regretted not trying again I realized something. It wasn’t that I just wanted to go back. We needed to go back.
You see, last year all the data pointed to the possibility that we had an overall package capable of going just under 10 minutes at Pikes Peak, which is something I and many other drivers have chased because of how hard that is to do. Setting aside weather and short courses for a second, here’s a fun fact: after 103 years of the Pikes Peak Hill Climb (while the race first began in 1916, it was paused during WWI and WWII), only 36 different drivers have ever achieved a sub-10 minute run. That is a very exclusive club! And one that I very much wanted to join. So, alas. Here we go…
At the beginning of this year, the thinking was that we would add some additional nitrous capacity to the V2 engine that we ran in 2025. To clarify, V1 ran in 2024 (boost-only, making 535whp and 375 lb-ft at sea-level). V2 was built for the 2025 climb and we introduced a 100-shot nitrous system with a single 12 lb bottle. It also made about 600whp and 395 lb-ft of torque on boost alone. The plan last year was to activate nitrous in the middle section of the mountain, at Glen Cove. Well, after running nitrous from start to the reduced finish line, I had the idea that we should try running nitrous the entire way; from the start line to the summit. So for 2026, we introduced a second 12 lb bottle (2 in total now) and I wanted to try increasing the nitrous jet size from a 100-shot to a 150-shot and then use the ECU to control the nitrous relay/solenoid to give me anywhere from 75 horsepower worth of nitrous up to 150 in certain parts of the run. Simple, right?
Ha. Joke’s on me, because when is anything challenging ever simple? In January, we ended up damaging the V2 engine on the dyno when we tried to push 150 horsepower worth of nitrous into it. Fortunately, the damage was repairable but it made us (myself, my engine tuner Jei, and my engine builder Nate C) realize that we were at the limits of the S54 (3.2L BMW original E46 M3) engine and if I wanted to use more nitrous to make up for what we lose at altitude, we would need to make some drastic changes. So, that’s what I decided to do. I commissioned a new engine build from the ground up, one that we named V3.
V3 wasn’t designed to necessarily make much or any more power than V2, our philosophy was to build something that could make roughly the same but with lower compression-ratio (thanks to a thicker head gasket with cut-rings) and new custom rods and pistons from our partners at CP-Carrillo. We also focused on evacuating more heat from the engine and increasing thermal capacity; so we built V3 with Moldstar90 guides & seats, ported and blended the exhaust side of the head, and a new side-exit exhaust; sans muffler.
Other preparations for 2026 included removing previous wrap work and started over with a brand new livery design (courtesy of Alli, Shareef, Sean and team at SS Customs). We refreshed and upgraded our JRZ PROactive dampers (shoutout to Erik and David), and added new AIM EPMs (thank you to Robbie & Mike Jaynes for your longstanding partnership and support) to handle the addition of the 2nd nitrous bottle with 2x additional bottle blankets.
My Crew Chief, Mike (Moreno), also spent a lot of time refining things in the engine bay, improving custom components to work more efficiently while simultaneously swapping out wear items to ensure everything would be up to snuff for 14,115 ft of elevation.
While we waited for V3 to be completed, we decided that there were enough changes made to the car which warranted a test day at our home track of Sonoma Raceway. It was also a great opportunity to grab some sick photo and video content of the new wrap.
In addition to ensuring the new dampers were dialed-in, I also wanted to test some new MRT Engineering modular spindles (greater adjustability, reduced bump-steer, reduced Ackerman, and improved rigidity thanks to beefier E60 wheel bearings), and new billet one-piece brake caliper brackets + a new brake master cylinder brace (with a shared goal of reducing flex and minimizing brake pedal mushiness).
Repeat readers will remember that for Pikes Peak, a key pillar of my preparation for racing at the mountain was health and fitness. For 2026, that remained very much the same. In fact, I doubled down on it this year and even bought a brand new road-bike. Shout-out to ENVE Composites and Pacos Mill Valley for hooking me up with an absolutely stunning Poison Apple Melee with 4.5 SES PRO wheels and SRAM RED AXS X1 groupset.
Meanwhile, the V3 engine build was chugging along with precision thanks to Steeldust Machine.
Mike also worked together with several of our important partners to rebuild/refresh the entire drivetrain (Tony at VAC Motorsport and Tilton on our custom driveshaft and triple-plate lightweight racing clutch, along with Bart and Ruud at Drenth on our DG-500 6-speed sequential gearbox).
I should mention something. We were on an incredibly tight time table between when the V3 engine was finished (due to unforeseen component delays that were out of any of our hands), to when we could tune the engine, to when we had 1 final test day available (due to Sonoma Raceway’s calendar) before we had to load up for Colorado. Fortunately, the stars aligned. A huge thank you to Nate C at Steeldust for working insane hours to finish the engine assembly, Mike for working literally 24 hours straight to get everything into the car, Jei for tuning 2 nights in a row, and to Jon for scheduling everything else at the shop around my BMW. Everyone always says racing takes a village, we continue to be proof of that.
Once everything was complete, it was finally time to install the V3 engine and to get her on the dyno. The result? 608 whp and 406 lb-ft of torque on just boost at 10.25:1 compression ratio (vs. 11.5:1 with V2). Mission accomplished. Sweet!
After one more shakedown at Sonoma Raceway, the team was ready to begin loading up for the 20+ hour drive (which we spread out over 2 days) from Fremont, CA to Colorado Springs, CO.
This year, “Ursula” (my E46 M3) would once again be riding in her 30-ft TPD digs, but with an important change. Jem, who has been with me to Pikes Peak year one and year two as our team transport driver and crew member, had an immovable work conflict— so I reached out to Nick Buchanan, a longtime mutual friend of both mine and Nick Cahill (Director of Photography for all of my racing films). I feel very fortunate that Nick B, as we call him (to help reduce confusion) was stoked to join this year’s team and to play such an important role.
As you can see below, while our general setup for PPIHC this year remained the same, we would now be bringing 3 “mother bottles” (55 lbs each) of nitrous to the mountain.
After a fun send-off at the shop on Thursday, June 11th (thanks Jon/Vic for ordering so much bomb Chinese food), we hit the road bright and early on Friday morning, June 12th.
This year was also different because Mike and Nate M (crew member and shop assistant at TS) decided to ride in the truck with the trailer as well. This made for a really fun road-trip and some quality team-bonding time.
After last year’s incident (the car got loose in the trailer due to high winds on the freeway which broke one of the e-track ratchets), we got into the habit of checking the trailer every time we stopped for diesel. Fortunately, this time was much smoother sailing.
Upon arrival at our Airbnb for race week, we quickly settled into the rather large and spacious 3-car garage (clearly this was a selling point for me), and made our way over to Safeway for supplies for the week. We were excited to link up with Ian (who would once again be focused on capturing content for social media during race week) and Min (a new member of the team and a friend of mine for many years).
The next morning, we stopped by Winslow BMW of Colorado Springs to catch up with our dear friend and GM of the dealership, Gregg. Once again, he hooked us up with some brand new BMW X3 xDrive30i SUVs for the week which is a huge help to us because it saves us the hassle of needing to rent cars and deal with that whole process at the airport. Speaking of airport, by Sunday evening we were also joined by Jei, Cahill, and Austin (who helped Cahill shoot video during my rookie year).
After a quick once-over at the house, we put “Ursula” away until Monday mid-day June 15th when we headed over to the Broadmoor World Arena for tech-inspection, driver health inspection, and registration. The car got a lot of attention from friends, fellow racers, and fans alike. I think the new wrap looks so good in the sun!
After receiving our tech and classing stickers, we picked up our O2 bottles and then made our way over to Pikes Peak International Raceway (PPIR) for a quick test session. Thank you, Kyle, for getting us setup so easily at the facility.
The purpose was to validate our nitrous delivery and to confidently log the 75-shot jet size, 100-shot jet size, and 125-shot jet size. Except we discovered that we were somehow missing the 125, and we were worried that 150 would be overkill.
Ultimately, I decided that for Tuesday’s first practice day in the middle section of the mountain I would run the 100 until the 125 arrived (shout out to John/Jeff at Nitrous Outlet for overnighting the jets to us from Texas!)
On Tuesday morning, June 16th we ran a successful day of practice from Glen Cove to just before Devil’s Playground. Last year, in this section my PB was a 2:46.1. This year, I was able to improve on that time with a 2:42.0, which was good enough to be the 2nd fastest Unlimited Production car in class behind multi-time King of the Mountain and Le Mans winner, Romain Dumas (also current overall record holder at Pikes Peak), who was once again piloting the Ford Super Mustang Mach-E. This year, there were 11 cars and drivers in total for the Unlimited Production class.
After practice wrapped at 830am, we stopped by Winslow BMW for our usual full nut & bolt, alignment check, and to refill the nitrous bottles for the race car (this process requires shop-air). We also swapped over to the 125 jet which had then arrived by mid-day.
The next day, on Wednesday June 17th we practiced in the upper section of the mountain and wow, it was BUMPY! The road had definitely gotten worse compared to 2025 and despite best efforts to fix some bumps and patch the pavement, my personal opinion is that things were a wash at best, and perhaps more likely net-negative. I’ll explain, with the old road surface we at least knew how much grip to expect even though it was bumpy. The new asphalt was grippy in some parts and slippery in others, and some still had bumps in them. In some ways, this leveled the playing field a bit for everyone— but in other ways it also presented new challenges and dangers. Last year, my PB in this section of the mountain was a 2:44.7 and this year I was only able to manage a 2:49.0 which had me once again P2 in-class behind the Ford Super Mustang Mach-E for the day.
The team was reunited in the upper section with our longtime friends and suspension partners from JRZ: Erik and David. Once again, they would be with us all week long to help with any car setup changes needed. I remain immensely grateful, because they traveled in all the way from the Netherlands.
The new “headlights” for 2026 really grew on me throughout race week… “Ursula” looks so good through the tree-line!
After wrapping up in the upper section, we headed back to Winslow BMW for post-mountain procedures and also installed new rotor discs and pads ahead of what would be qualifying the next day in the lower section of the mountain.
I was really excited to do well in qualifying, and was on what would’ve been a 4:07.xxx run when I hit some dirt on the road surface on the outside of Sump corner. That dirt sent me into the actual dirt and I spun around. Luckily, I managed not to hit anything. But given that there would only be one more run, I ended up pulling back a bit to get a decent banker in. Unfortunately, we had an electrical issue which prevented me from arming the nitrous and as such I only managed a 4:12.131 (slower than the year before). Ride along with me for that run here:
One of my favorite traditions during Pikes Peak is that everyone on the team makes dinner or lunch one of the days, and it’s always fun to share delicious home cooked meals with each other. Plus it’s healthier than eating out. Some examples below:
On Friday, June 19th we had our final day of practice at the mountain. I decided to run the middle again to get more practice in and to verify that we had solved the nitrous arming issue (success).
After the final practice session, where I found another 4+ seconds (best time of 2:37.7) we headed back to Winslow BMW to prep the car for FanFest in Downtown Colorado Springs. Everything looked great until we were finishing up with the alignment check when the power to several city blocks went out. This meant that our car was stuck on the alignment rack with no way down. The type of rack at Winslow meant that there wasn’t a manual override— so no power = no way to get the car down and on the ground; much less into the trailer. Yikes!
Luckily, with so many smart people around; both from my team and at Winslow, I decided to head out with Cahill because we were due at Phantom Canyon Brewing Company for a VIP reception hosted by the Rocky Mountain Chapter (RMC) of the BMW CCA (Car Club of America). Here’s Cahill and I poking fun at me because I’m not used to being the center of attention.
The event was facilitated by the wonderful Angela from RMC, who kicked off the evening with a fun talk with our friend Kimberly who is also a talented photographer at the mountain (the venue displayed a photo she took of me from 2025). Afterwards, Cahill and I did a fireside chat together talking about the race itself, what it takes to prepare, and also how we capture incredible content together as a team. Luckily, by the time our chat had begun the rest of the team had made it to the event and my car was proudly on display at the Toyo Tires booth for the entire night. It was awesome to see over 35,000 fans in attendance, and to get one night off before race day.
The next morning, we headed over to Winslow BMW for what has quickly become an annual tradition: their pre-race day event. Except this year it was being done jointly with the BMW CCA RMC.
It was wonderful to see so many familiar faces from the community, and to spend some time with Ann (Winslow) for a bit, along with Angela who has become a close friend to me and the team during this trip. Thanks to the entire club for the fun surprise of winning “Best in Show” during the event! Between the simulator, taco truck, and fun vibes— we had such a great time!
I also had a chance to sign Winslow’s signature car for this year’s race (which had been on display the previous day at Fan Fest).
After the event ended, we packed up and headed to the mountain for race day setup which involved getting our Toyo Tires tent in position on pit-road with our car underneath it. Shoutout to Toyo for always ensuring we get prime spots on race day!
On Sunday morning, final preparations were underway for the BMW; including helicopter tape for the miscellaneous gaps on the car. The goal as it has been each year is to reduce drag and to maximize cooling/air efficiency.
Given my qualifying position of 17 Overall, and with the gridding process working in this way:
Ultra 4 - Exhibition class would go first
Then all of GT4 class (NA and Turbo)
Then 3/2/1 for each of the classes: Time Attack 1, Pikes Peak Open, Open Wheel, Unlimited Production (my class), Super Unlimited
Before everyone else then goes in order of qualifying (from fastest to slowest)
This meant that I went to the start box 21st, or at about 9:30am MT. After the team sent me off, they immediately ran over to the Jumbotron to watch me charge up the mountain.
The road surface at Pikes Peak is never the same between different days. Race day in particular always comes with challenges because depending on qualifying/starting positions, many of us are running the mountain during wildly different conditions (temperature, position of the sun in the sky, dust on the road, etc.) than when we’ve been able to practice/qualify earlier in the week.
I had decent sector 1 and sector 2 times, 4:10.478 combined, which comprises of what is normally the lower section (same as what counted for qualifying). But in the middle section is where things got hairy. There are 2 important challenges at Pikes Peak that aren’t always apparent to fans or newer racers to the mountain (such as myself):
We never get to run the entire course during practice or qualifying days, with the mountain divided into thirds we are always missing a few turns and connecting straights, so on race day we just need to put it all together
When we do practice and qualifying runs, the car is operating at speed and at temperature for anywhere between 2.5 to 4.25 minutes meaning things get much hotter from bottom to top on race day, something hard to practice or simulate
#2 is what ended up contributing to low oil pressure (any moment below 25psi causes a warning message to be displayed on my dash) into the W’s during high-G braking. In fact, after reviewing the data, we saw a total of 7 instances of low oil pressure across the entire race day run from start to finish, with 5 of the 7 taking place in the middle section of the mountain where oil temp had built up to over 260F (water temp stayed healthy at 222F). The worst instance of low oil pressure happened right before my off-road excursion, the system saw 20.5psi which caused my entire AIM dash to light up red— this caused me to lose focus for a brief moment, I braked a hair later than I should have, and slid wide at the right hander (roughly 3 turns before Double Cut) into the dirt ditch facing a very tall curved white brick wall.
Through sheer luck (99%) and a tiny bit of skill (1%), I managed to fight and kept the car from making contact with the wall. I kept my foot down, dug myself out of the ditch and got back onto the pavement. In the moment, I wasn’t sure if I had damaged or lost my front splitter. But I was determined to keep pushing and fighting towards the finish line. In my head, I was thinking, “fuck it— we’re either going to blow this thing up or I’m going to see the checkered flag” (waved by my dear friend Derek).
Fortunately, after a few corners I was able to collect myself a bit more, and as I felt good front bite still and no noticeable changes to the alignment of the car— I regained confidence to push by the time I reached Devil’s Playground and the start of the upper section.
The impact of the above? A dismal 3:00.275 in the middle sector which is a far cry from my practice day runs ranging from 2:37 to 2:42. Sigh…
In the upper section of the mountain on race day, I wised up a bit and switched to survival mode; especially in light of several cars being written off in the lead up to Cog Cut during practice week (1 more would take place here after I finished my own run, with another car wrecked down by Engineer’s Corner). As such, I logged a 2:55.657 (+6 seconds slower than during practice earlier in the week) for the fourth and final sector of the mountain.
As the livestream showed me crossing the finish line, my entire team, along with race fans and other competitors in the paddock all got together to cheer and celebrate. Phew! After many hugs and high-fives, the guys were finally able to relax and the group got to spend time exploring the paddock area, enjoying food & drinks in the VIP hospitality tent (thanks for the tickets Karl), and attempting to catch some fish down at the reservoir.
Ride-along with me for my finishing time of 10:06.352, and despite all of the issues along the way, this now makes me the 3rd fastest driver of a BMW at the mountain and the 4th fastest time ever recorded for a BMW at the mountain.
My time was also good enough for 2nd Place in the Unlimited Production class, losing out to the mighty Ford Super Mustang Mach-E and Romain’s time of 8:18.202 which once again crowned him King of the Mountain for 2026 (he beat out all of the Super Unlimited class cars as well, including Kings of the Mountain, Robin Shute and Simone Faggioli.
After I got my car parked, I did a quick livestream interview with Ty and another with a reporter from the Colorado Springs Gazette (so sorry— in my haste, I forgot to catch your name). I then grabbed some lunch with many old friends and new, drivers like Jimmy Ford, Laura Hayes, Dai Yoshihara, JR Hildebrand, and Kurt Dieker. Laura and I then brought our donuts over to the finish line to share them with our friend Derek and we hung out watching cars reach the summit while I worked on some in-car videos (thanks for letting me use your Starlink, Laura!)
While it wasn’t in the cards for me this year, I do want to say a huge congrats to 5 new drivers who did join the sub-10 club at Pikes Peak this year: Billy, Diego, JR, Mirl, and Valentin. You guys crushed it. If my math is mathing, the club now has 41 awesome members.
Reflecting on the 104th running, there were 3 King of the Mountains racing this year and the field was absolutely stacked. And while I didn’t qualify in the Fast 15 this time around, finishing 15th Fastest Overall amongst giants is something that I can be proud of.
We came to the mountain again this year with the following goals:
Have fun (always) - ACHIEVED
Reach the summit again (after last year’s shortened course) - ACHIEVED
Don’t die (this one is pretty important) - ACHIEVED
Get onto the podium for the first time ever within a field of 11 cars in the Unlimited Production class - ACHIEVED
Finish with a time of under 10 minutes - NOT ACHIEVED
In hindsight, 4 out of 5 isn’t bad. And with how dangerous the mountain was this year, being able to wake up on Monday morning with a car is still in one-piece and zero injuries on my end is a win. We can hold our heads high, boys!
After loading up at the Airbnb on Monday morning June 22nd, the team got together to finally open the bottle of champagne we had been saving for a quick toast before we headed over to the Penrose Event Center for this year’s awards ceremony & banquet. It was fun to see all of our friends and fellow competitors one last time, to relive the moments, the highs and the lows, and to celebrate everyone who won an award and/or trophy for 2026.
For me and my team, this was a special moment because in previous years we were never able to attend due to when folks had to get back on the road. And the cherry on top was that this time around, we were bringing home a trophy of our own!
Quick iPhone snap of the “car team” (from left to right: Nick B, Min, myself, Mike, Jei, Nate M), but the full team includes Ian, Austin, Cahill, as well as Jon, Jem, Marc, Drew, and many more. This trophy is for everyone involved in the effort.
Speaking of involvement, as you guys likely know by now, I always save the best part for last. So once again, I would like to say a tremendous THANK YOU to these amazing people for their support in making this effort and result possible. From the bottom of my heart, thank you for believing in me:
Mike, Jon, Matteo, Nate M, Lamson, and Vic at Trackspec Autosports
Karl, Cameron, Dionne, Stan, and Steve at Toyo Tires
Hansel at Leen Customs
Mike, Robbie, and Roger at AIM Sports Data
Karl, Craig, and Sandra at Active Autowerke
Mark at Eibach
Erik, David, and Tom at JRZ Suspension Engineering
Jei at Blacktrax Performance
Ben and Nick at EMtron
Eddie and Jimmy at Titan-7 Wheels
Bart and Ruud at Drenth Gearboxes
Tony at VAC Motorsport
Martin and Willy at Supertech Performance
Nate C at Steeldust Machine
The team at CP-Carrillo
John and Jeff at Nitrous Outlet
Casper at Rotrex Superchargers
Aaron and team at Radium Engineering
Mikko at MRT Engineering
Ryan at Motorsport Hardware
Dominik at Flossman Motorsport
KC at APR Performance
Alli, Shareef, and Sean at SS Customs
Max at Alpinestars
HaoMing at WSGlobal
Jay and Matt at Ignite
Nick at Cahill Films
Ian at Mini Camera Media
Jessi, Rob, and Charles at SafeCraft Racing
Nick B for safely bringing the car and everything we needed to/from the mountain and for being a valued crew member all week long
Min for being willing to jump in and help as needed with anything and everything
Robb, Codie, and Clint for your continued mentorship and guidance at the mountain
Alex, Dan, Randy, Josh, Melissa, Cecilia, and the entire team of volunteers, stewards, officials, medical, and safety crews at PPIHC— you guys are such a world class organization
Gregg, Phil, Ann, Bryan, Derek, and the entire team at Winslow BMW of Colorado Springs for making us feel so at home and a part of the family when we were thousands of miles away
Angela and everyone at the Rocky Mountain Chapter of the BMW CCA
Mark, Travis, Jason, and everyone at BMW CCA National
Raphael for being embedded with our team through everything above (thanks for washing the dishes so many times too)
So many friends for sharing pics from cameras and cell phones to help make this entire blog post possible =)
This trophy is for all of you… <3
Once again, people have already begun to ask me (as early as Sunday right after my run) about what my plans are for next year… After 3 years of putting everything I have into this effort and fighting against factory teams like Ford, I’m feeling pretty spent. I also feel like I have less to prove now, despite not recording a 9:58 (my not-so-secret stretch goal) or better. I know I’m capable of that time, and I know with a few minor improvements the car is capable too.
If/when the right support from partners & sponsors is there, I’m certainly open to a conversation about returning to America’s Mountain. Pikes Peak is such a special place. So for now this isn’t good bye, but a see you later…