It was a tossup between Monster Tajima and Rhys Millen to smash the 10 minute barrier at Pikes Peak this year and a monstrous effort from Tajima was all it took to shatter the mark and set a new record up the hill.
Millen wasn’t too far behind as well and as you can see from the video, was clearly hampered by brake problems going up. It was quite a pity too as up to the point where his brake started to act up, the junior Millen was just two seconds off the pace of Tajima, putting him in a prime position to challenge the Japanese as his Hyundai RMR P580 was built for asphalt which now covers most of the route up to the top.
Nonetheless, we can only imagine how gutted he must be after clocking in at 10:09.242, around 20 seconds off the pace of Tajima. Considering how long the route is, that time difference isn’t much and sans the brake gremlins, we’re pretty sure he would have come close to the record time set by Tajima. Throw into the mix the fact that Millen was also on a replacement transmission, and you get a clearer idea of how much he would have been pushing to notch a time like this.
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Source: YouTube
