Sebastien Loeb smashes Pikes Peak record

Driving a specially-built and prepared 875hp four-wheel-drive Peugeot 208 T16 in the Unlimited class, Loeb smashed last year's record of 9m46.164s to record a stunning 8m13.878s time - more than a minute and a half better than the old mark.

With the course fully paved ahead of last year's event, times dropped across the board again this year, with the top three finishers all going under last year's record, but Loeb's attack on the 20-kilomtere, 156-corner mountain was simply staggering. The Frenchman's average speed over the 8m13s run was 145kph.

"For me, this was the race of the year," said Loeb at the 4300 metre finish point. "At the beginning of my run there was a bit of pressure for sure because I knew there was so much work and investment from Peugeot and all the partners. Now, after all the practice, it was just down to me and I had to perform."

Bad weather, a common feature of Pikes Peak, threatened to slow Loeb's run on the morning of June 30. "When I was on the start line waiting to go, I could actually see the clouds closing in at the top of the mountain," said Loeb. "I remember thinking that if we didn't get going soon, it would be really difficult."

Prior to this year's Race to the Sky, Loeb had some seat time in the 208 T16 during early testing at Mont Ventoux in France. Using data from Loeb's practice runs at Pikes Peak, Peugeot Sport calculated that a time of 8m15s was possible. The nine-time world rally champion managed to shave two seconds off that.

"I'm really happy as that was a very good run in the end. I really didn't expect anything better than 8m15s, so to do 8m13s was fantastic," said Loeb. "Before the start I didn't really know if I should push absolutely to the maximum or if I should just push to a comfortable pace, in order to make sure of the victory. In the end, I decided to push to the limit."

Loeb's Pikes Peak result comes nearly one year to the day after he first conquered America by winning the rally cross finale of the X-Games on July 1, 2012.

The scenes of success at Peugeot were reminiscent of when former world rally champion Ari Vatanen broke the Pikes Peak record for the French manufacturer in 1988, with the '405 T16 Pikes Peak'. Back then the benchmark was 10m47.220s on gravel roads - a sign of just how rapidly technology has evolved.

Finishing second on this year's 91st 'Race to the Sky' was last year's record-holder Rhys Millen in his all-new Hyundai RMR PM580-T. The New Zealander finished 49 seconds behind Loeb with a time of 9m02.192s, but still beat his own time from 2012 by more than half a minute - and he says that he's determined to break the nine-minute barrier next year.

"I think it's fair to say that we were racing for second place today," said Millen. "Myself and Romain Dumas had been really close throughout practice, but then I heard that his engine had unfortunately broken at the start. I knew I wasn't going to beat Sebastien's time, so I just decided to take no risks. You have to hand it to Loeb and Peugeot Sport: they were unbeatable. That time they set was simply incredible. When will it be beaten? It might never be…"

Images: courtesy of Red Bull Media