"Monster" Tajima wins Pikes Peak this year - in the EV category -

After last year's decpetion with motor technical issues, Tajima made it to the top this time and first of all EVs

EV results in PPIHC 2013

No.	Driver	Vehicle	Time
1	Nobuhiro Tajima	E-RUNNER	09:46.530
2	Carlin Dunne	Lightning Motorcycles	10:00.694
3	Hiroshi Masuoka	Mitsubishi MiEV Evolution II	10:21.866
4	Greg Tracy	Mitsubishi MiEV Evolution II	10:23.649
5	Rod Millen	TMG EV P002	10:24.301
6	Jeff Clark	Zero FX	12:00.978
7	Jeremiah Johnson	Zero Motorcycles	12:05.612
8	Troy Siahaan	Zero FX	12:24.083
9	Ted Richard	Amarok P1A	12:53.612
10	Nathan Barker	Zero Motorcycles	13:14.262
11	Brandon Miller	Zero Motorcycles	13:16.476
12	Roy Richards	Honda Fit EV	17:30.614
DNF	Ikuo Hanawa	Yokohama HER-02	-
DNF	Janis Horeliks	eO PP01	-

The last two Japanese EVs crashed, luckily with no injuries

"Monster" Tajima's 2013 Pikes Peak Practice Run

"Monster" Nobuhiro Tajima training for Pikes Peak 2013

Last year's Pikes Peak

Training in Japan

Nobuhiro 'Monster' Tajima Meets Model S

After achieving a record nine career wins at the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, renowned racer Nobuhiro 'Monster' Tajima gets behind the wheel of Model S for a test drive through the hills of Fremont, CA. Speaking briefly of his history in motor sports and why he is such a proponent of EV technology, Monster gives his impression of Model S and his desire to see Tesla succeed.

Nobuhiro Tajima fails this year at Pikes Peak

Finishing my Pikes Peak Hill Climb series, Nobuhiro Tajima was very confidend and did great practice runs

But, after a few turns, white smoke started to come out of the car and the driver had to resign and stop the race


No need to say that he must have been very very disappointed, being last year's winner


What went wrong ??!

The team quickly packed up and left the race; they will of course have to find the cause of such a problem


Jack Rickard from EVTV, thinks it could come from the permanent magnet motors used in the car: The extra strong magnets used in these are made of Neodymium and are loosing their power with heat, and it is possible that after several fine practice runs, they lost their magnet power ...

I am sure they will solve this problem and will be back next year !