El Capitan

This is what the Spanish settlers called this famous mountain in the Colorado Rockies. Standing just over 14,000 feet, it’s one of the tallest mountains in the US, as well as being a national landmark. And since the early 1900’s, it’s been home to one of the most heart pumping races in all of motorsport.

The Race to the Clouds as it’s come to be known, used to be run on a course that was paved in some parts, and unpaved gravel in others. The cojones it takes to run here are massive; big heavy brass ones. In 2011, the road was fully paved. However that doesn’t make it all that “safe”. The course measures just over 14 miles long, and rises 4700 feet during its 156 turns. Between the hairy turns, the normal mechanical attricion rate, combined with the effects the altitude has on anything with a fuel burning engine, it’s always a blast to watch

This year we may see some new course records broken – to tune into the live feed, Racecar Engineering magazine has the event live streaming on their site.

Here’s the live feed link: http://www.racecar-engineering.com/articles/features/test-page/

While you’re at it, if you’ve never seen the famous short film Climb Dance, it’s most certainly worth a watch.