Romain Dumas is Once Again King of the Mountain with Ford Racing, Shute’s ‘SendyCar’ Shows Promise

Ford Racing and the Ford Super Mustang Mach-E took first overall in the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb on Sunday with the help of Romain Dumas. This is the second time Ford and Dumas have combined to win together, also winning in the hill climb in 2024 with the Ford F-150 Lightning SuperTruck. Romain Dumas is King of the Mountain once again, making his way up the 156-turn mountain road in 8:18.202 in the Ford Super Mustang Mach-E Sunday afternoon. This was Dumas's sixth Pike Peak Hill Climb win, beating Robin Shute in his ‘SendyCar’ by 11.295 seconds. Dumas's time in the Ford production Mach-E is still a far cry from the record he set in the all-electric Volkswagen ID.R in 2018 at 7:57:148, as no sub-eight-minute run has been recorded on the full course since then. Last year in the Mach-E debut, Dumas finished second on the wind-shortened course to Simone Faggioli. Shute and his ‘SendyCar’ got what they needed out of their first run with a respectable second-place overall finish. Now, Shute and his team will go back and attempt to reduce the weight of the current iteration ahead of future runs. Dumas qualified first in the unlimited-production-based class and third overall. Dumas time beat that of reigning champion Faggioli in the Nova Proto NPo1 ATM Bardahl, which qualified first overall. Faggioli’s Nova Proto experienced a technical error on his way up the mountain, slowing his ascent. Faggioli is credited in third ahead of his teammate Diego Degasperi. Dan Novembre won the open wheel category with a time of 9:01.689 in the 2013 Wolf GB08S TC Special. Larry Chen Photos Dai Yoshihara during Thursday practice on the mountain in the 2023 Acura Integra Type-S. Acura completed its mission to beat its own FWD record with Formula Drift champion Dan Yoshihara tackling the mountain in 10:33.174 in the 2023 Acura Integra Type-S. The prior record, like Dumas' overall record, was set in 2018 when Nick Robinson made his ascent in 10:48.094. Yoshihara finished sixth in the Time Attack 1 category with JR Hildebrand winning the category with his time of 9:30.104 in the 2026 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1X. Hildebrand was supposed to debut in the Corvette last year, but the program wasn't ready in time for the climb, leading him to pivot to running a 1999 NASCAR stock car up the mountain. This year, the Corvette program was ready, and Hildebrand drove it to the top of TA1.