Accidents while driving up Pikes Peak are bound to be both spectacular and scary. If there can be any doubt about it, it is erased by these images of a Tesla Model 3 Performance driven by Randy Pobst who caught the car in the middle of the fiasco. Well, fortunately, the professional driver is ok, but it looks like the car will not have a chance to compete in the official run of the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb on Sunday.
According to a tweet from Unplugged Performance – an aftermarket outfitter of Tesla parts and accessories sponsoring the entry – the crash happened during a first practice session on the top of the mountain. They say Pobst way driving “too hot” and hit a dip, causing the car to go into the air. Unfortunately, it can be physics cruel with all its strict rules about what-should-come-down-and-in-body-in-motion-tendency-to-stay-in-motion, and so on. Check out the photos in the gallery just below. If you need a tissue, it’s ok. We understand it.
8 Photos
it’s true unfortunately, because everything up to this point went well for the team. Pobst had been very pleased with the Model 3 in previous sessions over the lower part of the mountain. He had completed that in the first place, holding an incredible 26 seconds between himself and the closest competitor. He went so far as to say that the battery-powered beast was the best of the six cars he had ever driven in the event of his career, that is truly something.
Do not believe us? Listen to him say it himself on video in the embedded tweet below. But before you see that, first check out the shots in the car of the first great run.
Ok, now that you’ve taken that, check out the clip in this embedded tweet. Be sure to watch to the end to catch some of the unwritten excitement of hard racing at a challenging course.
Unfortunately, the crash is not the first to be experienced this year by a Tesla Model 3 at Pikes Peak. The event kicked off with an unholy trio of the mid-sized electric sedan. That number had already been reduced by one when rookie Josh Allen crashed his entrance hard enough to let it out. You can see it being dragged away without ceremony in the embedded tweet below.
The remaining candidate is run by Blake Fuller. He famously set a record in a Tesla Model S in 2016. In fact, it is that record that he is trying to beat this year. If you want a little insight into that car, we saw in early June a round of 2 kilometers of our test track. You can also see it by technical inspection at the mountain in the embedded tweet below.
Fingers crossed this latest Tesla Model 3 entry, make it to Sunday afternoon and perform as it should. Expect the record to fall as it falls.
