Elle Cayabyab Gitlin

Elle Cayabyab Gitlin

Elle Cayabyab Gitlin

Elle Cayabyab Gitlin

Elle Cayabyab Gitlin

Elle Cayabyab Gitlin

Elle Cayabyab Gitlin

Elle Cayabyab Gitlin

Elle Cayabyab Gitlin

Randels Media Group/Revvolution.com, Official Photographers of the PPIHC

Elle Cayabyab Gitlin

Elle Cayabyab Gitlin

Elle Cayabyab Gitlin

Elle Cayabyab Gitlin

Elle Cayabyab Gitlin

Elle Cayabyab Gitlin

Elle Cayabyab Gitlin

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.—Racing at Pikes Peak starts early, really early. At this point I'm no stranger to the fact that a day at the track means leaving the house before dawn. But here at the mountain, the road is reopened for two-way traffic at 8:30am—so 4am it is. We're here because Giti Tires and Team APEV with Monster Sport invited Cars Technica to embed with them as Nobuhiro "Monster" Tajima attempts to become "King of the Mountain" for the eighth time.

Tajima-san runs in the Electric Modified class for purpose-built machines. On Thursday morning, we got our first look at his 1.1MW (1,500hp) Tajima Rimac E-Runner Concept_One as well as some of the cars from other classes. Acura is here with three NSXes. There's an almost-stock NSX in Time Attack 2 Production, a second NSX—minus its AC and some interior trim—running in Time Attack 1 and silhouette NSX with four electric motors and torque vectoring in Electric Modified. There's even a Tesla Model S that is being campaigned by Blake Fuller.

Later in the day, the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb inducted its 2016 Hall of Fame. On the way in we were greeted by Arrow's latest Project SAM—a Corvette Z06 that Sam Schmidt will drive on Sunday after the final race up to the top and back to lead the entire field back to the start line. Between this and Frédéric Sausset at Le Mans, it's inspiring how motorsports is using technology to make itself more accessible, particularly because it's leading to real-world applications.

The fastest man all day was Romain Dumas in his Norma M20 RD Limited Spec-2016, doubly impressive since less than a week ago he won Le Mans with his Porsche teammates. Compared to the massive factory effort that was Porsche's assault on Le Mans, Pikes Peak is a personal labor of love for Dumas. We were curious to find out from the Le Mans champ how this event compared to his day job.

"You cannot compare a Le Mans car with [his Norma]; it's like night and day," he told Ars. "One is made by a factory, with over 200 engineers. This one is made at home."

Still, despite the sleep deprivation (Dumas and some of his crew flew straight in from Le Mans earlier in the week), he seemed excited about racing the mountain. "I was not expecting to be so tired," he said. "But Pikes Peak is always a big challenge."

You can find a full list of times from Thursday here. The racing at Pikes Peak takes place on Sunday. Unfortunately, there's no stream or TV broadcast to watch, but there is an Android and iOS app with timing and scoring. If you're in the area on Friday afternoon, there's also a fan fest in downtown Colorado Springs. Giti Tires will be on hand, and you can even win a trip to the Rose Bowl by taking your photo with a cutout of Tajima-san.