After contesting the 2015 Pikes Peak International Hill Climb with “Project 156”, Victory motorcycles will be back for the 100th edition of the mountain race with not one, but two racing prototypes. Also known as “The Race to the Clouds”, Pikes Peak, in Colorado, US, is known to be a tough test of man and machine, and very unforgiving of rider error.
Victory’s new entry for this year is the Empulse RR, an electric bike based on its road-going Empulse TT. From an autoevolution report, the 2016 Empulse RR will be piloted by journalist Don Canet, who rode Project 156 in last year’s edition of the race, but failed to finish due to bike failure, and despite coming-off during the ride, but re-mounting the bike. This will be Canet’s third attempt at the hill climb.
Project 156 – which gave birth to the 2016 Victory Octane – will be in the hands of 2014 Pikes Peak Heavyweight Champion Jeremy Toye, who dipped under the magic 10-minute mark in 2014 with a time of 9’58.687 aboard a Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10R. The current record for riding a motorcycle up Pikes Peak belongs to Carlin Dunne, who took a Ducati Multistrada across the line in a time of 9’52.819.
The absolute fastest time up to the summit of Pikes Peak is held by WRC legend Sebastian Loeb, and his record time of 8’13.878 set in 2013. The 2016 edition of the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb takes place on June 26, and Victory starts testing for its competition effort this month.
GALLERY: Victory Empulse TT
GALLERY: Victory Project 156
GA::ERY: 2016 Vicotry Octane
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