Elle Cayabyab Gitlin

Tajima-san’s car, the 2016 Tajima Rimac E-Runner Concept_One.

17 more images in gallery

.related-stories { display: none !important; }

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 8:30 am—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 cars from other classes. Acura is here with three NSXs. 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, 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.