My first trip up Pikes Peak was with Rhys Millen in a Ford Focus rental car. We were scouting locations and camera positions for the 2009 Pikes Peak International Hill Climb short film I was creating to document his run. That film would later be called Climb Attack, a play on Hill Climb and Time Attack – the class Rhys was competing in that year.
For 2010, I shot my second Pikes Peak film with driver/director/writer/photographer – Jeff Zwart. With the support of Porsche Motorsport North America, Jeff had setup a Porsche GT3 Cup car to campaign at this year’s race to the clouds. I’m familiar with the GT3 Cup, having shot rounds of ALMS stateside and FIA GT-3 abroad. The 997 GT3 is a serious circuit machine, but how would it fare on the varied surfaces and weather conditions of a 14,000ft mountain?
This year’s strategy would be a less slip, more grip prerogative. How would the tail happy-mid engine 997 do on gravel? A bit out of place?
Pikes Peak 2010 seems to be a transitional year, more of the mountain is paved and the new batch of machines reflect this evolution.
Fortunately, DC Chavez was available to come on as a second camera operator and we split up the mountain based on my shot list.
On average, we were each operating 3 to 4 cameras at once. Coverage is key, especially with a practice and run schedule like Pikes Peak. 3 days of practice and 1 run on Race Day.
For this particular setup, I hiked out to a out cropping of boulders and shot between them.
These are all screen grabs from the final edit.
I’m excited to share the finished piece tomorrow – July 26, 2010.
by Will
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