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Rennie Scaysbrook Pikes Peak Motorcycle Lap Record – Cycle News

Pikes Peak is an incredible place. It’s also foreboding and surrounded by myth, and it’s so different from what all the video games and magazine articles would have you believe. It’s a smaller event than you’d imagine, and it’s also one that I have a really complicated relationship with.

See, I was at Pikes Peak in 2019 when Rennie set his unbelievable time up the mountain on a mostly stock Aprilia Tuono V4, but I was there with Ducati. If you follow Pikes Peak, you know that Ducati’s star rider, one of the most experienced guys on two wheels there, Carlin Dunne, was on track to beat Rennie’s time before he crashed fatally near the top of the mountain.

The excitement in the pits as the Ducati team and I stood around the timing board and watched the sector times was palpable. Carlin was on the Streetfighter V4 and was absolutely storming up the hill. Because there’s no video coverage at the paddock, all you have to watch is those sector times, so there’s no way of knowing what happened when the expected time for a section of the track passes with no updates. Eventually, we found out that Carlin had gone off the side of the mountain.

Rennie’s record is an unbelievable achievement, and I still love watching this video from time to time because it represents what is likely to be the fastest official time anyone will ever set at Pikes Peak on two wheels, but that’s because it’s probably the last time they’ll ever allow bikes at the event.