The bitter cold was the first thing that hits you once you step out of the car at 14,000 feet at 4am. You think you came prepared with all those layers of clothes; thermals, long johns, sweaters, and snow jackets. But once you stand out in the open for a few minutes breathing in only 61% of the oxygen that you're used to, the cold seeps through all those layers and gives you chills to the bone. The dry wind drinks all of your precious bodily fluids to the point where you're a crusty, dry, oxygen starved shadow of your former self.

But the second you hear the trumpet of a 3.8L, mountain flattening, V6, you remember why you woke up at such an ungodly hour: you're standing and witnessing the proceedings of the second oldest motorsport event in America: the Pike's Peak International Hill Climb.

All the grumbling, stomping of feet and whatever other I-AM-NOT-FUNCTIONING-AT-ALL protests are instantly forgotten when you realize that you're at 13,000 feet and about to witness the sun peak over the horizon. There aren't enough adjectives to describe such a sight.

The morning of the second day of practice, the top section of the track was delayed because of poor visibility from passing clouds and gale-force winds. But those things, plus the bitter cold, were trivial when the land of Mordor was laid out in front of your eyes….

Monster Tajima was looking very strong and confident on the course's upper section. I wish I can tell you the times of certain cars, but sadly, the results of for the classes running on the top section on the second day of practice have not been released yet.

The dirt is the natural habitat of the Subaru. Though, that morning would be the last drift this car would do at Pike's Peak…

…because at the entrance of the next turn, the driver made a mistake and caused the GC8 to flip. The mountain lives up to its name as being unforgivable and dangerous.

During the first day of practice, there was one NOS Energy Drink car. On the second day, I did a double-take when I saw a second orange and blue liveried Evo crawl up the mountain side. This particular Evo was piloted by none other than rally star, Andrew Comrie-Picard!

After day 1's practice session, which took place below 11,000 feet, the cars climbing up on the top section were all struggling for power with the major loss in oxygen. Everyone looked slow comingup –even the faster cars. 

Four times Pike's Peak champion, Jeff Zwart, with his Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car, is looking to take the Time Attack class come Sunday.

I was surprised to see this particular E30 compete at Pikes Peak. This E30 took the internet by storm a few months ago when the owner and driver, Bill Caswell lost his job and bought a $500 BMW. He then entered the E30 in the WRC Mexico stage and went ahead to beat down professional WRC teams and drivers. You can get the whole break down of this infamous internet gear-head story here

Definitely excited to see how he'll do on Sunday.

The practice session on day 1 was done on tarmac, seeing cars drift was somewhat of a rare sight to see. Not in the top section's mostly gravel roads, though! Watching driver after driver throw their respective cars into the corners and hold a drift in the gravel was definitely a sight to see.

The way these practice sessions work is that the cars run up the mountain to the end of the section and when all the cars have driven up, they're all send back down to the starting line. They do this as many times as they can in the four hour time from of 5am to 9am.

This is the view on the summit –14,110 feet.

The oxygen starved, Will Roegge, found the perfect place to catch his breath.

The whole event can be summed up into one word: awe. There's not one moment, at any time, where you're not in awe of everything: the cars, the drivers, the dramatic storylines, the camaraderie of spectators and media personel, and, of course, the backdrop that the whole event takes place: a bald mountain that sits above all other mountains, Pike's Peak.

Next, we'll quickly look at the third day of practice. This time at the very bottom of the course a place where the warmth of the sun can be felt and a place where there's much more oxygen to breathe.

-Linhbergh

P.S. You can catch the Pike's Peak action unfold by tuning into the live stream on Sunday starting at 9am MST on PPHIC.com!

Speedhunters Pike's Peak 2010 Coverage