The race car suffered unrepairable engine damage in practice, so it was unable to qualify and will miss the 100th running of the hill climb.
Professional tire burner and race car driver Ken Block announced Thursday morning that mechanical woes will keep him and his Hoonipigasus Porsche from qualifying and competing in the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb this weekend.
(1/3) BAD NEWS: BLOWN MOTOR, WE TRIED! The Hoonipigasus dropped a valve, causing a major engine failure, and despite the joint BBI x HRD team exhausting our resources trying to repair it (we even flew in parts and Porsche’s top motorsport tech from California!)… pic.twitter.com/RobhT6nh7f
— Ken Block (@kblock43) June 23, 2022
Block said on Twitter Thursday morning that a valve issue created major problems in his 911 race car’s 1400-horsepower 4.0-liter flat-six. Those have proven unrepairable, even after flying in parts and assistance from Porsche, so he and his team, BBI Autosport, has missed their opportunity to qualify for this weekend’s race. That, in turn, means Block and the Hoonipigasus will not be able to participate in this weekend’s official timed runs up Pikes Peak.
Block has already announced plans to compete next year, but the news ends his chance to win the 100th event. Block participated in just one day of practice runs, where the car ran a relatively disappointing 12th of 20 timed cars in the top two classes in this year’s event. Pikes Peak veteran Rhys Millen led that group in another heavily modified 911, a GT3 Cup-based project being run this weekend by E-Motion. The other two classes with a shot to win the event overall, open-wheel and unlimited, were led by Codie Vahsholtz’s Ford-powered special and 2021 winner Robin Shute’s Wolf, respectively.
Keyword: Ken Block Pulls Out of Pikes Peak Hill Climb Due to Hoonipigasus Engine Issues