The Pikes Peak International Hill Climb is unlike anything else in motorsport. One shot. 156 turns. 12.42 miles of mountain road climbing from 9,300 feet to a summit at 14,115 feet where the air is thin, the margins are razor-tight, and the mountain does not forgive mistakes. For the 104th running of the event, Loren Healy pointed El Bandito, his 1,000HP Ford Bronco, straight up America's Mountain for the first time and came down a class winner.
El Bandito and the Road to Pikes Peak
If you missed our full breakdown of El Bandito and what brought Loren to Pikes Peak this year, catch up on it here. The short version: a 1,000HP 5.2L V8 Raptor R-powered Ford Bronco built without a rulebook, piloted by a five-time Ultra4 Racing Champion competing as a rookie in the Exhibition Ultra4 USA class. Ultra4 had not seen competition at Pikes Peak since 2011, and a benchmark from that era had been sitting on the mountain waiting for someone to come after it. Loren came after it, setting a new benchmark by over a full minute.
Qualifying
Qualifying at Pikes Peak takes place on the lower section of the mountain, giving every driver a controlled window to set their time before race day. Loren posted a qualifying time of 5:10.114 to earn second in the qualifying order, sitting just a few seconds behind pole-sitter Paul Wolff. A strong starting position for a first-time competitor on an entirely new course to him.
Race Day
When race day arrived, Loren and El Bandito went to work as the third competitor to leave the line. Running a time of 12:03.795 up the full mountain, Loren took the class win in the Exhibition Ultra4 USA class, bettering the long-standing benchmark in the process and planting a flag for Ultra4 back on America's Mountain in a big way.
In Loren's own words, after the run, the emotions of the day were hard to put into words.
"I'm just so glad to be here. The culmination of all the emotions and the experience, and add in this super thin air. The RTR Vehicles Off-Road Team worked their butts off to make the changes to this truck, and I'm just super proud of everything."
Cooling capacity had been a genuine concern heading into race day, with the team putting in serious work to make sure El Bandito could handle the demands of a full mountain run. That preparation paid off when it counted most.
"I’m really just proud of how hard everybody worked, how good this Bronco worked up here."
Already Planning the Next One
A class win on his first visit to Pikes Peak, and Loren is already thinking about what it would take to go faster. His honesty about where time was being left on the mountain is exactly the mindset that has made him a five-time Ultra4 champion.
"I'm the thing holding it back from being really, really fast. I just don't have the confidence that it'll hold in the blind rises over the corners. If we come back, I have to spend some time learning the course a little bit better so I have some more confidence in the blind corners. Right now, I'll lift out of the corner, get around, see the exit, and get back into it. That's where I'm giving up all my time."
The mountain has a way of calling people back. We have a feeling this is not the last time Loren makes the climb.
Check out all 12:03.795 of Loren's run up America's mountain in El Bandito here.
What is Next for Loren
The Pikes Peak chapter is closed for 2026, but Loren is far from done. Next up is Vegas to Reno, the longest single-day point-to-point off-road race in the United States, running August 13-16, 2026. After what he just did on America's Mountain, we cannot wait to see what comes next.
