Ducati wins at 2018 Pikes Peak

Ducati still emerged victorious, though, with Carlin Dunne posting this year’s fastest overall time of 9 minutes 59.102 seconds, which was also the best heavyweight class time.

Dunne was aboard the new Ducati Multistrada ‘1260 Pikes Peak’; a larger version of the regular Multistrada 1200 with a 1262cc Testastretta DVT engine and redesigned chassis.

“The Multistrada 1260 Pikes Peak proved as amazing as we all hoped. It performed flawlessly, giving me everything I needed to get up the mountain,” Dunne said.

Second-fastest this year was Aussie motorcycling journo Rennie Scaysbrook, who posted a 9m59.754s time on a KTM 1290 Super Duke R. Coincidentally, the outright motorcycle record of 9m49.625s was also set on a Super Duke R, ridden by Chris Fillmore in 2017.

Prior to that, Ducati had held the Pikes Peak bike record for five years, with Dunne also the first rider to complete the 12.42 mile (19.98km), 156-corner high-altitude hillclimb in under 10 minutes: a feat he achieved in 2012.

Best middleweight time this year of 10m04.038s was set by Fillmore on a KTM 790 Duke, with the lightweight crown going to Tyler O’Hara with 11m04.342s on a Yamaha YZ450F.