Champion to Return in Pikes Peak Effort with Dumas, Porsche

Photo: Porsche

Romain Dumas will tackle this year’s Pikes Peak International Hill Climb with a Porsche 911 GT2 RS Clubsport prepared by former championship-winning IMSA squad Champion Racing.

The Frenchman, a four-time winner of the event who also holds the lap record from the 2018 running in Volkswagen’s I.D. R electric prototype, will be at the wheel of the GT2-spec Porsche for the 99th running of the event, scheduled for June 27.

Dumas will compete in the Time Attack 1 division.

It will mark Florida dealership’s return to racing for the first time since the 2008 American Le Mans Series season when it operated the factory Audi R10 TDI program.

The event will also mark its first without company founder Dave Maraj, who passed away in a boating accident in 2018.

Champion, which began racing Porsches in the late 1990s, scored multiple overall wins and podiums in sports car racing competition, most notably the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, Motul Petit Le Mans and the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

In 2005, it became the first U.S. team to win the French endurance classic in 38 years.

The team shuttered operations following the end of Audi’s factory ALMS program in 2008, with the Pikes Peak program understood to be spearheaded by Champion Motorsport, the company’s tuner division.

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John