<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"  I first discovered the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb when I was a small boy. I was looking through a magazine and saw a picture of a stock car going flat out across the gravel finish line, with a man waving a checkered flag. I thought that looked fantastic! I wanted to race at Pikes Peak ever since, and in 1988 my dream came true. Since then, I&amp;#039;ve won the race seven times, and this year I had the honor of winning and becoming the first driver to break the 10-minute barrier.   That&amp;#039;s right, I drove my 910-bhp Monster Sport [Suzuki] SX4 Hill Climb Special to a record time of 9 minutes and 51.278 seconds.   It wasn&amp;#039;t easy. The last remaining section of gravel\u2014a three-mile stretch from Picnic Ground to Glen Cove\u2014was very sandy this year, making it especially slippery. Making matters worse, I lost the power steering pump and water pump with one kilometer to go. When I crossed the finish line, I was completely exhausted. The steering was unbelievably heavy, a tough workout in the thin air. I was happy just to have finished, and I didn&amp;#039;t know I had broken the record until a TV crew told me.   Needless to say, I&amp;#039;m very happy. I came to Pikes Peak this year with two goals, and I achieved them both. First, I wanted to win for the sixth consecutive time and break the 10-minute record. To be successful at Pikes Peak, there&amp;#039;s no substitute for experience and a good understanding of advanced automotive technologies.   Second, I wanted to win for Japan. Following the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear accident at Fukushima, my home country needed some cheering up. At the race, our team distributed &amp;quot;Pray for Japan&amp;quot; stickers, which several of my competitors placed on their cars. I am very grateful to them. Weeks later, I visited the Tohoku area hoping to boost the morale of those who were hardest hit, and give them some motivation. I believe that Japan can get through this tough time and come back strong again in the future.   Although some people have hinted that I might retire, that&amp;#039;s not true\u2014I will be back to race at Pikes Peak in 2012. Pikes Peak is my life. It&amp;#039;s my favorite place. It is an amazing race, both for drivers and for automobiles. It&amp;#039;s challenging and one of the most famous motor races in the world. And because it&amp;#039;s a timed event, with one car released at a time, I have only two rivals: myself and nature (which is always unpredictable in the Rockies).   Next year, when the 12.42-mile course is expected to be fully paved, it will be a different type of challenge, but it was that mix of tarmac and gravel that kept me coming back for so long. Nevertheless, after I take my record-setting SX4 to the SEMA show this fall and hopefully another hillclimb in 2011, I will be back at Pikes Peak with a new car in 2012.   It&amp;#039;s too early to tell you what type it will be, but if the course is indeed all tarmac, and gravel does not get flung up onto the course in the tight corners, perhaps some kind of formula car would be best. But if the road does get covered with splashes of gravel from people cutting the corners, it will be a totally different story\u2014perhaps a tarmac rally car is the answer.   My team has lots of experience in tarmac rallying, running factory WRC teams and several privateer efforts worldwide. Therefore, I relish the challenge of racing at Pikes Peak next year. In closing, I&amp;#039;d like to thank Road &amp;amp;amp; Track for this opportunity to share my story, and encourage readers to watch videos of my run at www.monster-sport.com/ppihc and see an amazing 3D documentary of my GoPro team at www.gopro.com. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.roadandtrack.com/motorsports/news/a17465/pikes-peak-is-my-life/>