Leonard Vahsholtz’s name is part of Pikes Peak hillclimb lore. For 32 years, he was in competition, with 142 hillclimbs, 100 wins, and a record that, thanks to a rule change, may never be broken again. It’s difficult to pick out a great year from the many good ones that Vahsholtz has had, but 1993 stands out. That year, he was double-entered: in Stock Car, he was running a 1990 Ford Probe that was converted to rear-drive and in the Super Truck class, a Ford F-150 Flareside was the ride of choice and in short terms, he ran the show that year. After setting an eye-opening qualification lap in the Probe and taking the first position, he flung the Probe up the mountain to the tune of 11:47.28, besting his 1986 record, the previous best Stock Car time, by nearly thirty seconds. Either hyped on that success or seeing red mist and wanting more, he switched over to the truck and went back up the hill to the tune of 11:47.22, besting the old record by almost forty seconds. Whatever suspension trickery he performed that year worked out like a charm. And just because that wasn’t enough, that same year Vahsholtz Racing nailed a “triple-double”, with son Clint winning Pro Motorcycle riding a Wood/Rotax.
Vahsholtz raced until 2008 but is a car owner and together with Clint and grandson Codie, continue on. And as far as that one record that will never fall? Yeah, that “triple-double” is it. A rule change now only allows competitors to enter one class per event, so there is no more double-duty driving. Shame…looking at both runs, we think that it gave Leonard some kind of focus. Check out both runs and see what you think:
