Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

Champion Racing returns to competition with Romain Dumas at Pikes Peak Hill Climb

Champion Racing Romain Dumas

Le Mans, FRANCE: Danish Tom Kristensen leads the last lap with his Audi-Champion R8 number 3, during the 73rd edition of Le Mans 24 Hours car race followed by Pescorolo-Judd numero 16 driven by Eric Comas, 19 June 2005. Kristensen won a record seventh Le Mans 24-Hour and was partnered by Finnish ex-Grand Prix driver JJ Lehto and Germany’s Marco Werner. AFP PHOTO ALAIN JOCARD (Photo credit should read ALAIN JOCARD/AFP via Getty Images)

AFP via Getty Images

Champion Racing, a juggernaut sports car team that left racing in 2008 after winning three consecutive American Le Mans Series championships, is returning to racing in a new locale.

The team announced in a release Friday morning that it will compete in the 99th running of the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb in June with Champion Racing driver Romain Dumas, who currently holds the current fast time on the 12.42-mile, 14,115-foot course.

Dumas, a 26-time winner in the ALMS who also raced for Team Penske, was a factory driver for Porsche and has multiple victories in the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the 24 Hours Nurburgring and a victory in the Twelve Hours of Sebring.

Dumas will be driving a new Porsche 911 GT2 RS Clubsport in the Time Attack 1 Division that will be prepared by a joint effort between the Champion Porsche/Champion Motorsport organizations.

Champion Racing’s crowning achievement was an overall victory with an Audi R8 in the 2005 24 Hours of Le Mans. It was the first overall victory for an American team since Carroll Shelby in 1967.

The team, which also fielded Porsches, scored victories in the Twelve Hours of Sebring and Petit Le Mans and a class podium in the Rolex 24 at Daytona.

ROLEX 24 WRAPUP: Final thoughts from Daytona