Ultra4 Went to Pikes Peak and Came Home With a Record
Four rock crawlers left the desert behind for a paved mountain with no guardrails, and Loren Healy's supercharged Bronco blew the doors off a 15-year-old benchmark.
Key takeaways
- Four Ultra4 rigs entered the Exhibition class on June 21 at the 104th running of the Pikes Peak Hill Climb, the series' first sanctioned trip up that mountain since 2011.
- Loren Healy's supercharged Ford Bronco, El Bandito, stopped the clock at 12:03.795, good for 55th overall and a new mark for off-road machinery on that course.
- Every one of the four Ultra4 entries was a rookie at Pikes Peak, and three of them still cracked 13 minutes, blowing past the old benchmark set by series founder Dave Cole back in 2011.
- The crossover swapped 42s and rock crawling for 37s, a lowered chassis and blind, guardrail-free corners, and it's got the desert crowd talking about who tries it next.
Four rookie Ultra4 entries, three broken benchmarks, one mountain that doesn't forgive a bad line.
A Rock Crawler on a Racetrack With No Rocks
Ultra4 guys build trucks to eat boulders and swallow whoops at Mach speed through Johnson Valley sand, not to carve 156 turns on smooth pavement. That's what made the entry list at this year's Pikes Peak International Hill Climb worth a second look. Loren Healy, Paul Wolff, Casey Currie and Phillip McGilton all lined up in the Exhibition class on June 21, running Ultra4-spec 4400 rigs up a 12.42-mile climb that tops out at 14,115 feet.
None of the four had ever raced Pikes Peak before. That's a wild thing to sit with. These are guys who've won King of the Hammers, stacked championships and logged thousands of Baja miles, and they showed up to the Race to the Clouds as total rookies on a course built for purpose-designed hillclimb cars, not rock buggies.
El Bandito Gets a Tarmac Makeover
Healy's rig for the day was El Bandito, his Ford Bronco-bodied 4400 platform that normally rolls on 42-inch tires and carries a full desert-and-rocks setup. For Pikes Peak the team dropped down to 37-inch Nitto Terra Grappler G3s for grip and response, chopped the ride height by roughly six inches and pulled about 200 pounds off the truck, all in the name of shaving lap time on pavement instead of soaking up g-outs.
It's the kind of build compromise that only makes sense once, and Healy said as much afterward, admitting the team spent weeks testing and relearning a car they thought they already understood. Cooling was the other headache. Thin mountain air doesn't move heat the way desert air does at sea level, and keeping a supercharged engine happy for twelve straight minutes of climbing took real engineering, not just bolting on smaller tires.
The Clock Doesn't Care How Green You Are
Healy crossed the line in 12:03.795, landing 55th overall against a field stacked with dedicated hillclimb specialists. Wolff followed at 12:35.300 for 62nd, and Currie brought his Trophy Jeep home in 12:50.100 for 63rd. McGilton, running a Campbell buggy on 37s, closed out the group at 13:17.706 for 65th.
Every one of those times beat the old Ultra4 benchmark on the mountain, a 13:05.318 set by series founder Dave Cole back in 2011, the last time the series had any real presence at Pikes Peak. Wolff and Currie both got under 13 minutes too, which means three of four rookies topped a record that had stood for fifteen years. Currie summed up the day simply after he climbed out: it was unreal, he'd learned a lot, and he'd had a lot of fun doing it.
Why the Desert Crowd Should Care
This wasn't a points race and it won't touch anybody's Ultra4 championship standing, but it's the kind of crossover that gets the whole sport a little more shine. Pikes Peak has been fully paved since 2012, and it draws a different fan base than Baja or King of the Hammers, plenty of whom had never watched a 4400 buggy do anything before this June.
Braking, tire choice, cooling and precision all work differently on a mountain with no guardrails than they do in the wide-open desert, and getting four Ultra4 trucks through it clean, with three of them setting records, says something about how far this class of machine has come. Don't be surprised if next year's entry list is bigger.
What It Took to Turn a Rock Crawler Into a Hillclimb Car
Getting an Ultra4 4400 rig ready for pavement meant rethinking almost everything the desert usually demands.
- Smaller rubber: El Bandito dropped from 42-inch tires down to 37-inch Nitto Terra Grappler G3s for grip and response on tarmac.
- A lower stance: The team chopped roughly six inches of ride height to cut body roll through the mountain's 156 corners.
- Less weight: About 200 pounds came off the truck, trimmed from a chassis normally built to survive desert punishment.
- Cooling on overdrive: Thin air above 10,000 feet makes heat management brutal, and the crew reworked the setup to keep the supercharged engine alive for the full climb.
- Zero local knowledge: All four drivers were Pikes Peak rookies, learning 156 blind corners with no guardrails on the fly.
- A record on the line without even trying: Nobody entered chasing Dave Cole's 2011 mark, but three of the four beat it anyway.
Frequently Asked Questions
What class did the Ultra4 trucks race at Pikes Peak?
They ran in the Exhibition category on June 21, part of the 104th edition of the Pikes Peak Hill Climb, a separate bracket from the main hillclimb classes.
Who had the fastest time among the Ultra4 entries?
Loren Healy, driving his Ford Bronco-bodied rig El Bandito, posted 12:03.795, good for 55th overall against the full Pikes Peak field.
When was the last time Ultra4 raced at Pikes Peak?
2011, when series founder Dave Cole finished third in the Open division at 13:05.318. That stood as the class benchmark until this June.
Does this count toward the Ultra4 championship standings?
No. It was a standalone crossover event, run as an exhibition rather than a points-paying round of any Ultra4 series.