Five years has to be the over/under on the remaining life of the Pikes Peak Hill Climb.

And that’s giving generous odds to the nation’s second oldest motor sports event.

“It would be absolutely horrible if they didn’t have the Hill Climb,” driver Rob Reinertson said. “I mean, you just can’t – you just can’t not have the Hill Climb.”

Actually, that’s a real possibility for a sport that began soon after the first two cars were built.

Don’t get me wrong. Motor sports are cool. The cars are cool. At some point or another most of us have wanted to take a muscle car, throw away responsibilities and see how fast those horses can take us.

If we can’t do it, often times seeing somebody do it will suffice.

The problem, at least on the Front Range, is the places people can see fast cars are dwindling. And the reason they’re dwindling is because motor sports are doing a great job at pricing out its most faithful servants – the everyday driver.

There’s plenty of enthusiasm in motor sports. Hearing the jubilant yells of a driver making the first trip up the Hill Climb’s 12.42-mile course is all one needs for proof.

Passion is there. But the pay is slight.

Seventy-seven year old Art Walsh has seen money take over the sport, sometimes in bad ways.

Walsh has waved the checkered flag at the Pikes Peak Hill Climb for 40 consecutive years. During his 27 years as a Colorado Springs letter carrier, Walsh would schedule his vacation during the Hill Climb.

“Never missed a practice,” Walsh said. “Never missed a race.”

Walsh has owned a car. He has fixed cars. He has worked at several tracks through the decades. Asked to name Front Range tracks and Walsh didn’t hesitate in listing 10 tracks and road courses.

“Today about the only active track is the one down in Pueblo,” Walsh said, referring to the quarter-mile I-25 Speedway which has 26 events scheduled between early April and late September. “There’s a lack of crowds, and it’s gotten too expensive to build the cars, too. Some of the older cars, you can find the frames and the bodies for them, but then the engine expense is terrible.”

Several Hill Climb drivers said it’s easy to pour $50,000 to $150,000 in a car. And that’s just to get the car on the track.

Money can get crazy, too, but only for a select few. Japanese driver Nobuhiro Tajima has a turbo-charged million-dollar car pushing almost 1,000 horse power.

Tajima is definitely the exception.

The rest of the drivers make the rule. Without sponsorships, the drivers are as strapped as the event.

“As I understand it, in years past, there’d be 60 cars trying to qualify just to get in one group,” driver Jess Neal said. “That’s not happening now.”

Fewer drivers can afford it.

In these cash-strapped times, drivers who want to race are finding it tough. They’re asking friends and relatives as well as anybody who will put up few dollars in sponsorship.

The event, though it draws tens of thousands of spectators, is hurting. Its lifeblood is hurting even more.

Better drop that over under to three years.

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Columnist Milo Bryant can be reached at 636-0252 or milo.bryant@gazettedev.gazette.com. Check out Milo’s blog, The Extra Milo, at milobryant.blogspot.com

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