COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Four-time King of the Mountain, Robin Shute, was back on Pikes Peak in June in a build that was anything but typical of the cars he’d raced in previous years.
For the 103rd Running of The Broadmoor Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, presented by Gran Turismo, Shute arrived on the mountain in a Dusold Designs and Sendy Club collaboration — a 1967 Chevrolet Camaro.
Shute, representing the UK, but currently making his home in Arizona, strapped in behind the wheel of this nearly 3,000 pound monster, ready to put it to the test on America’s Mountain.
Asked how this year’s entry came about, Shute explained, “Over a couple of cold cervezas in a Mexican restaurant a couple of miles away from Circuit of the Americas after Super Lap Battle. We all decided it would be an excellent idea!
“The team this year is a little different. It’s a combination of my team, Sendy Club, and then Mike Dusold and his team who created this Camaro.”
Although the car was originally built in 1967, Dusold Designs has had it for the past 10 years and made it a race car.
Shute explained, “Mike has slowly turned it into this beast of a race car. It’s tube frame underneath. It’s got all these carbon fiber body panels on the outside. The only thing that’s now original Camaro is the chassis plate that he has riveted to the frame. So, it looks pretty close to a Camaro with a lot of crazy aero on it, but underneath it’s all race car. It’s all business.”
Shute continued, “We started in December to really take the car’s performance to the next level. When I stepped in with Mike, we changed the concept of the car a little bit. We were focusing on fundamentals. We wanted to get the chassis set up right, again, fundamentals.
“What’s fantastic about this car is the drivetrain and the performance engine. It was all there, ready to go.
“It’s a nice 1,500 horsepower, turbo charged, machine, and all that horsepower and all those wings were helpful and terrifying in equal measure.”
Shute’s success is deeply rooted in his engineering prowess, combining driving skill with an innovative approach to car development. All four wins have come in the Unlimited division in his 2018 Wolf TSC with his finish times proving his leading-edge designs.
But, his passion for motorsports and engineering originated with his father, also an engineer, who had his own career in hill climb racing in the UK.
Shute’s father was a key developer of the Lotus Elise, and Shute found himself following in those footsteps when he moved to the U.S. to work as an engineer for Tesla.
In his first attempt at the 14,115′ summit of America’s Mountain in 2017, Shute piloted a 2016 Faraday Future FF91 EV, finishing the race in 11:25.082 in the Exhibition division. That was all it took for him to catch Pikes Peak fever, and make it his mission to return.
And he return he did, in a big way. Shute earned the prestigious King of the Mountain title four times in five years: in 2019, 2021, 2022, and 2023. Of his four wins, one was run over a weather-shortened course, another, during the 100th Running in 2022, was contested in heavy fog. Still, his time that year was just over 10 minutes, 10:09.525. He clocked a sub-10-minute run in 2019, and a jaw dropping sub-9 in 2023 — 08:40.080.
With a mountain of experience, Shute offered his perspective on the three sections of the course. “The bottom section, I think, is more about bravery, but it’s less of a technical situation. I enjoy the midsection, and that’s probably the most intense. You have to hit all your marks.
“Then, the top is just terrifying because the world changes up there. The air is so thin, and the blowing wind is so cold. It looks like nothing else, like no other racetracks in the world. It has a lot of fast, blind, off camber turns and then just goes into these crazy bumps. It feels like you’ve done a seven-minute race and then for the last minute you’ve got to have a fight with the mountain. It’s beating you up. It’s punishing you, and it hurts. Honestly, it hurts.”
“Aerodynamics up here is key. The air is very thin, but the grip is very low, so we want a lot of downforce on the car. That’s hard to do when there’s not much air around.”
Sharing lessons learned, and how he has achieved four wins in the span of his seven year career on Pikes Peak, Shute explains, “There are all these little methods, computer simulations, things like that. But, for me, a lot of it is just intuition. That’s the thing I lean on most now.”
“We laugh and joke that with all these modern tools, it ultimately comes down to my intuition, knowing what will and won’t work on the mountain. I think that just comes from experience and I’m so lucky I have that now.”
“I think the biggest thing I’ve learned about myself is it’s great to take on a big challenge where you might fail. And that’s okay. You should be bold. You’ve got to be brave and you’ve got to commit yourself to it. And that’s the most rewarding thing you can do — something with no guaranteed outcome.”
Shute was certainly up to the challenge in 2025, finishing fifth in the Unlimited division, and 9th overall.
Shute has set his sights on the overall record, currently 07:57.148. His new build, the SendyCar, has a world of engineering behind it. He shared, “I’ve been working on this for three years, essentially creating the ultimate race car for the mountain.”
