“Monster” Tajima breaks 10 minute barrier at Pikes Peak

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Nobuhiro “Monster” Tajima has become the first person to break the fabled 10 minute barrier at Pikes Peak. The 60-year-old steered his SX4 race car to a record time of 9 minutes, 51.278 seconds to record his sixth consecutive outright win at the international hill climb.

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Tajima had to overcome serious mechanical issues on his record-breaking run, in this case a blown radiator and a sudden loss of power steering in the final part of run up the 19.9 km-long course.

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A fixture at the event since 1988, Tajima has now won the unlimited division a record 11 times, all behind the wheel of Suzuki vehicles.

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This year’s win in the turbocharged 912 hp and 890 Nm 3.0 litre V6 Monster Special Pikes Peak SX4 maintains an unbeaten run that now stretches back to 2003.

© 2011 Paul Tan's Automotive News. All Rights Reserved.

This story originally appeared on Paul Tan's Automotive News on Wed, 29 Jun 11 08:04:54 +0000.

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