Unplugged Performance’s Tesla Model 3 won’t complete qualifying and is probably out for Sunday.
Update 8/28 – Unplugged Performance bought a new Tesla Model 3 and is attempting a repair to make it to race day, Sunday!
Qualifying is underway at the annual Pikes Peak International Hill Climb and that means drivers are pulling out all the stops, pushing their cars to the absolute limit to gain a favorable start position. Even though it’s one car at a time, the course is still infamously challenging and drivers are not immune to crashes.
According to reports on Twitter streaming in earlier today (Aug. 26, 2020) it looks like the Unplugged Performance Tesla Model 3 is already out of contention for any records up the Colorado peak. Hot shoe Randy Pobst ran into some trouble earlier this morning, spun out, and crashed the Unplugged Performance Tesla Model 3 beyond repair for Sunday.
Check out a handful of photos and videos showing the extent of the damage.
According to @Sofiaan,
So Randy said he hit a bump and just started spinning around, he was trying to catch it but it was too far-gone. It happens to the best professionals.
The suspension got pulled out, it’s pretty much touching the ground right now.
The driver’s OK, 100 percent. It looks like he’s already carrying parts. Super glad he’s OK.
As evidenced by the photos and videos, Pobst is up and about, moving around like nothing happened, so everyone’s glad he’s OK.
The car is a different story. With bespoke suspension, not shade-tree mechanic friendly body panels, and one-off modifications, this Tesla Model 3 will need serious work.
Those who’ve seen the damage have already counted out this Tesla, but Sunday’s several days away and who knows what Unplugged Performance will come up with before race day.
From UP’s upload showcasing their qualifying yesterday, it looks like their Model 3 was ticking off some quick segments. According to their video description,
The plan for the first run was to lift off on the straights to conserve battery ahead of the second run. That plan immediately changed when Randy realized that the suspension and the car was already almost perfectly dialed in. He decided that he was not going to lift off and he’d go for it! It was quite a surprise to see his times posted because we didn’t expect him to run it hard right out of the gate!
In our first session we ran 4:15 and finished first place in our exhibition class with our friends Remo Weber and driver Joshua Allan running second place with a 4:38 in their heavily modified widebody Model 3. Blake Fuller was the 3rd Tesla Model 3 and he ran a bit slower than Joshua in that session. We were shocked with the 4:15 time since we were ballparking a 4:30 target time.
Randy came back in the pits extremely happy. He had us add a bit more compression and rebound tuning on the suspension and was right off to run again. On our second session Randy again ran flat out and posted an insane 4:12 and that time held for the rest of the day.
It’s disappointing to know the car was about perfect before this morning’s accident.
In Pobst’s Instagram post he concludes by saying,
“Repairs? Maybe, but not looking good, she’s pretty beat up. Racing. The highs are high (yesterday), and the lows are low (today).“
UP’s tear, as of late, breaking EV track records from Buttonwillow to Laguna Seca all led up to this weekend, a showcase of what their parts can do when properly dialed in and set for maximum attack.
Fingers crossed that the rest of the week goes OK for ya’ll up there and your efforts won’t be for naught.
