The Pikes Peak International Hill Climb starts at an elevation that already exceeds most high-altitude racing circuits, and the lower section climbs aggressively from that point. The total climb from start to the 14,115-foot (4,302 m) summit rises 4,720 feet (1,440 m) across grades averaging 7.2 percent, and the lower third of the course accounts for a significant share of that elevation gain before the road opens into the higher, more exposed reaches.
The highway contains over 156 turns across the full 12.42-mile course. The lower section concentrates many of the tighter hairpins and technical sections that run through forested hillside. Trees flanking the road in this portion historically left virtually no runoff and no barriers, making mistakes costly. The removal of gravel sections through paving — completed in stages from 2002 following a Sierra Club lawsuit over erosion damage — progressively changed the lower section's character, transforming it from a mixed-surface test into a pure-asphalt challenge better suited to road-biased machinery.
The Pikes Peak Hill Climb has been held since 1916, making it one of the oldest continuously staged motorsport events in the United States. The lower section has been part of the course from the beginning. In the event's early decades, the climb was dominated by open-wheel specials and stock cars. The Unser family — Louis Unser in particular, and later his nephew Bobby Unser — won the event repeatedly across several decades and developed deep familiarity with the lower section's rhythm in eras when the road was entirely unpaved.
European involvement began in earnest in 1984. French rally driver Michele Mouton raced an Audi Sport quattro that year, and the following year she set the overall course record of 11:25.39. The arrival of Groupe B-era rally hardware brought a new approach to the lower section, as all-wheel-drive traction transformed the gravel hairpins from treacherous tests into launching pads.
The single most dramatic improvement in outright course times came in 2013 when Sebastien Loeb, driving a purpose-built Peugeot 208 T16 Pikes Peak, set an overall time of 8:13.878 — shattering the nine-minute barrier and reducing the previous record held by Rhys Millen by nearly 44 seconds. The lower section was where Loeb's aerodynamic downforce package was most effective, with the tighter corners and lower speeds allowing the car to generate mechanical and aerodynamic grip simultaneously.
The City of Colorado Springs began paving the highway in 2002 after losing the Sierra Club lawsuit. Approximately 10 percent of the route was paved each year. The 2011 event was the last to include gravel sections, which at that point represented roughly 25 percent of the total course. The lower section, which retained gravel longest in some configurations, changed most dramatically in character with full paving. Where flattrack and motocross motorcycles had dominated the two-wheel categories on gravel, road-biased sports motorcycles took over once the surface became asphalt throughout.
The fully paved lower section enabled Carlin Dunne to become the first motorcycle competitor to break the 10-minute barrier, riding a Ducati Multistrada in 2012 with a time of 9:52.819. Motorcycle competition was ultimately discontinued after 2019 following the fatal crash of Dunne — riding a prototype Ducati Streetfighter V4 — near the summit less than a quarter-mile from the finish line.
The paved lower section contributed to the growing dominance of electric vehicles in the overall standings. Romain Dumas in the all-electric Volkswagen I.D. R set a new overall record of 7:57.148 in 2018, breaking the eight-minute barrier for the first time. On the lower section, where power delivery consistency rather than peak output matters most in the tighter corners, electric powertrains demonstrated their tractability advantage over combustion machinery.
The lower section of Pikes Peak represents the accessible but deceptive opening of one of motorsport's most storied climbs. It rewards drivers who build rhythm early, as time lost on the lower hairpins compounds through the full 12-mile ascent. Its transition from gravel to asphalt mirrors the broader evolution of the event from a local American hillclimb spectacle into an internationally contested venue for the most extreme purpose-built racing machinery in the world.