Dan Novembre

17-time competitor at the famed International Pikes Peak Hill Climb

2X Pikes Peak 9-minute Club Member

Pikes Peak Fastest American Qualifier ever

2025 Pikes Peak Open Wheel Champion

2017 Mt. Washington Open Champion and 2WD Record Breaker

2015, 2021, 2022 Clifton Hill Climb Champion

2014 CHCA Open Wheel Champion

2012 CHCA Super Sprint Champion

PPIHC 2025 In-Car Video

This is in-car footage and driver interview from the 2025 Pikes Peak Hill Climb. Even though the course was cut short due to extreme winds above tree line, much success was had with Dan's first class win on Pikes Peak. The pace in the car would be very close to a sub 9 min run! Enjoy!

A race enthusiest all his life, Dan Novembre has been chasing his dreams ever since his older brother first introduced him to the classic racing simulator games "Indycar Racing" and F1's "World Circuit." Little did he know that the countless hours of gaming was training his reflexes to become a competitor in one of the most iconic races of our time, the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb.

Shortly after moving the Colorado Springs in 1993, Dan attended his first PPIHC in person and fell in love from the beginning. No other event allows the local grassroots racer to compete on the same playing field as the multi-million dollar factory efforts. It's this discovery that enabled Dan to realize his dream of becoming a Race Car driver.

Racing Career

The Novembre Racing team was first formed in 2008 from a chance finding of a craigslist ad featuring a Wells Coyote, the classic Pikes Peak Open Wheel car that has dominated its class since the 1980's. With no real racing experience, it was a full dive in the deep end of the swimming pool. Fortunate to be accepted into the Pikes Peak Hill Climb, a dream in the making for years and years could come true yet the challenge had just begun!

Despite many mechanical issues throughout the race week in the 2009 Pikes Peak race that almost prevented him from qualifying, Dan was able to finish at the summit with a time of 14:08.589 in 6th place in the Open Wheel Class. It was a whirlwind of a start and the dream of racing was just beginning. See the video montage here: 2009 Dan Novembre Pikes Peak Hill Climb

Dan spent the next couple of years honing his skills in both the Pikes Peak Hill Climb and the Colorado Hill Climb Association (CHCA) racing series. It was in 2011 that he won his first race at the Temple Canyon Hill Climb in Canon City, Colorado. That year he bagged another win and placed third overall in the Super Sprint Championship. At Pikes Peak, he was the fastest V6 Open Wheel equivalent to the Super Sprint class in CHCA.

The early years were pretty formative for Dan as there was a steep learning curve to be competitive and also getting to race with the heroes he had followed for years. The Hill climb family is special, very accepting, and super helpful in overcoming any problem encountered. Life-long friends have been made!

By 2012, he had continued success in CHCA dirt hill climb racing with some more wins and a Super Sprint Championship. Pikes Peak had completed its transformation and was now fully paved. This really changed the types of cars that were coming out and the level of competition increased. It was at this time, he felt a need to step up and put a bit more power into his Wells Coyote racer.

For 2013, Dan teamed up with MAC Autosport and Garrett Turbos to develop a twin turbo charged Nissan VQ35DE drivetrain to include a Mendeola S5 Sequential Gearbox that would be packaged in his existing car. The setup showed real promise and Dan's times were faster than ever but two back to back years of poor weather on Race day failed to show the true potential until finally getting a sunny race day putting down a time of 10:25.032, good for 4th place in class and 35th overall. With that showing, Dan set his sights on a new target of going under 10 minutes, a huge milestone that every competitor has dreamed about. That is the same time that his heros in Rod Millen and Nobuhiro Tajima were gunning for in the late 1990s.

Meanwhile, Dan had better success in other events that he was competing in. Dan continued his CHCA success with another Championship run, this time in the more competitive Open Wheel class that included V8 big block motors with monster horsepower. Four wins and two Championships in the first five years of Hill Climb dirt racing isn't a bad way to start a career.

Then in 2015, Dan headed to Arizona for the Clifton Hill Climb, an asphalt race resurrected from the 1970s in a small mining town southeast of Phoenix. Dan brought his Pikes Peak machine down and came away with a surprise class win, overall King of the Mountain win, and a new course record. Read all about the adventure in his blog post here: CLIFTON HILL CLIMB BLOG POST

Dan's primary goal and focus was still very much on Pikes Peak. With the level of competition and the road racing cars that were coming out to race, it was apparent that in order to be more competitive, a faster car would be needed. With the help of his friends, Dan sought out to build up an asphalt car using the same drivetrain that he had upgraded already and had plenty of power. Through the off-season, the Novembre Special was born. Sleek, low to the ground, and made for slick tires, the car had lots of power and big wings to stick to the ground.

For the 2016 season, Dan stepped away from CHCA to focus on developing the new car with only pavement events. There were immediate improvement seen at Pikes Peak with a 10:10.701, 2nd place in class and 12th overall. The car had lots of potential and there were still a lot of bugs and setup development to work through.

It was in 2017 that Dan and some racing buddies ventured out to New Hampshire for the Climb to the Clouds race up Mt. Washington. They run this race every few years and has a section of dirt in the middle of the 7 mile course. A tough decision to stay on slick tires despite the dirt section proved to be the right call as Dan won his class, was 2nd Overall next to the factory effort of Subaru and Travis Pastrana, and he broke the Rear Wheel Drive course record! Read all about the race in his blog post here: MT WASHINGTON BLOG POST

The next few years Dan had showings at Pikes Peak that were inching closer and closer to the 10 minute barrier with a 10:05 and 10:07 runs. The plateau in times was challenging showing how hard this race really is and how details need to line up just right to have a good run. It wasn't until 2020, the COVID year with no spectators allowed on race day, that Dan was able to break through the barrier and run a sub 10 time of 9:50.329, good for 4th place in class and 7th Overall! He was finally in the 9 minute club and a dream come true. Read all about the race in his blog post here: 2020 PIKES PEAK RACE REPORT - SUB10!

2021 saw a rain shortened course to Devils Playground without a chance to improve upon his fastest time in the Open Wheel car. That was the last time he ran that car as he had his sights on an even faster car, a Wolf GB08. The 2021 off season was a tough one for the whole team. Their beloved Crew Chief, Terry Cooper, passed away suddenly leaving a big hole in the racing community. Terry and Dan had always talked about the next generation car and what a dream plan would be to take the team to go even faster on Pikes Peak. This motivated Dan even more to see this vision out and jump to the next step in evolution for Novembre Racing.

Dan had been searching for a carbon fiber prototype race car ever since seeing the success of Romain Dumas and Robin Shute had in their efforts at Pikes Peak amassing a collective 5 King of the Mountain titles in those types of cars. He found a used 2013 chassis that could compete in Pikes Peak with just a little bit of modifications. It had a Naturally Aspirated RPE V8 Hayabusa motor that Radical runs in their SR8 cars (350hp). Dan named the car "TC Special" in memory of Terry Cooper.

Unfortunately, the 2022 Pikes Peak race saw another weather impacted race. The finish line remained at the summit for the 100th running, however thick fog and drizzly rain prevented any record times. Dan finished a disappointing 4th in class and 16th overall with a time of 11:20.855. The bright part of the year was at the Clifton Hill Climb where Dan debuted the Wolf for the first time. With old tires and a electrical programming bug that prevented full power to be applied, Dan again won the overall title King of the Hill honors for the third time.

A much better 2023 Pikes Peak edition with favorable weather really started to show what the new Wolf car was capable of. After a significant gearing change in the off season, Dan ran a blistering 9:27.611, 2nd in class and 7th overall. The run was just about everything that Dan could get out of the car with relatively low horsepower for a Pikes Peak car.

The next step was to naturally work on the power output so he teamed up with Borg Warner, Jack Frost (Holeshot Racing), and Cole Duran (4D Engineering) to build up a twin turbo system for the V8 Hayabusa. The cooling system had to be totally rebuilt to handle the upgrade and that left little time to test. In fact, they simply ran out of time and showed up at 2024 Pikes Peak Tech Inspection without any runs on the car but it was ready to take on race week on the mountain. Personal records were made on each section of practice and there was still a lot to get used to for Dan and crew. He qualified 3rd overall and was eyeing an Unlimited class win. Unfortunately, despite efforts to increase brake cooling, Pikes Peak got the best of the car with a loss of brakes at the W's and Dan pulled over with his first DNF of his career. The 15 race finish streak was snapped.

2025 saw a revamping of the cooling system and a new brake package that could handle the toughest of conditions. Another big change that year was in modifying the aero package to fit into the Open Wheel class. The fenders were opened up exposing the wheels allowing for a bit more flexibility in aero work and tire choice. This is when development of the Wolf really started coming together with finding even more speed through each practice session. Dan qualified first in class and fourth overall setting a new Open Wheel Class qualifying record and fastest American qualifying record! For race day, even though the rain stayed away, Pikes Peak spoke again with having 100mph gusts on top of the peak that prevented a summit finish line. Disappointed to not be able to set a course time that could break some more records, Dan still made the best of the situation and capped off the most successful year to date with a first time ever class win in Open Wheel!

We can't wait to see what is in store in the future for Dan and Novembre racing!