As is tradition, the 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne) led the procession of cars that competed in the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb last month. This time, however, they also had one of their own in the field.

The 10th SFG(A) is one of five active duty special forces groups in the United States Army and the first after debuting in 1952, hence their moniker “The Originals”. The unit is headquartered at Fort Carson just outside Colorado Springs, though operations extend to Europe as part of United States European Command. The 10th has also helped train Ukrainian special forces personnel before and during the Russian invasion.

For the PPIHC, troops from the 10th ascended the mountain to deliver the checkered flag to the finish. Afterward, they led competitors back down as part of the Parade of Champions. A Polaris Sportsman MV850 carried the flags at the front followed by a pair of Polaris MRZR Alphas and an M1288 GMV 1.1. The U.S. military is close partners with Polaris, while the M1288 is a military version of the Flyer 72. Fittingly, the latter has raced the Mint 400 with the 5th Special Forces Group.

“Going into racing, the same amount of grit, determination, and commitment to this sport, we go into our teams,” commented Chief Warrant Officer Jason Brown on the race braodcast. “The guys that prepare for it, whether they’re going on operation, the attention to detail that it takes to prepare to go out the door and do the missions that we have is similar to these guys putting their cars on the track so that they run the best they can up the mountain today.

“No one does it alone. Our 12-man teams are similar to these race teams here. Although there’s one driver in the car, there’s a team of people behind them supporting them the whole way.”

Due to severe wind, the race was shortened to end at Glen Cove rather than the summit. Brown also noted how teams prepped for the conditions was similar to the military doing so for missions.

“The winds up at the top of the mountain, they’re planning for contingencies now whether it’s a different tire, different fuel mixture, whatever it is, they got to get their cars set up to get up the mountain. Same thing we do for an operation,” he began.

“We’re going to plan the operation, and then we’ll plan contingencies just in case something goes wrong. If the weather changes, if the timing that we anticipated it would take to complete the mission takes longer than we anticipated, we plan for that as well. I’m sure right now as they look at the weather conditions and as things change, they’re doing the same thing.”

Eli Olivas, a former 10th member, raced a SuperLite Aero in the PPIHC to a 53rd overall and 14th in the Unlimited class. His car was adorned with the badge of the Special Forces Association and names of fallen troops.

While the 10th wasn’t competing themselves, going up and down the mountain also doubled as data collection on vehicle performance.

Featured image credit: Sgt. Rhianna Ballenger