One might say that Paul Dallenbach was born with racing in his DNA. The son of former IndyCar driver and race series official Wally Dallenbach, Paul’s first time behind the wheel of a race car came when he was 15, and he drove a ’66 Mustang in an event at Woody Creek Raceway. At age 17, he earned Rookie of the Year honors in the VW Cup series and scored a second-place finish at the Milwaukee Mile — the same track where his father won his first IndyCar race.
Paul quickly built an impressive racing resume, earning another Rookie of the Year title in the Formula Atlantic division. He competed in Super Vee, Trans-Am, Shelby Can-Am, ASA stock car, Indy Lights, IMSA GTO, and Prototype series in those early years, and scored his first major victory in the 1987 Miller 500 IMSA race at Road America. The following year, he finished second in the 24 Hours of Daytona after leading for five and a half hours. In international competition, Paul raced for Porsche in the Trans-Siberian Rally from Moscow to Mongolia and won the Alcan 5000 Winter Rally three times with teammate Johnny Unser.
In 1991, Paul’s brother, Wally Dallenbach Jr., gave up his entry in the Pikes Peak Hill Climb to compete full-time in NASCAR. Paul jumped at the chance to run his car in the hill climb and finished fifth out of 28 cars in the Open Wheel division. Paul was hooked on competing in the historical Race to the Clouds and set the overall course record in 1993. Over the course of his career, Paul has claimed three overall Pikes Peak victories, 12 class titles, along with 30 race wins and two championships with the Colorado Hill Climb Association.
The inevitable racing setbacks of professional racing didn’t slow Paul down. A massive crash from a stuck throttle led to a helicopter evacuation from the Hill Climb—and yes, there is video– but he recovered to drive a Hyundai to a Pikes Peak Time Attack record. Paul was hired again by Hyundai in 2024 to race for the Electric SUV Vehicle hill climb record, but a brake failure in testing caused another major crash that broke his back and leg, the injuries that ultimately led him to hang up his helmet.
His remarkably diverse competitive record speaks for itself, yet Paul has had an equally remarkable career as a stunt driver, appearing in over 500 car commercials and several blockbuster films, including Ford v Ferrari, Need for Speed, Fast & Furious 4, and Ferrari, where he was Patrick Dempsey’s stunt double. He’s even trained Tom Cruise to drift.
His career has been defined by an unshakable love for speed and racing, and it would be hard to find a more versatile and skilled driver anywhere. Paul Dallenbach was inducted into the Colorado Motorsports Hall of Fame in 2025.
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