King Of The Hammers 2010

There is only one winner, only one crown, only one king, and at this year's King of the Hammers that winner was a black horse for sure. In case you're not hip to the latest craze of rock racing, the King of the Hammers (KOH) is part desert race and part rockcrawling race and it takes place each February amongst the Hammer trails in Johnson Valley, California. It is a short race by desert racing standards, just 135 miles, but it is a long race by rock racing standards.

Plus, whereas most desert race trucks and buggies are two-wheel drive, the rockcrawling portions of KOH demand four-wheel drive, front and rear locking differentials, and at least a 37-inch-tall tire (more likely 39-, 40- or 42-inch rubber). This is exciting, as it furthers the trend of rock buggy technology to start really crossbreeding with the desert technology, resulting in a new hybrid go-fast-over-any-terrain machine.

Brothers Brandon and Stephen Watson have slowly been upgrading Brandon's trail buggy into a rock-racing machine. The current iteration has a new Pacific Fab LS series engine under the hood, along with King coilover and bypass shocks at each corner. The brothers crossed the line in 8 hours 47 minutes 39 seconds for a 17th-place finish.

Brothers Brandon and Stephen Watson have slowly been upgrading Brandon's trail buggy into

One of the original goals of KOH was more of a "bring your trail ride and race it" type of deal, especially since trail rigs have been morphing from rough-riding leaf-sprung flatfenders of yore to the coilover-shocked, super-strong-axled, fuel-injected tube machines popping up on nearly every trail ride we attend these days. Of course, as soon as there was a purse (over $20,000 in cash and prizes for first place this year) the idea of trail rigs got usurped by dedicated race machines. Luckily the best type of race machine for this event has two seats (driver and co-driver), space for tools, and a spare tire, and it is safe and comfortable over a wide array of terrain. Sounds like a great trail rig if you ask us.

Racing does require a fair bit of expense, as you need to add communication equipment to talk to your pit crews, spare parts, safety equipment like bladdered fuel cells, special fuel shutoff valves, catch cans, helmets, racing suits, and window nets; but since high-speed rollovers aren't unheard of, it's hard to argue against installing this stuff on your 4x4.

So how can you get involved? There are a handful of races across the county to qualify, or you can enter the last-chance qualifier's race (LCQ) a few days prior to the main event, also in Johnson Valley. This year the LCQ race was a roughly 6-mile rockcrawl and desert loop, and 25 entrants progressed to the race and joined the previously qualified teams to bring the total to 100 race day starters. Only 43 finished the 135 miles, and only one was crowned king.

To find out more about the race and the rigs visit www.kingofthehammers.com.

Jack Adams is a rockcrawler at heart, but he trades in a few months of prime wheeling time each year to prep and prepare for the King of the Hammers. With co-driver and fellow wheeler Scott Maiden, Adams navigated their Ballistic Fabrication-sponsored tube buggy across the line for a 20th-place finish.

Jack Adams is a rockcrawler at heart, but he trades in a few months of prime wheeling time

And The Winner is...
Loren Healy and co-pilot Rodney Woodey took top honors at this year's King of the Hammers. They had entered the last-chance qualifiers race two days prior to the main event and came in fifth, earning them the 53rd starting position on race day. So how did they climb from 53rd to First Place? They simply drove smart and ratcheted their way up in the ranks. As media, we jumped around a fair bit to cover the race, and every time we saw the leaders of the race (say, the top 20 cars) Healy and Woodey were there, though never in the actual leader position. In fact, every time we moved to another section of race course and the leaders came by, there was a different leader. Healy just stayed in the fight, and even though he didn't cross the finish line first his overall time of 6 hours 57 minutes 53 seconds earned him the crown.

4WOR: You won the 2010 Griffin King of the Hammers. Congratulations.
Loren Healy: Thank you very much; I never really thought it was possible.

4W: How long have you been racing?
LH: This is my second year racing. We ran the LCQ last year and made 23 miles of the main race when we broke the output shaft on the transmission. Other than that, we run a local desert series called NMORL here in New Mexico.