2/23/08. First Annual King of the Hammers a Hit with TrailReady Motorsports. While TrailReady Products was a sponsor of the first official desert/rock race, we also entered the TrailReady Rock Racer in the 50 mile race that mixed typical desert racing terrain with the worst of Johnson Valley's famous "Hammers" trail system. Featuring names that include "Wrecking Ball, Sledge Hammer, and Jack Hammer, there was no shortage of carnage here. There were 43 of the US's most prepared rock racers lined up on Friday morning.
Trailready was 27th off the line and Rich Blunk started the race. The course map showed no trails for the first 20 miles and Blunk, with no rock crawling experience, volunteered to start and hand off the car to Larry Trim at Pit one. Unfortunately, a Wednsday night wind storm had blown away much of the course markers, putting those of us without GPS on board at a serious disadvantage. Without any marks to guide the way and unable to keep pace with some of the better performing desert trucks, Rich found himself lost for an hour in route to Check point 2. We completed our drivers change and fuel stop at 10AM. Larry Trim, now in the drivers seat, promptly got lost a couple of miles from Check two, and lost another 15 minutes. Finally we got in the first trail (Aftershock) and ran check 3-4 in 5-1/2 minutes passing 5 broken cars along the way. Good progress as we were now racing atrition rather than time. Then off course again for 15 minutes. Another trail and trying to find away around Pistol Pete on this one. His coil-over suspension buggy was faster on the roads but slower in the rough stuff. Now Pistol can say that he's nerfed competitors with his rear bumper too, as he backed into us a couple of times looking for the right line on the trail. Out of this section, Larry got distracted adjusting the on board camera and hit a rock in a wash, flattening the left from tire. Not a big deal as we prepped with dual beadlocks. Now across the sand flats and fighting the engine temps. This was the story for many of the buggies not designed for blasting through the desert. As Larry headed up the hill to the next trail section, we broke a front driveline U-joint. We headed back to main pit and fixed the driveline and changed the tire. Heading back on course we discovered that we also had a broken side gear in our rear locker.
This first annual King of the Hammers event was awesome and the most fun we've ever had with a rock buggy. We look forward to the next event, and we'll be back with better shocks, cooling and GPS! mikesracephoto.com used with permission