Time for another KOH story. It was my 3rd year running in the King of the Hammers............and the 3rd year running in my now over 7 year old homebuilt trail buggy. Sure it's been adapted and modified over the years, but it's still the same old rig. As for me, I am just a normal blue collar workin' stiff that goes wheeling as much as possible.
A little history first.....I was invited to the very first race back in 07 by Dave Cole. I couldn't make it as I was returning from a 4 state wheeling trip. Could of and man I should have gone to be OG 14. Luckily in 08, our club (Built to Grind Rockcrawlers out of Phoenix) got invited. The club nominated me, so I raced in 08. I managed to pull off a 9th place finish despite a couple flats (no spare) and bent steering ram. Scott, my codriver, split half the driving duties that year. We were pretty happy with our place and qualified for the 09 race.
For 09, I did a ton of work to the rig but it was still fairly limited speed wise in the desert. Ballistic helped me out some in 08 and stepped it up in 09. I got a bunch of parts which helped a ton. I joined BFG's race program and got some new tires too. The race went well up till the Sledge plaque line. We busted a front stub and started winching. Early in the race we brought some parts to the Joachim Twisted Customs team. That payed off, cause they ended up giving us a little tow later. Then in the last 10 miles we got a flat. We changed it very slowly and were amazed at the fast cars that were actually behind us. We finished in 16th.
So here I am a few months before the race. Ballistic was back and now I had a teammate, Nicole Johnson. We planned to helped each other out and pit together. This worked out pretty good and we made a ton of new friends.
The rig only went through a few minor changes......safety related and a new rear axle...........the Super 14. Ballistic built the housing and well he rest is a whole other story. I was pretty nervous about this setup as it was pretty much untested. I didn't get the 3rd assembled until a week before the race. Thanks to Dave Cole for pulling some strings and getting me the last little parts I needed. I arrived on the lake on Saturday. The rear end had been driven around the block and that's it. I brought my old 60 with, just in case.
Okay on with the good stuff. Race week was super fun. I actually had time to meet, greet, talk and party (alot of party). We checked out some of the classes, did a photo shoot, and all kinds of cool shit. Next thing I know it's Thursday night. We did the once over on the car. My pit boss Chad took charge and got everything organized and came up with the plan.:smokin:
I wasn't really nervous about the race. I knew if we could run clean, we would place well. The flag dropped and it WAS ON. It was AWESOME. We were going fast and it seemed more like a race than the previous years.
Here's some pix so I can take a typing break.:flipoff2:
A little history first.....I was invited to the very first race back in 07 by Dave Cole. I couldn't make it as I was returning from a 4 state wheeling trip. Could of and man I should have gone to be OG 14. Luckily in 08, our club (Built to Grind Rockcrawlers out of Phoenix) got invited. The club nominated me, so I raced in 08. I managed to pull off a 9th place finish despite a couple flats (no spare) and bent steering ram. Scott, my codriver, split half the driving duties that year. We were pretty happy with our place and qualified for the 09 race.
For 09, I did a ton of work to the rig but it was still fairly limited speed wise in the desert. Ballistic helped me out some in 08 and stepped it up in 09. I got a bunch of parts which helped a ton. I joined BFG's race program and got some new tires too. The race went well up till the Sledge plaque line. We busted a front stub and started winching. Early in the race we brought some parts to the Joachim Twisted Customs team. That payed off, cause they ended up giving us a little tow later. Then in the last 10 miles we got a flat. We changed it very slowly and were amazed at the fast cars that were actually behind us. We finished in 16th.
So here I am a few months before the race. Ballistic was back and now I had a teammate, Nicole Johnson. We planned to helped each other out and pit together. This worked out pretty good and we made a ton of new friends.
The rig only went through a few minor changes......safety related and a new rear axle...........the Super 14. Ballistic built the housing and well he rest is a whole other story. I was pretty nervous about this setup as it was pretty much untested. I didn't get the 3rd assembled until a week before the race. Thanks to Dave Cole for pulling some strings and getting me the last little parts I needed. I arrived on the lake on Saturday. The rear end had been driven around the block and that's it. I brought my old 60 with, just in case.
Okay on with the good stuff. Race week was super fun. I actually had time to meet, greet, talk and party (alot of party). We checked out some of the classes, did a photo shoot, and all kinds of cool shit. Next thing I know it's Thursday night. We did the once over on the car. My pit boss Chad took charge and got everything organized and came up with the plan.:smokin:
I wasn't really nervous about the race. I knew if we could run clean, we would place well. The flag dropped and it WAS ON. It was AWESOME. We were going fast and it seemed more like a race than the previous years.
Here's some pix so I can take a typing break.:flipoff2: