King of the Hammers: Previewing off-road racing's big week
This week, the improbable but undeniable motorsports phenomenon that is the annual Optima King of the Hammers presented by Ford Performance has arrived. So too have tens of thousands off-road faithful now descending into the dry lake bed of Johnson Valley, Calif., after pilgrimages from around the country — and the world.
For those making the trek to his barren chunk of raw desert that's punctuated by rocky terrain and endless trails, much of their time will be focused on succumbing to an intoxicating 24-hour energy that KOH spins off in excess. For racers, however, a prestigious week of competition that touches different aspects of the sport is reason enough to make King of the Hammers — and it's legendary 'Hammertown' focal point — a can't-miss exercise.
Class 4400 Factory Bronco of Vaughn Gittin Jr.
While technically the 2025 KOH calendar included a rather insane 'King of the Motos' a week ago, things in Johnson Valley really kick into high gear starting today. This weekend's focus is on traditional desert racing, with wide open sections of desert sprinkled into sections of race course marked by soft sand and undulating, endless bumps.
Prerunning will officially open on Friday, with the limited classes having the opportunity to qualify in the morning as well. Saturday will see those classes take on the event's primary 64.9-mile course –– known as the 'Red Lap' — for two to four laps depending on the category. The driver line-up features an impressive list of racers in the UTV open category including the factory Polaris team and its recent Dakar Rally UTV category-winning rookie Brock Heger. Other top names include veterans Wayne and Kristen Matlock, Cayden MacCachren, Max Eddy and short course off-road specialists CJ Greaves and Doug Mittag.
Desert Challenge Unlimited Truck.
The day will also include Unlimited class qualifying and capped by the Class 11 race for race-prepped by mostly stock vintage VW Beetles.
Sunday, Feb. 2 is all about unlimited desert categories. Four open-wheel Class 1 cars (B1 class) and 24 Trophy-Truck Spec machines (known as the T2 category in KOH nomenclature) will chase 18 Trophy-Truck (T1) racers for overall honors. Top names include former Baja 1000 champions Luke McMillin, Cameron Steele, Ryan Arciero and Adam Householder in T1 and Apdaly Lopez, Kyle Jergensen, Pierce and EJ Herbst and short course champ Trey Gibbs in T2.
Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of next week offers up intense qualifying sessions for more specific KOH machines that combine desert and rock racing disciplines. There are even youth classes preparing for racing on Tuesday on Hammertown's short course section.
Desert Challenge Limited Race Class 10 car.
Next Thursday things get serious for a combination of factory and privateer drivers in the Can-Am UTV Hammers Championship race. Comprised of six different classes of Polaris, Can-Am and Kawasaki side-by-sides, most of the top names will run in the 4900 Pro Open and Pro Mod categories. Many of the fastest competitors will have competed in the desert UTV race, but others to watch for the rock racing version include Off-Road Hall of Fame inductee Johnny Greaves, Ronnie Anderson, Cody Miller, Phil Blurton, Mitch Guthrie and Hunter Miller. Special attention wil also be on Kyle Chaney, who came a whisker short of taking his Can-Am to the overall victory in last year's Race of Kings weekend finale.
The King of the Hammer's universal appeal is on full display during Friday's Yokohama Tire Every Man Challenge race. Created to offer off-road and 4×4 enthusiasts a way to build production-based machines into the sport, three classes that include Ford, Jeep, Dodge, Chevy, Suzuki, Volkswagen, Mahindra and Toyota-based race cars make for a true fan favorite.
The Everyman Challenge field lines up.
Saturday, Feb. 8, KOH's Race of Kings wraps up the busy week in grand fashion. Bolstered by a perfect backdrop that showcases the performance and versatility of modern Class 4400 unlimited machines, the Race of Kings has sparked the imagination of adventurous racers around the globe. A truly unlimited class with very few regulations outside of those focused on safety, the almost all the top level 4400 teams and drivers will be on hand.
Last year's King JP Gomez will try to defend his title against a stout field of 85 other competitors, a group that includes his former race winners Raul Gomez, Randy Slawson, Josh Blyler, Jason Scherer, Shannon Campbell and Eric Miller.
Motorsports fans around the world can enjoy live coverage on KOH's YouTube channel, with wrap-up shows airing the next day on the MAVTV network. With this much talent and all those bragging rights on the line, off-road racing's biggest week offers something special for everyone.
KOH official livestream link:
https://www.youtube.com/@kingofthehammers_official
Optima Battery King of the Hammers Schedule (all times Pacific)
Friday, Jan. 31
Desert prerunning (all day)
Limited class Desert qualifying (10:00am)
Saturday, Feb. 1
Unlimited class Desert qualifying (8:00am)
Limited class Desert Race start (10:00am)
Class 11 race (4:00 pm)
Sunday, Feb. 2
Unlimited class Desert Race start (9:00am)
Monday, Feb. 3
XRock Extreme Rock Crawling (10:00am-4:00pm)
UTV Hammers Championship qualifying (10:00am-4:00pm)
Tuesday, Feb. 4
Every Man Challenge class qualifying (10am-4:00pm)
KOH Kids 170 race
Wednesday, Feb. 5
Race of Kings qualifying (10am-4:00pm)
UTV Hammers Championship tech and contingency (10:00am-5:00pm)
Race of Kings Power Hour (2:00pm-3:00pm)
Thursday, Feb. 6
UTV Hammers Championship Race start (8:00am)
Every Man Challenge tech and contingency (10:00am-4:00pm)
Friday, Feb. 7
Every Man Challenge Race start (8:00am)
Race of Kings tech and contingency (10:00am-5:00pm)
Saturday, Feb. 8
Race of Kings race start (8:00am)
Story originally appeared on Racer
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Yahoo
Utility terrain vehicle overturns in Union County, leaving 1 dead
One person is dead after a utility terrain vehicle crashed in Union County, according to the South Carolina Highway Patrol. At around 1:06 a.m. Saturday, a 2023 Kawasaki utility terrain vehicle, or UTV, was traveling east on Neal Shoals Road, and overturned when it attempted to turn left onto Happy Valley Road in Union County, a highway patrol news release said. Two people were in the vehicle and injured in the crash, and both were taken to an area hospital. One person later died, the news release said. The identity of the person killed has not yet been released by the Union County Coroner's Office. The collision remains under investigation by the South Carolina Highway Patrol.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Yahoo
Here Are The Automotive Events On Jalopnik Readers' Bucket Lists
What car event have you always wanted to attend but just haven't managed to make it for one reason or another? There are so many incredible car gatherings around the world, from Mille Miglia to King of the Hammers, there's something for just about everyone. I've been lucky enough to see almost every event my little gearhead heart could ever dream of, bar one, the Goodwood Festival of Speed. One day I'll have to make the trip over and see it in person, but for now it remains the biggest event still on my list of things to do before I kick the proverbial bucket. Earlier this week we asked all of you to tell us about the event still on your bucket list, and you did not disappoint. With dozens of great suggestions to choose from, we picked ten of our favorite answers and included them below. If you think there's something missing from this list, or your bucket list has a more unique answer, feel free to sound off in the comments below. Read more: These Are The Best Engines Of All Time, According To You I'd love to attend the Pebble Beach Concours. I enjoy car shows of all kinds and that seems like the ultimate event to attend. Hope to get to it one day. Suggested by Dan60 The Chili Bowl Midget Nationals in Tulsa, OK Sage Net Center, two weeks after Christmas. I'm not all that big of a fan of Tulsa, but the racing is supposedly incredible. An international cast of the baddest midget drivers, sprinkled with NASCAR and Indycar stars slumming for the week. A week of cut-and-thrust midget heats, sub-features and last-chance qualifiers capped with a Saturday night A-Main. Suggested by jrhmobile The Lane Museum's 'Rally for the Lane' I participated in the first one and it was a blast. Unfortunately, trying to convince a group of friends to shell out a grand apiece to spend a weekend driving a weird foreign car through rural Tennessee is more challenging than one would expect. Suggested by Earthbound Misfit I Spa. I have not been as in to F1 as I used to be, 10-, 20-, 30- years ago, but I'd still love to see F1 cars go through Eau Rouge at speed once in my life. Suggested by WeryPert1 This might seem like an odd choice, but as someone not from the States, I would really like to attend RADwood some day. It is much smaller in scale than a lot of the major automotive events around the world, but it happens to represent my favorite automotive era. Suggested by epep- I lived and worked out there but never had the chance to see it in person - the Africa Eco Race. It's kind of a pared down Paris - Dakar when it was still run in Africa. But this course snakes through the Atlas Mountains of Morocco, through Mauritania, and into Senegal. It's stunning country out there. Downside, while staying/eating there won't destroy the budget, flights will cause the credit card to wince. And personal security is always an issue in some of the areas where the route passes through. Stateside, I'm still kicking myself for not getting my MX-5 up and down the Pikes Peak route. But it's still on my bucket list. Suggested by Xavier96 Any WRC event in Europe. Rallying is amazing, European fans are out of their minds. The settings and courses are beautiful. Suggested by JohnnyWasASchoolBoy Sure it is riddled with issues but after visiting Monaco during spring break more than 20 years ago, I still want to attend the Grand Prix before I get too old to travel. The city is beautiful and I got chills just walking through the famous tunnel under the Fairmont Hotel, imagining the cars wailing and transitioning as they exit. There are so many elevation changes and turns and the concept of turning a small coastal city into a race course ticks so many boxes on my happy list. Like my previous trip, I will most likely stay in much more reasonably priced Nice and take the train over. Or, I could rent a scooter, lose my riding buddy within 10 minutes, and accidentally wind up in Monaco (this was before Google maps). Back in 2003, a dirty martini at the Casino Monte Carlo set me back €20, so I can't imagine how expensive things are nowadays. It might be five figures alone just to get tickets for two people for the race weekend. As a runner up, I want a chance to drive a fun car (most likely an M Car), at the Nürburgring on a tourist day. It's not a proper motorsports event but would certainly be the highlight of my amateur weekend warrior track day career. Suggested by ODDseth Isle of Man Tourist Trophy. Nothing more to add, really. Suggested by Pete I grew up in Indianapolis and my dad took me to the Indy 500 when I was probably 9 or 10 and it was... boring as hell. We even had fantastic tickets- across from the pits and under the big roof so we didn't get baked by the sun. Jim Neighbors sang, a really old lady said "gentlemen start your engines," There was a pit fire where one of the pit crew spilled fuel and the car caught on fire, that super weird clear fire you can't see except for the effects it has on anything near it, it was objectively a cool experience but I was 9 and it was 4 hours of watching cars blur past in a straight line over the bricks. So, I'd love to go back. I'd love to go to the 500 as an adult who has patience and some understanding of what was going on. As a hoosier, even a former hoosier who'll never move back, I feel like this is a thing I need to do. Maybe I can take my own kiddo and help her see why the 500 is the greatest spectacle in racing. Suggested by Buckfiddious Want more like this? Join the Jalopnik newsletter to get the latest auto news sent straight to your inbox... Read the original article on Jalopnik.
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Yahoo
How a California farmer became an off-road racing champion
Brock Heger has spent most of his life driving tractors on his family's farm in California. Now, he's one of the world's top off-road racers, exploding onto the off-road racing scene. Heger, 25, recently won the Dakar Rally, a grueling, nearly 5,000 mile race through the Saudi Arabian desert. He won in just over 59 hours, crediting his endurance to growing up on his family's farm in Southern California's Imperial Valley. While a tractor's top speed caps around 20 mph, Heger's Polaris RZR vehicle rips through the desert at 118 mph. "Having the ability to drive a tractor for 20 hours, being able to work long hours, was good preparation," Heger told CBS News transportation correspondent Kris Van Cleave. How Heger became an off-road racing champion Heger started racing at 6 years old. He won his first championship by 12. He exploded onto the off-road racing scene and has won six consecutive major events. "I love pressure," he said. "I love trying to do things that, you know, people might think is hard or crazy to do. I've been able to have a really good run in off road racing. And with that comes, you know, nice red target on my back." In January, he was a last-minute entrant to what could arguably be called the World Cup of off-road racing at the Dakar Rally. He crossed the finish line on his 25th birthday. "It was definitely surreal," he said. Joe Heger, Brock's father, is his son's biggest fan. "When he was younger, he used to tear a lot of stuff up. I used to tell him, slower, sometimes faster. It makes you more humble, and it makes you take care of your equipment. Teaches you how to respect, wake up everyday, go to work and and enjoy what you do," Jon Heger said. Sneak peek: Where is Jermain Charlo? Hegseth orders Navy to rename USNS Harvey Milk, Jeffries calls it "a complete and total disgrace" FEMA, Trump administration react to sources saying chief did not know U.S. had a hurricane season
