Xtreme 4x4 King of the Hammers Special!

Well, it's the king of the hammers. It's got to be the toughest one day event in the world for off road racing. So the course has to be tough.

We wanted something that would challenge the drivers, challenge their equipment

and I think we came up with a pretty good balance. I mean, this is a tough race. Anybody that finishes this race I think is probably one of the top off roaders in the country.

92 competitors and only one winner and to get the crown, not only do they have to conquer the desert, they have to take on what's been called, the Toughest Rock Trails in the world. This is king of the Hammers

Two.

We came out here just to

push it live, it, breathe it. This is new out here. I

just,

you know, waking up in the morning seeing mountains all around you.

It's not in a track, it's not in a fairground, it's not something

that already has half the facilities set out. You're out here, there's no cell service.

You're 25 miles away from the nearest light bulb,

tried this race in 30 seconds.

Uh, we're starting number two. Today

next to Jeff Mellow,

we both got the pole because we're starting two at a time, 32nd intervals.

It's gonna be a great day of racing right here.

How important is it to you to be out here on the west coast in this race?

How important I wouldn't have missed it.

I haven't seen my wife and kids in weeks and

it's just all part of it when we first, uh, started coming up with this concept that came out in trail rigs. A couple of guys who were comp buggies, but it was,

you know,

how do you possibly do this? There's no one, no one can do this. You can't possibly run all those trails in one day.

You know, in the old day, it was like just getting to the canyons, like it was a big deal.

And now it's like that's kind of the easy part

spot

to come out here into the middle of absolute nowhere. Just crazy. Southern California desert

for one rock race. It just, it blows us away to have everybody here.

There's a lot of people that race open desert racing, which is an

awesome and fantastic and a great rush.

But

they race around the mountains. We race through them

all the stuff. That's the obstacle that no one wants to touch. We go over it and we do it over and over and over 2530 miles of rocks all day long. And after we put you through the rocks,

then we put you in the open desert and make you drive fast.

You gotta do them both at the same time.

It's different

from what I understand. There are probably four girls actually driving

and it sounds like there might be five of us co driving.

So it's gonna be interesting. A lot of the guys think that

we're, well, we're chicks so we can't get it and well, we actually can, they're more intimidating to me than any of the guys out here for sure. This is a totally different beast out here. This is some serious desert racing,

adrenaline camping

from the

di

I

just got to get out there and

like, I know how to

wheel

show these boys what a girl can do.

This is a race basically we wanted to do last year, but we're afraid everybody would be scared away.

So instead of a 50 mile race course where we do, uh, all the rock courses, the easy way we're going to do 100 mile race course

with all the rock courses. The hard way,

the hard way is the only way through some of the most intense mind blowing trails known to man. It's where carnage and casualties are given.

And we've got all the exclusive action ahead when our Xtreme 4x4 King of the Hammers special returns.

Welcome back to extreme and our King of the Hammers special. Now we're out here on the lake bed and it is windy and there are 34 rigs lined up for the last chance qualifier. Now, when they laid out the king of the Hammers race, they left 14 spots open for these guys to come out and give it one shot on one trail best 14 times makes it in. So it's gonna be pretty interesting.

That's gonna be fun to watch.

About 36 guys show up all across the country

to, for that one shot to race in the race and not knowing if they're going to be in or not.

Car number is 96 X. It's a, uh,

liberty buggy with a 38 supercharged in it.

Um

Spent all, we actually, I

can't say we finished wrenching on it before we loaded it on the trailer because we actually did that the day before we, yesterday, we finished wrenching on it. So we finished it

brand new to us and we haven't had any, uh

MC time in it. Really. So,

but, uh,

the race was fun. We were doing good. We were going fast, uh, cleaned all the rocks and a bit of hard coming off the hill,

uh,

messed up a bunch of stuff in the front end

and I could have had one of the best times. Um,

we saw it ss

to drive

1500 miles

being in this desert is just awesome.

You, you wake up every morning and you look at what God's created.

Well, except for this morning. It was a little dusty.

We wanted to make a cool race, but we thought we'd make a race for drivers

morning. We're

ready to go. We're here. We made it. I actually slept really good

about

trying to

get this car

to start. The king of the Hamlet.

I'm worried that he's going to die.

Nobody's dying today.

The tough drivers out here, I mean, absolutely. Hands down Shannon Campbell. He's the guy to beat. He won it last year. Single seater.

No copilot.

I don't know how he did it. He is absolutely. Got a target on his back

and it just quit moving. I was in third gear and homing across the lake but, and it just

like it freewheel.

I've got,

get

to make it,

it didn't pop off.

I

just checked the linkage and everything. It

almost like maybe something snapped or something. I don't know.

Griffin King of the Hammers is a no chase race.

That means you can have any help whatsoever out on the racecourse. If you get towed back in, you're disqualified

you

at

all.

What we need to do is lift up the

Johnny, we need to lift up the front of the tranny

and

right there you go,

just finishing up taking out the Desert fab transmission

and ready to put up off the adapters and

let's take it to Shannon's rake so we can keep on going.

We're from Tennessee.

Come to race, man. King of the hammers. Is that damn big man?

We've seen a lot of, uh, rigs broke down. It's, it's rough, rough, rough, huh? Don't waste your time.

TK it done.

Yeah. Check two, the

top leaders at number 76 and 248 have cleared checkpoint one on their way to you.

Is there anybody at the base of aftershock? We need fire extinguishers. This uh, fully engulfed drivers are out and, ok. No rescue needed. Orange rig didn't get to see the number because it was engulfed in flames. I know how they feel because that was me last year.

Burn out Hulk of a car. Rob Bonnie's Rancho buggy. Just the tires still melting in flames as we come by. We're like, Rob, are you? Ok? Even though he had a down face, he looks up and he smiles. He goes, yeah, get on it, man.

We are heading into Aftershock. Ok.

If you have problems on aftershock, you're about to get your lunch handed to you on Sunbonnet.

99% of the general wheeling public

would have that. That's a full day for them. I just ran aftershock and sun,

but I'm going to go home and go to sleep.

These guys haven't even started the race yet.

They can see camp, they can see the main road. That's like that's where I want to go. Everything tells me I go, go down that road and go back to camp.

They got over to BFG pit. That's their first pit.

Our King is out of the race. He's, he's built an amazing car. He's an odds on favorite. He's out of the race at mile marker seven or so.

I didn't know he had changed his transmission

and was going out to go back in the racecourse even though he was disqualified

until I get reports from my checkpoint workers that Shannon's back on the race

course.

We didn't want to have a race with a fat rulebook

and there wasn't a rule that said Shannon couldn't be on the racecourse.

So we're still in the appetizer section of the race.

Our limits is a favorite amongst rock Crawler because it's got so many optionals.

So it was a really good fit to have that trail there in this part of the race.

If outer limits is the appetizer, then wrecking ball and Jack Hammer are the entrees. The dramatic finish to king of the Hammers. When Xtreme 4x4 continues,

you're 50 miles into the race.

Half the field hasn't even gotten this far yet.

Half the teams never got to the hard part.

You wanna talk about hard, you wanna talk about technical rock crawling. Drive down resolution.

Resolution is no joke, driving downhill

and I saw a broken car right in the middle of the, of the drop and I went,

how are we gonna do it

without ever slowing down? I said, I wonder if I can get up around him to the left and as soon as I took the left line and was kind of driving up over him, I figured,

I think we got this and we dropped in and,

and I was like, God, I hope that guy doesn't punch us in the, the finish line for driving over him.

55 is down. Resolution going down the waterfall. 301 is down. Resolution headed to the waterfall.

Probably only 3040 people in the country that have ever driven down this. It's not that hard,

but it's kind of

in when you get up there and realize that it's off Camber steps down and

your left side wants to keep climbing. Your

right front, wants to keep dropping in holes.

The

check five number 90 had flipped

over D DC.

Now it's nonstop. You've hit the hammers, it's, you, you've gone up Boder Dash, you've come down up a big Johnson

and

it's like the roller coaster, right? You, you click, click, click, click, click, click, you know, you're going up. It's no problem. I'm gonna go up.

The problem is now at the top and now I gotta go down

98% of the public out there does not drive down wrecking ball. They drive up, wrecking ball.

I mean, a great day at the hammers and driving up, wrecking ball and down claw

here comes Rick Mooneyham, our 554 right behind us

and he kept gaining on us and gaining on us.

All of a sudden as we got through that next section of wrecking ball, I could feel my steering start locking up.

So I stuck my hand out the window and waved them by and

this is helicopter reporting, uh, 554 just overtook 76 for the,

it was like fate intervenes right there and

boom, he just takes off to the right on the wrong side of the trail and we go, what was that all about?

What he didn't know is that my steering was getting worse and worse and I barely made it 100 yards down the trail and I stopped the car around a rock so he couldn't see us. And we got out and started working on our car, but we're only 100 yards of heart.

Number one and two,

our holdings,

everybody's working on the car,

cow rocks pit was located only about a mile away. We get down,

you know, get back in the car radio, the pits, what we need and they're all prepared down there. The whole guys were, everybody was there.

We were in a race with Mooneyham. We pushed too hard

and he did too. He broke his tire

and

hang in

there. Baby.

Race

8554 is rolling right front, uh, front tire, but, uh, 76 is just coming out of the pit. So it's still a great race up here for 1st and 2nd.

No,

there

you get to the top of Jack Hammer,

which is,

you know, Mecca for Rock Crawler, you're at the top of Jack Hammer, you're on top of the world. You can smell the finish on them almost there. But at this point, your car is beat down, you're beat down.

You know, the tenseness of the race is, is starting to eat at you.

You come down Jackhammer, which is the most underrated trail as far as driving down. Everybody's like, well, it's not hard at all.

The guys that were starving for action at back door

and they started hearing on the radio that the readers were getting ready to come down. Jack,

they all pulled out left back door and they went to Sledgehammer

and they turned Sledgehammer into the most amazing amphitheater of carnage that's ever been seen

you up.

Ok. Copy leaders through eight miles 74.

Good

information. But I should get your back.

You know, I had to back it down to like 6800 and run the whole next section. And I was sitting there going,

I hope I make it through this and, you know, don't just blow the motor up 100 yards from the finish line. I understand we're tracking leader. I have a map over,

check her flag.

All right. Call 49 07. The official time

for your art

six,

Jason,

she,

my wife has sacrificed so much for me to be able to come out here and do this. I've been in the garage 45 and eight nights in a row working on this car.

My God, my dad,

the

mentor

over

my life

standard.

Bring

him

come

and the

absolutely brutal

there was, uh, way too many whoops and, uh, way too many rocks.

It was brutal. And, uh, it was awesome though.

You could hear him yelling over the boat

and stuff. It was,

it was wild.

He learned a lot.

I'll be back

next year. Definitely a lot more brutal than last year. Oh, that's rough out there.

That was the time of my life. I'm telling you the total time of my life. It was a, it was a hard one.

I gave it to him

and which my

going

mad.

I

know everybody come out here to watch and I didn't want to give up

money. But

yeah,

this is amazing. This is a crazy moment in life. So thank you guys. Take care.

We hope you guys enjoyed our Xtreme 4x4 King of the Hammer special. I want to congratulate all the guys that came out here and laid it on the line in Johnson Valley. A special thanks has got to go out to Hammer King productions and pin TV for making all this coverage possible. We'll see you guys back in the shop next week.