5:33pm

I am off-line and officially on vacation.  We had a great day out in the desert.  Some great racing and great laughs.  Just got back from the Drivers meeting for the race tomorrow and Friday.  More information on the King of the Hammers go to www.kingofthehammers.com but more importantly for live coverage to to www.pirate4×4.com

3:20pm

First off, I need to give a special thanks to Pirate4×4.com for their internet connect and support with this project…  We could not have had this coverage if it wasn’t for these guys.  GET IT!

Back at photos… here are some more.

Went and talked with Totally Off Road Radio.  Be sure to listen to their show from the Maxxis trailer at King of the Hammers   www.torrshow.com

2:15pm

Ok, I am working on some more pictures to post…tons to sort through… you are going to like!

I am headed over to the Totally Off Road Radio show trailer right now… I will be back at pictures in a few.

1:00pm

Ok, all of the cars are in!! Quite a race!!  I am going to work on posting pictures now… scroll down to see them at the bottom.  We will have a You-Tube video here shortly also.  And be sure to listen tonight to Totally Off Road Radio where I will be talking about the race!  I am also going to be posting some post reports here too…

Read from the bottom up to start from this morning to current.  I’m still working on posting pictures…. stay tuned  ~Charlene

________

11:55 am
Official time:  3 hr 14 minutes
4th Place:  Bob Roggy and Jon Crowley in a Kawasaki Teryx

“Well, we’re here and we finished” says Jon Crowley.  With the only side x side that had a list of issues, they are proud to have crossed the finish line.  Two flat tires and a busted fan switch they worked their way through the course.

The first flat tire was before the sand hill.  They pulled their spare off, and then realized that they had lost their impact and tool kit somewhere along the way.  Dangit!  So with little to no tools they changed the tire.  The next obstacle was the sand hill where they spent over a half hour trying to get up.  The sand made it quite an experience.

The trails were awesome and the Warn Winch came in multiple times to pull them through where they got stuck and there was no one there to help.  They had another flat tire during the mid section of the race and Casey Currie stopped and gave them his spare.  The Teryx now had one Maxxis on it!  As Clayton, the main Maxxis man, was proud to point out, every finisher had at least one MAXXIS tire mounted up!

As they came up to Aftershock they once again faced an over heating issue.  They spent about a half an hour working on the fan switch.  This gave some of our camera crew time to get down to the bottom and interview them…watch soon for a video…they are working on editing it right now!!

Then, as Jon puts it, “I ran my happy little ass up aftershock to help spot for Bob”  He threw rock, and helped one of the better rock crawlers on the river bed get through the roughest section.  Once they made it through there, it was all down hill and back to the main camp.

Of course nothing is ever easy…or done completely ahead of race day.  They got the unit with 600 miles on it and it now has 700 miles.  The car got finished yesterday in the pits and then on the pre-run yesterday they broke a CV, which Mike had in stock in his trailer for his race Teryx.  They never truly tested the car or pre-ran the course.

Bob said it was “Pretty brutal.  I don’t have a lot of seat time in one of these vehicles so I don’t know what it’s capable of, but it sure was a lot of fun!”

[View with PicLens]

11:00  am
Official time:
3rd Place:  Casey Currie and Reid Nordi in a Kawasaki Teryx

“He is COMING IN BACKWARDS”  I ran out the door to grab a picture of that!!  After getting lost 4 times out on the trail and loosing low range in the first rock section he drove in high range.  But that wasn’t the end of it ~ after Big Johnson they lost the high range too.  Bound and determined to finish he threw it into reverse and finished the last 8 miles backwards! “My neck hurts!” says Currie.

“That’s pure determination” said Pistola Pete.

There was no issues with the Teryx. The ground clearance was the best part of the vehicle. He said that they hardly hit anything even over the rocky section.

[View with PicLens]

10:45 am

Official time:  2 hours 6 minutes
2nd Place:  Brandon Schueler and Blake Vandeloo in the Jagged X RZR

“This was a short sprint” says Brandon.  When used to the long BITD races, the 50 mile course wasn’t a huge problem, it was the addition of the rocks crawling that presented the difference. The sand hill was fun and they expected it to be a lot worse.  I was out at the sand hill when they were pre-running yesterday with their Polaris Ranger that took a lot of work to get up.  They made it and continued on…getting lost a couple of times for about a mile and a half when they missed a corner marker.

“Everything went well, then the rocks came along” Brandon laughs.  They ended up having to use reverse a couple of times to make it happen.  Blake (the old guy) had to get out and throw rocks and spot as Brandon (the young guy) got to sit in the RZR and drive!   By far, Aftershock was the hardest part…especially when you think that half of the rocks were bigger then their tires!  They did break a bolt on it, but had their pit crew at the top where they were able to throw a bolt in and continue in.

The RZR is 2000lb fully loaded BITD car was a bit much for the rock section.  It already had about 3000 race miles on it before today.  Next year they are going to really try and lighten up the whole vehicle.  They had a little bit of body damage on one side…just a little rock.

The Casey Currie Kawasaki was right behind them when they left the Big Johnson rock section.

[View with PicLens]

10:25 am

DNF: Jon Bundrant and Larry McRaelimped in the All Pro Offroad RZR

They had just caught up with the Guthrie team and was in the mix of Aftershock when they rolled over backwards putting some carnage on the cage.  Once they rolled back upright they realized that they had a broken front CV.  Without a front differential and no 4WD they knew they wouldn’t be able to make it up Big Johnson so decided to limp it back to camp.

They had a great race and enjoyed everything about it.  They also pre-ran a lot, so knew the terrain, but the fluke mechanical break took them straight out of the race.  From second to DNF… that’s racing!

[View with PicLens]

10:05  First across the finish line!

Official time:  1 hour 53 minutes
Congratulations to:  Mitch Guthrie & Bob Schwendenman

They had no problems, but tore up their RZR!  Tore out the whole under carriage, lots of damage to the skid plates.  They ended up ripping their brake lines out and didn’t have any brakes from the last portion of the rock section.  They blew out their coil retainers so when the wheels came up it ended up blowing out the headlights!

They had a top speed of 60mph top speed across the lake bed and figured an average of about 25 mph.  Some of the sand washes were just big enough for the RZR to fit through…they think it will be interesting for the big buggies to get through.  They had pre-ran the loops about 3 times now. They had guessed at the course, but knew where to start.  Mile 9 – 15 they said was hardcore.

They passed most of the group out in the first section of the race.  Then they settled into a nice pace.  All of a sudden Jon Bundrant came out of no where and passed him!  They picked it back up and was able to pass him back again just before Aftershock.  They knew that the first one into the rocks would be the leader.  Only a few rocks had to be thrown, and they didn’t even use the winch.

Yes, they want to do it again….Next time they are planning on putting more protection under the carriage so they don’t tear everything up!

[View with PicLens]

9:30am

Mile 18 all 4 are within 2 minutes of each other.  Currie was not in sight.

Mile 19 mile is a crazy Sand uphill.  We watched pre-running there yesterday and knew this was going to be one of the gnarly areas that the side x sides would have a challenge with ground clearance and power.  You have to hit it hard to get up the rutted out sandy uphill, but then you have to go directly into a technical rocky uphill trail.  There were a couple of different options… Two guys went to left and made it up and one went to the right and had to winch.

Heard that Jon and Bob were stuck on the hill with a flat tire.

At this point they were all within dust distance…

9:00 am

Here are some pics from the first few miles… And They are OFF!!

[View with PicLens]

8:30 am   Along the first 2 Miles

“It’s a dog race out there…” Aaron Campbell says.  They are within a minute of each other. Guthrie, Bundrant and then the Jagged Team.  Pictures by Aaron Campbell:

[View with PicLens]

7:00 am Driver Meeting

Jumped in the RZR after wiping the ice off the seats and headed to the drivers meeting.  “Watch for the red arrows” says Big Rich, “have fun and be safe.”  There was originally 15 cars that were signed in to come out, but with different excuses coming in from all directions, 5 cars showed up to make the start line.
8:00 am  Start Line

First off the line is the UTVGuide.net car of Bob Roggy and Jon Crowley.  Yes, you know the name Jon Crowley from our magazine…a consistent contributor and driver for our shootouts teamed with a very experienced rock crawler Bob Roggie who has spent countless hours on getting the Kawasaki Teryx race ready.

Second off the line was Jon Bundrant with co-driver Larry McRae.  The All-Pro Offroad team has years of rock crawling background to get them through the rough sections.  Bundrant is a former rock crawl champion who is in his first ever Side X Side race in a RZR.  Co-driver in todays race Larry McRae was his spotter in the rock crawl events so they know how to make it happen!

Third off the line was the Jagged X RZR driven by Brandon Schueler and co-piloted by Blake Vandeloo.  This Best In The Desert pimped out RZR has seen lots of desert terrain, but adding the rock component will be interesting.  But both Brandon and Blake have lots of experience in the rocks in jeeps so it should be an easy cross over.

Fourth off the line was the Mitch Guthrie and Bob Schwendenman team in their RZR.  Guthrie, a Pro Rock Champion in 2004 brings some great experience to the table.  In his nearly stock RZR with a long travel kit and they are expecting a fun rave.  Lots of pre-running has helped this team prepare for the desert distance.

Drawing fifth was Casey Currie in a modified Kawasaki Teryx.  Casey is no one new to King of the Hammers.  He raced last year and came in second!  That is a feat as a majority of the starters never finished.

And now they are in the desert… We are up and down with Internet connection so stay tuned as there are more updates to come!

6:29 am

Welcome to King of the Hammers and the Side X Side race.  Mike and I are out in the desert right now covering a first ever event…maybe one of the most challenging races that we have seen Side X Side’s put through.

Our plan for today is to keep you updated with the racing coverage and see what is going on as I get live feed from the race track.  This is also first of its kind!  Thanks to the Pirate4×4.com group we are able to be live from a place where NO cell phones or internet works.

Stay tuned….  Off to the races!

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