Once again, Dave Cole, Jeff Knoll and the KoH Team has made this years King of the Hammers event an unforgettable one, to say the least. From family members dominating the races to rigs careening over the finish line with one less tire than they started with and speeds reaching well over 100 mph to racers overtaking their competition in the blink of an eye, this event did not disappoint!

Let me rewind to Thursday morning, February 9 at 1 am. There was seriously no way Eric and I were getting any sleep before our trip to the West Coast. Essentials were already packed, flight schedules were checked and double checked, doors were locked and miscellaneous items were thrown haphazardly on top of our duffel bags before we settled in for what could only be described as a solid 2 hour cat nap. Once 3:30 am hit, we were up and at 'em. Mother Nature would be rearing its ugly head in New England, dumping over a foot of snow in our area and we were not having one bit of it. We pulled our Jeeps into the shop, hopped into my dads car (thanks again for the ride, Dad!) and headed to Logan airport. The skies were overcast and you could almost smell the oncoming blizzard in the air. An hour later, Eric and I threw our deuces up and said peace TF out MasSnowchusetts. During our first flight, to San Francisco, we discussed our game plan for the day, this of course being done between the occasional nap on our 6+ hour flight. We were excited to see our friends Jeremy from Rock Krawler and Lee Griffith race in the Smittybilt Every Man Challenge. We've worked (and wheeled) with Jeremy for quite some time and wanted to check out his newly built race rig. We've also been friends with Lee for a while and wanted to watch him race in his rig, complete with an Offroad Elements decal on the side. However, West Coast weather had different plans for us. We were half an hour late landing in San Fran and our connecting flight to Ontario had been pushed back an hour and a half- cool....we had time for a few Bloody Maria's (not Mary's, Maria's...try em!) at the bar while we waited to board. After getting on the very small, very confined airplane, we were delivered with more bad news. The entire airport had shut down except for one runway for.....get this, RAIN! We couldn't believe it. Our flight was then delayed another 2 hours. By the time we landed, we had missed both Jeremy and Lee's races and wouldn't make it out to Hammertown for any of the EMC. Although we were pretty bummed, there was nothing we could do about it and In-N-Out was calling our names.  We were exhausted from our 14 hour long day of crammed first class seats and being rushed around just to wait that both of us knocked out cold, shoes and hoodies still on by 8 pm (cut us some slack, we were still on East Coast time and had been up for almost 24 hours by that point)!

Friday was a new day and we hit the ground running. Before leaving the hotel for our trek out to East-Bum, we filled our pockets with the complimentary mini muffins and donnetts and fueled up on black coffee and cranberry RedBulls (not together...that's just foul). The drive to Johnson Valley was an impatient one, but the closer we got, the more badass rigs we could see. We counted the landmarks we remembered from our last trip; Pipes Canyon, the Painted Mountains, the unholy amount of wind turbines, etc. until we were finally at the entrance to get to Hammertown. A long line of RV's, Jeeps, PreRunners and trucks stretched along the winding dusty road while UTV's, quads and dirt bikes hit the dunes and whoopsies that lined either side to our own personal Graceland. We could see the clouds of dust in the air and heard the faint beat from the helicopters following the racers through the deserts and hovering over the daunting obstacles. During our last visit to KoH in 2015, the only spectator spot we visited was BackDoor, since we were too in awe to move to another location. We figured this time we would start by visiting the two other spectator spots first. 

Our first stop was Chocolate Thunder. I wanted to grab a spot where we could get the best close-up pics while still being able to enjoy the action. A crowd had already formed up both sides of the canyon and although we would have loved to see the destruction that would unfold within the massive boulders, we were only equipped with an iPhone 6 S Plus and iPhone 7 Plus and still wanted to provide you, the reader, with some pretty awesome pics. By the time we parked our rental and made the hike up the canyons, we heard some chatter that Loren Healy's car had caught fire, a little before 9 am. Once we found our spot, it was official; Healy was out of the race. While the crowds began talking about the comfortable lead Loren had suddenly lost, more and more enthusiasts started flocking to the obstacle. The cars must be coming soon. Turns out, we got the prime spot! We overheard that the folks who were waiting over at JackHammer were in for a very long wait before any of the rigs would start coming through so we knew we made the right choice starting with CT.  We met a great couple of locals who gave us insight on places to wheel and enjoyed the back and forth banter of offroad shops, shows, activities, etc. It wasn't long before the first rig, since we had been there, made its way over the crest and down into the rocky path below. This racer was none other than Erik Miller. All alone in the rock garden, Erik took his time, maneuvering over each boulder and calculating his next move. It wasn't until he got to the bottom of the rock garden and beginning of CT that Shannon Campbell and Jason Scherer peeked over the mountain top and began their descent down the rocks. Each racer had to stop before the beginning of the obstacle, I am assuming for a sticker that shows they completed the task. Cheers and whoops echoed from between the dunes and canyons and the sound of engines being pushed to their absolute limits could be heard in every direction. 

We watched as the helicopters chased dust storms across the desert and knew it was a good time to move to the next obstacle. We jumped in our Nissan Pathfinder rental (did anyone catch us out there doing the Jeep Wave?!) and headed down toward BackDoor. In the past races, and during the Vision X Shootout, racers did their best to make it up the barren waterfall known as BackDoor. For KoH, racers were required to go down it; I'm not entirely sure of the reason for the switch-up this year but still enjoyed every minute of it! As soon as we made it over to the obstacle, we checked out a few bad ass rigs parked in the cluster of vehicles, took a few obligatory panoramic shots of Means Dry Lake and the mountains and canyons surrounding it and then made our way up the side of the BackDoor canyon. We could hear the rumbles of engines and cheers from the crowds and started to climb higher. I reached my tap-out point about 3/4 of the way up (my clumsiness + my lack of attention + loose dirt and rocks don't mix well) while Eric continued his climb to the top. We were able to catch the racers barreling down the last half of the obstacle before hitting the sand and racing back up the steep hill climb. The #19 rig, made careful and calculated moves while coming down the left side of the obstacle. and just as we thought he was in the clear, it seemed like he was having some difficulty with the transfer case. As the rig started to pull to the left and slow, Shannon Campbell came flying down the right side of the 6+ foot boulders and surpassing the rig to the right. This was an incredible spot to check out the best of rock crawling and high speeds mixed with pucker moments and plenty of thrills. 

Our next pit stop was to the vendor area in Hammertown. Along with plenty of manufacturers, there were food trucks and ice cream trucks (Choco-tacos FTW), a big screen tv that streamed the race live, a fire pit, a Monster Energy tent that was giving out free cans, an Axial track to race along side other RC cars and, of course, the gigundo line to stand in for official King of the Hammers merch. We maaaayyyyy have gone overboard at this spot but YOLO! We bounced around from vendor booth to vendor booth bugging the hell out of those we work with on a daily basis as well as checking out the newest concepts and parts being displayed and released by each. By the time we were done in Hammertown, we were questioning just how we were going to fit all of our t-shirts and merch into our already stuffed carry-on bags but that was another worry for another day. 

Our last stop was the JackHammer obstacle. This was by far one of my favorites. We started out near the fork where racers could start up the hill toward the obstacle or continue onto the desert portion of the race. Revving engines could be heard in all directions and the racers were pretty close to the spectators at this point. Prime photo time! We stayed where we were for the first few racers to speed out into the open deserts, helicopters on their tails as they kicked up whirlwinds of dust clouds. Once more rigs started heading up toward the rocky abyss, we decided to move further up where the action was. This took a bit longer than expected for us since we were stopping to take pictures of some of the badass toys parked in rows. Right when we found the perfect spot to park and rest, the Optima rig started making its way toward us, down the rocks rather than up, before pulling completely off the course and into the parking area to diagnose some issues. We weren't too sure of what was wrong and weren't about to bother them, with everything else going on around us. We watched a few more racers make their way up the unforgiving rocks before the Optima rig started back up and limped its way further away from the course. 

That's when we heard the news over the dozens of team radios; Wayland Campbell had crossed the finish line with Shannon Campbell, on three tires to boot, right on his tail. Shortly after, securing his spot in the top 3 was Jason Scherer who had been neck and neck with both Campbells for much of the race. Although the finish times were unofficial, it didn't take long for the KoH team to announce the official standings. Even though Wayland crossed the finish line first, his start time was a minute before Shannon's. Shannon's official time was 6:46:04 and Wayland's was 6:46:32 for a first and second place finish that was separated by a mere 28 seconds. This is Shannon's third King of the Hammers win, making it a banner day for the entire Campbell family, including Bailey who finished in 15th place. Wayland did what any brother would do when he saw his sister was stuck in a pretty compromising position on the Sledgehammer obstacle- he stopped what he was doing to help winch her out. Bailey's rig suffered some mechanical failures just shy of 10 miles from the finish line but she was able to recover and finish the race. She is also the only female driving in two classes in the race. The Campbell men and Jason Scherer pulled out into a commanding lead early in the race and from then on it was a pretty constant swapping of who was in the lead, each racer staying within sight of the competition. The top 3 racers were all running the Nitto Tire Trail Grappler M/T tires, making Nitto sweep the podiums at this years event. 

Out of 122 teams, from more than half the states and 6 countries, only 50 teams crossed the finish line within the allotted 14 hour time frame. We would just like to congratulate each and every team that participated in this years race. You guys honestly put your heart and soul into your builds as well as your efforts and put on a great show that kept the crowds on their toes the whole time. This race is obviously not for the faint of heart, or amateur racer, and it takes a lot of dedication, hard work, time and guts to compete. We will definitely be attending this event again and again. Also a huge thank you to Dave, Jeff and KoH team for once again organizing and running the most badass offroad race in the world...your hard work, year after year, does not go unnoticed! See you again for #KoH2018!!