King of the hammers

THE fastest growing motor sport in the U.S. is not just way out, but out of the way.
Known as KOH, for King of the Hammers, the week-long event takes place every February in California’s Mojave desert and is now in its seventh year.
To get to King of the Hammers Week, one has to set the GPS to head to the tent town called Hammertown and from there down to Mean’s Dry Lake.

If the place names don’t alert you, the noise soon will, for Hammers Week is where no-rules extreme 4x4 racing and the Yanks’ make-it-bigger approach to engineering have a joyous marriage of screaming, supercharged engines in mutant trucks, riding on what can only be described as super-hero suspension.
These trucks are custom built to rev up horizontal rock faces, crawl from between giant boulders thanks to gear ratios as low as 100 to 1, or race over sandy dunes at speeds of up to 160 km/h.

The sport’s growth is nothing short of phenomenal. The first race in 2007 was an informal affair that saw a few off-roaders compete for beer. This month, the organisers Hammer­king say more than 300 teams competed, with two trucks leaving the starting line every 30 seconds.
The two-person driver teams had 14 hours to cross the finish line 265,5 km away, literally going over several mountain ranges.

Unlike the Dakar, there are no mechanics racing behind the teams in trucks, and drivers must make running repairs on the track or withdraw.
The most important rules — which may also be the secret behind KOH’s success — are that the drivers must pass through seven spectator friendly checkpoints and not deviate more than 30 metres from the centreline of the course.

This year saw 35 000 spectators line the route and nearly 500 000 watch online. The spectators are asked to make a $20 donation (over R220) to pitch camp and watch the spectacle, but the organisers expect to make more money selling thousands of King of the Hammers compilation DVDs as well.
As a result of the growing popularity of this form of extreme 4x4 racing, the race organisers have also created an Ultra4 Racing Series, with stages seven races across the U.S. with the winner qualifying to enter the King of The Hammers race each year.