NAXJA team finishes 7th in King of the Hammers race

[Goatman]

We had one hell of a time, and exceeded all of our expectations. Finishing in 7th place was awesome. We really didn’t know what to expect ahead of time, I was hoping to make a clean run and finish in the top 20. When we got there and saw all of the well built and bad ass rigs we just hoped to finish the race clean and see where we ended up. To snag a top 10 finish is thrilling. Our whole team is really stoked.

Before I get into some race details, I want to thank our crew. First, thanks to Dave Taylor and Paul Sinclair, and Garry Hall, for getting us into the race. Thanks to Paul for being co-dog and helping with all the pre-race planning and work, and for being willing to be thrown around in the passenger seat for a few hours. Thanks to the guys who helped work on the rig ahead of time, Cal Tuttle, Andy Couch, Matt Strmiska, Eric Geye, Robert Gonzales, Joe, Daniel Fleming, Cliff, Jack, and Randy. Thanks to our crew at the race, Cal, Dave Taylor, Matt Strmiska, Andy Couch, Tony Rojo, Grant Barclay, Chris Johnson, “Jump this” Rick, and to Steve Hamilton and Mike for driving down to be there if we needed them (I hope I didn‘t miss anyone). And thanks to our sponsors, Rigworks fabrication, JE Reel Drivelines, ’s 25th Anniversary Celebration, Maxxis tires, CTM, the Blue 52 gang, Pro Auto Sales, and those of you who sent something to help us out with expenses. All of your help and efforts are very greatly appreciated. Thanks also to Scott Hilton for the use of the helmets and to Barry Hopfe for the firesuits.

The King of the Hammers race is the first ever of it's kind, combining rock crawling and desert racing in one marathon race. The course consisted of about 15 miles of rock trails and 30 some miles of various desert terrain. The Johnson Valley trails that we ran were Aftershock, Sunbonnet/Hell's Gate, Sledgehammer, Jackhammer, Wrecking Ball, Clawhammer, Big Johnson, and Outer Limits.

 

[Goatman]

We had a few pre-race issues to deal with, got it off the trailer and the trans wouldn't shift. After messing with everything we could think of, including changing out the solenoids, it ended up being the TPS, probably wasted it steaming off the engine right before we left. Paul, Cal, and I had a nasty day working on it in the rain, wind and mud. We also had an axle seal that started leaking so bad we felt we needed to fix it, so we pulled the axles and carrier out, then could get a seal. We wraped duct tape around the axle, greased the seal up good, and it held. We ended up not getting to pre-run as much as we would have liked.

Race day morning we had to start lining up around 6:30, and it was breezy with a few sprinkles. After some light rain early on in the race the weather was pretty good. We drew 18th starting position, and the start was in 30 second intervals. We took off and the first few miles were really rough, then we went through a sandy section, then out onto a dry lake bed for a few miles of flat out running. I heard an air line break, so new we lost one of the lockers. After a long run down the old SCORE track, with lots of vaious sized whoops, we turned up into a wash and got to pit one at mile 16. The crew fixed the rear air line and gave us a little gas, but we got passed by quite a few rigs while working on the air line. We took off and in a couple miles hit the first trail. We got passed by two rigs, but then got in a groove and started passing other rigs on the trail. We turned to go up Devil's Slide but got caught behind an F toy, ran down Hell's Gate and passed a few more rigs, then headed out into the desert for some more rough stuff and the biggest whoop section of the race. We were staying with one of the better set up rigs for desert running (Drew Burroughs) through the big whoops, so that got us excited.

We headed up the out of Sledgehammer, not knowing what lockers we had, and caught and passed Drew right after we started down Sledge, then hauled and passed another rig after the mailbox right before starting down the lower section of Sledge. We figured out that we had lost both locker airlines, but figured we could get up Jackhammer and down Jack North without them, then get fixed at pit 2. Unfortunately, one rig rolled a big assed rock in a narrow spot on the trail, and we broke the rear driveline trying to get through. We backed up trying to get out of the way, then didn't feel so bad when the next few rigs through had as much trouble as we did and they had lockers that worked. This created quite a bottleneck, with rigs stacking up behind the rigs trying to get through. Paul got a strap around a big rock up the side of the canyon and we winched ourselves out of the way, after getting on the radio to Tony and letting the crew know that we needed the spare driveline. Meanwhile, Drew got hung up in the same section and broke his rear driveline, so he backed up and used our strap to winch himself out of the way, so we were both up the side of the canyon replacing a rear driveline. The guys got there and put in the spare, and fixed both front and rear airlines, which had melted from the excessive heat of running hard.

We got off the winch, got buckled back in, and headed up. A yellow D90 buggy was struggling getting through that same spot, and after he hesitated I gunned it drove over his front tire, getting a cheer from the crowd. Just up the trail we passed Becca Webster, then passed a couple more rigs going down Jack North. At pit 2 we were doing fine, but the crew stopped us to check the driveshaft u-bolts, then we were gone. We gained on Jack Adams and caught him at one of the first obstacles in Wrecking Ball, he took a bad line, we darted behind him, and we were off. We had a clean, quick run up the trail and then came to the crowd waiting at the waterfall at the top of Wrecking Ball, where we never hesitated and drove right up the waterfall and made a quick line through the last squeeze getting some good air under the left front tire but never slowing down. We later found that only a couple rigs even did the waterfall, most going around it.

We headed down Clawhammer, passing another couple of rigs, hit the check point and passed another rig on the way to Lower Big Johnson. We had clean run up the Johnson's, never seeing another rig, and made it to pit 3 where we got 5 gals of gas. The crew told us we were doing good, in the front of the pack, since not that many rigs had come by and a couple of the leaders were broke. We headed out for Outer Limits and headed down, the only section of the course that we had never done before (going down), and made a clean run, passing JR and another rig broke halfway down. We hit the next to last check point with nothing but open desert left, the guys there gave us the thumbs up that we were doing well, so we put the hammer down for the last 18 mile run back to the finish line. Our crew had come out from pit 3 to see us go by, which was nice as they cheered as we flew past them. We saw dust way off in the distance, and as we made the sharp left turn to head out onto the lake bed we saw we had caught Dean Bullock. We followed him for the run across the lakebed and into the rough last few miles, and got a chance to pass him about 2 miles from the finish line. We knew we where ahead of him, since he started ahead of us, but we could go faster so we did. Paul and I were both talking sweet to the rig hoping she would hold together and bring us home. We crossed the finish line and found out that we were the 7th rig in, virtually guaranteeing us a top 10 finish. We ended up placing 7th by time.

Everyone was pretty stoked, and we were flying high and very excited. One of the race organizers came over to congratulate us, saying we made a great run. We visited with Shannon Campbell a little, as he thanked Andy (Porch Puppy) for welding him up at pit 2. Later, we had a quite a party in Andy's toyhauler celebrating with our crew, some of the SoCal gang, and the Blue 52 guys. What an experience!!

 

[IntrepidXJ]

great job guys

sounds like a ton of fun!

 

[Bryan C.]

:cheers:

Nicely done Richard!

 

[Paul S]

I didn't want to thank the crew before Richard had a chance to, now I can. Thanks guys!!! I seriously doubt that any team had a crew like ours. The best part of the entire race week was the guys that made team Hall a real team:cheers:

Following is my 'passenger seat' report from the SoCal chapter:

Figured I'd post-up a few random thoughts from what had to be the best seat for the race.

First off, big thanks to Garry Hall for hooking up the invite. We had zero to no chance of getting in without Garry’s name. Garry no doubt had some reservations about putting his name on the line for a couple of us bus drivers, but he stepped-up & got it done.

So, what a ride… It didn’t really hit me until I got in, spent 10 minutes getting securely buckled-up (with Rick helping to tightly cinch-down the seat belts), followed by ‘drivers, start your engines’. That was cool, & it was then I realized that we were in way over our heads.

Other than our little air-line problem, leading to a busted rear driveshaft, the entire race was like a Sunday morning drive.
Once in a while I called out ‘that way’, or ‘a little passenger/driver’, or, ‘just be ready to punch it’, & my index finger got a workout controlling the winches, but in reality Richard was so ‘on’ that it couldn’t have been easier for a co-pilot.
Aside from our break on Jack, I can only remember backing up once, it was entering plaque rock on Sunbonnet, we hit a diff, backed-up & took the little waterfall line to the right (on the left going up).
We all have our ‘on’ days, but it took some intense concentration for Richard to stay on for near 5 hours straight with that kinda pressure.

With the exception of Jack S., Wrecking Ball & the Johnsons, all the trails were run down. Anyone that has run down these trails knows that it puts you into constant blind drops. Normally when running down trails we edge up to a waterfall or ledge & cautiously drop down. In the race we barely slowed. If the drop was to the passenger side (in which case Richard couldn’t see it) I’d tell Richard left/right, gas it, etc., & he’d just do it. He never hesitated. I don’t know that I could have driven some of those falls without questioning my co-pilot.

We had (that I can think of) 3 distinct places/lines that we knew in advance would be good places to pass guys that were less familiar with the trails, we got to use all 3 & the timing was perfect for all 3. The second we caught-up with the car in front of us our ‘optional’ line was right there waiting for use & we didn’t miss a beat. We were grinning ear to ear each time, almost like we knew what we were doing.

Another neat thing about the race was that at times it was almost surreal how quite it got. We had the Johnsons & Outer Limits entirely to ourselves. In the middle of such a crazy, noisy race we (or at least me) actually had some time to just enjoy the Hammers.

Thanks for the ride Richard

Paul

 

[Jes]

Congrats guys! :cheers:

 

[cal]

You've really set the bar for next year.





I'll be there.

 

[97XJ Jeeper]

A yellow D90 buggy was struggling getting through that same spot, and after he hesitated I gunned it drove over his front tire, getting a cheer from the crowd.

Awesome!! Get out of the way or I'll run you over!:roflmao: I wish I could see pics of that. Great job guys. Sounds like you had a blast.
:cheers:

 

[FarmerMatt]

You've done us proud!!!

 

[crasy1_69]

Congrats man I got nothing done at all that day trying to listen to the feed and refreshing the screen constantly on pirate.

Would have been awesome to be there and be a part in some way.

 

[Burton58]

congrats!!! thats a great finish for the first time running something like that. sounds like it was an amazing time!

 

[Weasel]

You guys did a great job. One thing that I think really helped was the prep and the support crew you had gathered. Sounds like you guys did it right and planned out your stops and had enough people helping all along the course. Vehicle support crews in the right places, with the right equipment is imo one of the key things to this kind of race.

 

[djblade311]

hopefully I can help one way or another for next year. I didnt get much done at work because I kept tuning in to the broadcast and was writing down Checkpoint times. after I started hearing your CP times, I was giddy and so excited for you guys. "Damn I wish I was there" came out of my mouth many times.

 

[cal]

"Damn I wish I was there" came out of my mouth many times.

You probably had a lot more excitement and a better idea of what was going on than we did.

For us it was "damn I hope the radio is working. why arent they here? did they break? is paul calling for help? we havent we heard anything for 25 minutes? is that them on fire up at sledge? oh shit! wait! no! thats blue not yellow. where the hell are they? LOOK THERE THEY ARE! Are they really the 8th rig to come through the checkpoint?! GO RICHARD!"

.. and then you drive a couple miles as fast as you can with all of the parts, tools, jacks, jackstands, fuel, and food bouncing around in the back of your rig .. to go through it all over again. and again.


The thrill however, when we got to the finish line knowing they were on the final desert loop .. and there were only a couple of rigs completed...

 

[XJEEPER]

Great summary Richard and Paul and congratulations again!

Can't wait for the video......nice to see the solid combination of well prepped rig and driver/spotter skills, pull off a Top 10 finish with a garage-built retired grocery-getter.

Putting a good support team together to fix stuff was key too. I think that alot of "known" drivers were less than prepared to handle the stuff that this kind of course dishes out, judging by the attrition.

You guys ROCK!

 

[Capt. Nemo]

Great job, guys!

 

[BlueCuda]

Congrats! Sounds like a blast.

Were you running a stock 4.0 or something modded? Surely there was some LSX powered rigs there that would be a beast on the open areas. Props again!

 

[XJensen]

Truely a story to be told and will never get old around the campfire. Congrats guys

 

[Goatman]

Congrats! Sounds like a blast.

Were you running a stock 4.0 or something modded? Surely there was some LSX powered rigs there that would be a beast on the open areas. Props again!

Totally stock 4.0L. We had really wanted to swap in the 4.6L stroker from the XJ...........

However, while the 1st and 2nd place rigs had strong V8's, the 3rd place rig had a turbo 4cyl Toy motor, 4th place a 4.3 V6 Chev, and 5th place was a 4 banger F toy. Many of the big horsepower buggies broke drivetrain parts in the rocks.

Great summary Richard and Paul and congratulations again!

Can't wait for the video......nice to see the solid combination of well prepped rig and driver/spotter skills, pull off a Top 10 finish with a garage-built retired grocery-getter.

Putting a good support team together to fix stuff was key too. I think that alot of "known" drivers were less than prepared to handle the stuff that this kind of course dishes out, judging by the attrition.

You guys ROCK!

Yes, we had a good crew, and we were prepped reasonably well. We didn't think much about the extra heat, though, and the melted air lines.

Someone needs to let Poomba know about how his old rig has done.

:cheers:

 

[Weasel]

However, while the 1st and 2nd place rigs had strong V8's, the 3rd place rig had a turbo 4cyl Toy motor, 4th place a 4.3 V6 Chev, and 5th place was a 4 banger F toy. Many of the big horsepower buggies broke drivetrain parts in the rocks.

5th place had a bit more engine then that, 400hp LS1 actually.