HAMMER TIME!
Competition Can’t Touch Can-Am Courtesy King Of The Hammers Media
L
et’s break it down, the toughest week in motorsports has become Can-Am’s private playground. For the second year in a row, BRP-backed UTV racers swept the podium… the only difference was the order of finish. Kyle Chaney, Cody Miller, and Phil Blurton finished one, two, three at the 2021 King of the Hammers. If you have been living under a rock somewhere, KOH is motorsports equivalent of Burning Man and has been happening for the past 12 years. Classes for everything from the “Every Man Challenge” to the “King of The Motos” for bikes are raced in the Johnson Valley OHV area, but it is the UTVs that have really come into their own. There is no denying the volume of UTVs taking over the desert. The Can-Am UTV King of the Hammers Presented by Progressive proved that with 113 side-bysides taking the start. However, King of the Hammers is known as the most brutal one-day race for a reason. Only 46 vehicles finished. That didn’t deter Chaney from cashing in after nearly crashing out last year. Chaney was on a roll, earning $10,000 earlier in the week at the Toyo Desert Challenge and then adding $25,000 for winning the UTV King of the Hammers. Last year Chaney was on a different kind of roll, dislocating his toes and breaking his foot when his UTV rolled on him. Despite that adversity, he still managed to finish second in 2020, giving the competition a glimpse of what sort of resolve they should expect from the Ohio-based racer.
74
“I wanted to make it through the desert loop” Chaney confessed. “It had a bunch of nasty chop in it and I knew making it through that part of the course was going to be key today. I knew I could get through the rocks. But the desert was going to be tough.” Chaney completed the 121-mile course in just three hours and 47 minutes. The course started with a desert lap that combined tight, twisty ridgelines with mixed high-speed lakebeds. From there the difficulty level ratcheted up as the competitors had to traverse brutal rock crawling trails including Jackhammer and Bender Alley; trails that challenged both team and machine. Despite the difficulty in 2021, 46 of 109 UTVs finished the race within the 10-hour time limit. By contrast, in 2013 there were only 35 total entries, and only three of those reached the checked flag. This year, Chaney and the Miller brothers also entered the 4400 race on Saturday, driving the same Can-Am Maverick X3s they raced in the UTV race. “We will tear the whole thing apart tonight and have it back together by the morning,” Chaney disclosed. Tear it apart they did and race again on Saturday, too. Unofficial live timing and scoring had the two Can-Ams crossing the finish line together in 11th and 12th place against the V8 powered, purpose-built rock crawlers! Definitely a good week for UTVs in general and Can-Am in particular!
