King of the Hammers Crowns New King

By Michael Maher - Photos by RNR Photos

Thousands of off-road racing enthusiasts made their annual trek out to Johnson Valley on Friday, February 7th for the Main Event of the 2020 Hammers Week, the week long salute to off-road racing and offroad sports in general, with the Nitto King of the Hammers Powered by OPTIMA Batteries combining two of the most popular off-road activities: open desert racing and rock climbing.

This year's event would crown a brand new King, as Josh Blyler, despite an embarrassing roll-over on the final lap, was first across the finish line. But given the nature of off-road racing, where the winner is decided on time rather than who crosses the finish line first, he had to wait to find out if he was truly the winner as a few other competitors were still capable of taking the victory away if they could make it to the finish line in time.

For what seemed like an eternity, Blyler, his co-driver, and the fans waited and waited as the clock ticked down until no one else on the course could beat his time. Finally, the clock ran down and Blyler was officially the winner. Blyler is the defending champion in Ultra 4, but this was his first Hammers win.

“We knew we were leading, we knew we were doing good, and we drove it in there too hot, too hard, like a bunch of idiots, and just like that, we were on the roof,” Blyler said at the finish line. “Jared was scrambling, he couldn’t get out. We finally got out, and as he was hooking the winches up he said ‘Don’t wait on me when we get you flipped!’ and I didn’t.” Two-time King Erik Miller finished second for the third straight year while Marcos Gomez, who started last in the field after rolling in qualifying, ran strong and looked he might actually pull off the win despite a flat tire. but then a broken rod end on his front suspension slowed him down and limped across the finish line with the third fastest time. Things began as expected, with the sport's top racers, several of them former Kings themselves, starting up front. Defending champion Jason Scherer was the early leader until he dropped out with transmission failure.

Fast qualifier Loren Healy then spent some time in the lead before drive line issues dropped him back. Bailey Campbell, whose father is a three time King and whose brother was also in the field, looked like she would become the event's first Queen until she too ended up on the sidelines with water pump problems. Her father, still in the race, dropped off parts to fix the problem and Bailey got going again but no longer in contention for the win.

Baja 1000 champion Cameron Steele also led the race at one point but a broken steering rack dashed his hopes of winning.

Over a dozen drivers spent time in the lead but a high attrition rate, only 44 of the 97 starters finished the grueling 212 mile race, set the stage for Blyler and the rest to move into the spotlight and battle it out for the win.

Blyler himself almost threw the race win away when he rolled his car on his last lap in the rock section known as Backdoor, but quick action by his co-driver and rescue crews got him back in the running to take the win.

But the King of the Hammers itself was not the only race of the week. Winners in other Hammers Week events included Bryce Menzies, who led all the way in the Toyo Tire Invitational for desert racing Trophy Trucks, Hunter Miller in the Can-Am UTV event which had the most entries of any class and included many drivers who would also compete in the King of the Hammers race, Brad Lowell in the 4WP Everyman Challenge and Stephan Rogers in the EFI Shootout. Saturday saw the return of motorcycles to the Hammers course with the Schampa King of the Motos, which was won by Cody Webb.

Full results for all races can be found at www.ultra4racing.com