Crawlin’ Column #19
By Rich Walker - Photo by Kelly Walker
Get used to hearing “KOH” in this issue! Of course, that stands for King of the Hammers and I have a ton of coverage from the event. I literally got back to Canada just a few days ago after eight days in the rocks and desert. I’m not going to lie, it was a great time and probably one of my favorite races I’ve been to yet. I had less than a week to get you guys the coverage for this issue, but I thought it would be nice to get it out in record time. Stay tuned to the pages ahead to see what happened to the Canadians at this year’s KOH.
For the rest of this column, I thought we could talk about some of the other events that take place during the week of action on the lakebed.
New this year was the BackDoor Shootout. If you have never seen or heard of the world famous obstacle in Johnson Valley named BackDoor then I suggest you do a quick YouTube search before reading on. BackDoor has grown to be quite the popular spot during KOH week as it is close to camp and turns into the action spot almost every night. People from all over camp (racers, trail wheelers, etc) with any kind of rig come out to try their luck on the wall, while the spectators heckle and push the drivers to their limits.
Add the allure of being the fastest guy up the obstacle, a trophy, bragging rights, and $10,000 in cash and you have the BackDoor Shootout.
On Monday night, literally thousands of people lined the canyon walls to watch 51 competitors abuse their machines to see who would be the fastest. The event took place at night, there was so much light it almost seemed like it was daytime. The competitors did not disappoint. One of the quickest times was a trail built four-door Suzuki Sidekick. He/she was faster than a lot of the actual racecars. We also had quite a few rollovers, many broken parts, wheel stands, great saves and huge air. The crowd favourite had to be one of the Southern “Rock Bouncers”. He nailed the wall and full speed and something broke in the rear end. When he tried to back up the entire rear differential tore out of the buggy. The driver didn’t even skip a beat. He grabbed first gear and drove out of the canyon on the chassis, leaving his diff and rear tires behind. The crowd went nuts.
When all the dust settled, it was the 2013 King, Randy Slawson who took home the fastest time and all the booty to go with it. I’m sure there is a ton of coverage, as nearly every person had a camera, cell phone or video camera.
Tuesday and Wednesday were the qualifying/LCQ days. With almost 200 competitors, it takes a couple days to run everyone through the approximately four hour-long course. Everything ran smooth and both days actually ended early. The only major mishap was the Big Ugly race team. They had a catastrophic crash just as they crossed the finish line. The car rolled 5 or 6 times and unfortunately, they weren’t able to fix the car in time to race. Both driver and co-driver were OK. Another reason to make sure you always stay up to date on all the proper safety equipment for these races.
Thursday was the EMC race (Every Man Challenge). It’s a shortened version of the KOH course with more spec built (limited) race vehicles. I’m sorry, but I didn’t get any time to follow the race and get the details. We were crazy busy in our pits getting ready for Friday’s race (you will read about that soon). I can tell you that we had one Canadian racing and his story will be featured. John Currie won yet again. He has swept the competition in the EMC four years in a row.
As you can see, it’s a crazy busy week on the lakebed. With over 400 teams competing in all the different races, it’s impossible to be everywhere, even with eight days to do it. So stay tuned for the pages ahead to see what happened to our fellow Canadians in the “big race”.
Stay safe, and see you on the trails.