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Scherer Repeats King of the Hammers Victory in 2019
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King of the Hammers: If you’ve never heard of it, where the hell have you been? If you’ve never attended, well, you’re certainly missing out on one heck of a race series and sensory overload experience that will have you planning for the next year even as you drive home exhausted and spent.
King of the Hammers is a week-long off-road racing event, comprised in 2019 of five races, a pop-up city of 50,000+ zealous fans each day and nights-long 4WD free-for-alls. It all takes place in the middle of nowhere – Johnson Valley in Landers, CA. In its twelve years, co-founder Dave Cole, along with his team at Hammerking Productions, have built King of the Hammers into one of the most important events for the off-road community, seen by more than two million online viewers around the world, whether attending in person or via live-streaming. The base camp for this madness is Hammertown, a fenced-off dusty carnival that houses the Start/Finish line, racers, industry reps, top-tier sponsor tents, off-road pop-up stores, a myriad of food tents and the scores of surprisingly well-taken-care-of Port-A-Potties.
The main event for 2019, the Nitto King of the Hammers Powered by Optima Batteries, took place on Friday. Jason Scherer took that crown in six hours and thirty-two minutes, making him the first back-to-back winner in the race’s history. It’s his third win, overall. The first came a decade earlier, in 2009. Twenty-nine competitors - out of the 111 who started - finished the 235 mile race across an ever-abusive desert and punishing rock-crawling trails within the fourteen hour time limit.
Two-time king Erik Miller came in second, six-and-a-half minutes after Scherer. Shannon Campbell took third, an additional thirty-nine minutes later, replacing his son Wayland, who took third in 2018. Wayland Campbell was running second on the last lap, before a broken a-arm (subsequently brought to him by dad Shannon) ultimately knocked him out of the top ten.
Thursday’s race saw the inaugural T1 (Trophy Truck) race – the 2019 Toyo Desert Invitational Presented by Monster Energy, at King of the Hammers, which brought the added excitement of speed. It was an invitational event, so only 25 teams lined up at the starting line. Of those starters, only eight trucks crossed the finish line. Luke McMillin beat out cousin and four-time Baja 1000 champ Andy McMillin, who led until the 110-mile mark, when mechanical errors sidelined him. Justin Lofton took second, and Baja 1000 winner Apdaly Lopez took third.
There was so much more to this event than the races, though they were admittedly the highlights. As cold as those 21 degree mornings can be, I’m already making notes for my trip back out to Johnson Valley for next year’s race week.
King of the Hammers: If you’ve never heard of it, where the hell have you been? If you’ve never attended, well, you’re certainly missing out on one heck of a race series and sensory overload experience that will have you planning for the next year even as you drive home exhausted and spent.
King of the Hammers is a week-long off-road racing event, comprised in 2019 of five races, a pop-up city of 50,000+ zealous fans each day and nights-long 4WD free-for-alls. It all takes place in the middle of nowhere – Johnson Valley in Landers, CA. In its twelve years, co-founder Dave Cole, along with his team at Hammerking Productions, have built King of the Hammers into one of the most important events for the off-road community, seen by more than two million online viewers around the world, whether attending in person or via live-streaming. The base camp for this madness is Hammertown, a fenced-off dusty carnival that houses the Start/Finish line, racers, industry reps, top-tier sponsor tents, off-road pop-up stores, a myriad of food tents and the scores of surprisingly well-taken-care-of Port-A-Potties.
The main event for 2019, the Nitto King of the Hammers Powered by Optima Batteries, took place on Friday. Jason Scherer took that crown in six hours and thirty-two minutes, making him the first back-to-back winner in the race’s history. It’s his third win, overall. The first came a decade earlier, in 2009. Twenty-nine competitors - out of the 111 who started - finished the 235 mile race across an ever-abusive desert and punishing rock-crawling trails within the fourteen hour time limit.
Two-time king Erik Miller came in second, six-and-a-half minutes after Scherer. Shannon Campbell took third, an additional thirty-nine minutes later, replacing his son Wayland, who took third in 2018. Wayland Campbell was running second on the last lap, before a broken a-arm (subsequently brought to him by dad Shannon) ultimately knocked him out of the top ten.
Thursday’s race saw the inaugural T1 (Trophy Truck) race – the 2019 Toyo Desert Invitational Presented by Monster Energy, at King of the Hammers, which brought the added excitement of speed. It was an invitational event, so only 25 teams lined up at the starting line. Of those starters, only eight trucks crossed the finish line. Luke McMillin beat out cousin and four-time Baja 1000 champ Andy McMillin, who led until the 110-mile mark, when mechanical errors sidelined him. Justin Lofton took second, and Baja 1000 winner Apdaly Lopez took third.
There was so much more to this event than the races, though they were admittedly the highlights. As cold as those 21 degree mornings can be, I’m already making notes for my trip back out to Johnson Valley for next year’s race week.
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