A ‘never say die’
attitude and Maxxis Trepadors fitted to their custom off-road vehicle — and a team of Aussie
off-roaders were set to take on the infamous King of Hammers race in
California, USA.
The largest off-road event in North America, and first
race in the ULTRA4 Racing season, King of Hammers sees no less than 500 teams participating
with 50,000 avid fans watching on! Alongside the main race, other eye-watering
events include an eight-hour endurance race and contest for the fastest time up
a rock waterfall, all within the extreme rocky Johnson Valley terrain.
Racing their reworked and refitted 4400 Class Ultra 4, off-roader Barry Smethurst and his team were on a steep learning curve as they joined the other
diehard competitors, with their M8060 42” Trepador tyres at the ready for race day action!
In the qualifying lap
the boys came in towards the rear of the field leaving them a heap of work to
move up the field on race day.
“Our Trepadors performed beautifully in the sand and rocks – but we had more work to do,” Barry explains.
Over the next few
days, the team did countless hours of finetuning, preparing their rig for the gruelling
320km desert and rock race of a lifetime.
“The tyres held up perfectly against the rocks and high-speed desert sections of Lap 1.”
Then disaster struck!
While attempting the famous “Black Door Trail” involving a daring vertical rock
wall, the rear diff pinion failed, leaving the Aussie team stranded and their
journey seemingly over.
But, with a couple of
deep breaths and plenty of Aussie attitude, they set out on foot to the pits to
collect a new diff centre and the tools and oil required to do the swap in the field.
The team made up
time, however it just wasn’t enough to get them over the finish line – this
time round at least.
Says Barry: “The experience, the support and the event as a whole was an awesome journey. It didn’t go as well as we hoped but we are still excited to have raced the biggest race of its type in the world and we will be back (with our gutsy Trepadors) to have a crack again!”
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