Spidertrax | Thom Kingston | CC BY 3.0

Spidertrax | Thom Kingston | CC BY 3.0

Spidertrax | Thom Kingston | CC BY 3.0

Spidertrax | Thom Kingston | CC BY 3.0

We’re a few days late to the KOH recap party, thanks in large part to both a hard drive and CF card failure. Apparently our computers don’t like the desert as much as Spider 9 axles do (shameless plug). So first things first, a HUGE CONGRATS to Loren Healy, for taking top honors in this year’s 2014 King of the Hammers. For 178 miles, Loren raced his Spider 9 powered solid axle Ultra4 through easily the toughest terrain these United States has to offer. Never giving up, which always seems to be the recipe for success out in Johnson Valley, Loren crossed the finish line in just over 8 hours, roughly 15 minutes ahead of the 2nd place finisher.

Easily the toughest KOH yet, a huge honor to Loren for winning and for everyone else who managed to cross the finish line, which was 32 in total. That’s 32 finishers in a race made up of roughly 156 Ultra4s, or just under 21%. Yes, it was that hard. Finishing or not, we are still very blown away by the continued support we receive from all drivers and teams. No doubt Spider 9 axles have found their place in Ultra4, we are both grateful and honored just to be part of the action. It’s going to be an amazing year, and with 7 more US races and 4 European races still on the books, we’re just getting started.

Oh, and remember that hard drive and CF card failure? Yeah, those had all of our photos on it from KOH. Luckily, by a little technical magic, we managed to recover both failures and we’ll be back in full swing with photos to share. So, stay tuned this week (and likely a little of next week at this point) for some of our favorite shots from KOH.

Spidertrax | Thom Kingston | CC BY 3.0

We all know King of the Hammers is growing year over year, but it must be said; the size of this year’s King of the Hammers is just insane. We say this in a good way, of course, another testate to Dave Cole for moving this event, and sport in general, in the right direction. We are still waiting for a semi-official count of those in Hammertown, but we know from first hand experience (we’ve been part of KOH since the beginning) the number of spectators, drivers, and teams is beyond anything that could have ever been dreamed of. It’s crazy, and we love it.

Today wrapped up the rest of qualifying, setting the starting order for 156 Pro racers for Friday and 77 EMC racers for Thursday. Add to this the 24 UTV racers who ran today (congrats Mitch Guthrie for the win) & the 75 Moto racers who ran last Sunday, and you can see where we’re coming from. It’s a wild ride, to say the least, and we can’t wait for Thursday and Friday.

If you’re getting ready for the next two days, be sure to check out Thursday’s running order at http://bit.ly/1es6SiW and Friday’s running order at http://bit.ly/1e4MsX6 . Also, DO NOT MISS the live coverage this year over at http://ultra4racing.com/live/ . This page includes a live multi-channel video feed and chat, and will honestly  keep you in the loop during race day better than being in Hammertown alone. The coverage has been amazing this year, the best ever, so a big congrats to Shannon Welch and the entire production crew for knocking it out of the park.

Finally (one last word), a huge thanks to all of the drivers and teams supporting Spidertrax and Spider 9 products this year. For Friday’s main race, 8 of the top 10 off the line are drivers powered by Spider 9 axles and components. A testament to both the product and support we have from amazing racers. Thank you, and best of luck tomorrow and Friday to everyone racing. We’ll see you out there!