Spidertrax | Thom Kingston | CC BY 3.0

Spidertrax | Thom Kingston | CC BY 3.0

If you haven’t heard, King of the Hammers (KOH) is a bit of a big deal here in the States. So much so, 4-wheel drive clubs from around the world are creating their own versions of this epic competition, bringing this intense endurance style racing, with a little added home style flare, closer to home. Enter King of the Valleys, a KOH inspired race lead by Neil Whitford & the All Wheel Drive Club. Taking place in Walters Arena motorsport complex near Glyn Neath, South Wales, this years race promised a challenging 80+ mile, multi-lap, multi-day course, with nearly 50 teams from all over the world battling on a very challenging course.  Lessons learned from our trip overseas: the Belgians know their beer, an English breakfast is quite fulfilling, and Neil Whitford & the All Wheel Drive Club can put on one hell of a race.

Photographed here is Italy’s Pier Acerni, who is no stranger to racing. He has already made the trip out to King of the Hammers, and had won last year’s King of the Valleys. He’d repeat that again this year, taking another win at last weekend’s King of the Valleys. His prize is not only a cash payout, but a paid trip back to King of the Hammers in 2014. A huge congrats to Pier for what amounted to be nothing short of an incredibly consistent style of racing, for two days straight.

As we mentioned above, teams from around the world competed in this years King of the Valleys. This included our very own Levi Shirley, who despite battling winch and new terrain blues, secured a 3rd place finish by weekend’s end.  He and his spotter Terry Madden battled it out relentlessly till the end, and did an absolutely amazing job representing us here in the States. Their World Tour is not yet over, as Levi preps his Spider 9 powered  rig for the upcoming King of Portugal. Seeing a trend here with these “King of” events? Yes, it’s going to be big.

We have plenty of photos to share from last weekend’s race, and we’ll get on that starting today. Of course, we’re off again for more racing, this weekend in fact, at Ultra4s @ Superlift in Hot Springs, AR. Looking forward to seeing all of our east coast friends (and many west coast friends as well)  this weekend. Till then, hope you enjoy the photos we’ll be posting up from King of the Valleys, and we’ll see you at the next race.

Source: Ultra4Racing.com

We’ve been a bit behind on posts this week, but for good reason. While we make a point to make every Ultra4 race here in the States, we have yet to leave the county for racing abroad. That has officially changed as we write this post, direct from Wales UK, right at the heart of this years The King of the Valleys. No doubt about it, we’re having a blast out here.

Today, August 9th, marked the first day of action, namely the prologue (much like qualifying in the states, but lap times do count toward the final score). Wouldn’t you know, the fastest prologue time of the day went to Levi Shirley. That’s right, Levi and his Lucky Dog Racing team is here representing America, and they kicked things off right. His final time was 0:08:38, nearly 2 minutes ahead of the next best time. Congrats to Levi and his team for a great start to this weekend’s race.

We’re here for the entire weekend, and in typical fashion we’ll be helping teams and capturing a few photos along the way. By the time we get back to Spidertrax HQ, it will likely be Wednesday of next week. So, if you’re looking for the most up to date scores, best to head to http://www.kingofthevalleys.co.uk/index.php/follow/livefeed . Racing continues tomorrow and wraps up on Sunday. Best of luck to all drivers and teams this weekend, we’re looking forward to some great racing!