Spinnin' Fours 4x4 Club of Southern California

Some of us are going out Friday, Feb. 12th to watch the exciting finals of the King of the Hammers event located on Means Dry Lake in Johnson Valley . We attended the event last year and really enjoyed watching these awesome rigs attack the rocks, ledges, and other challenges the orginizers had set up. I understand this year they've added new routes that promise to be even more challenging and exciting! If there's enough interest we may stay for the weekend and camp out either at Melville Heights (about 15 mins. from Means Dry lake) or camp near the event on Means. We can also check out a number of off-road vendors that will be setting up displays on Means during the event. If there's interest, we also may tackle some of the moderate trails in the area if we stay the weekend...

I don't think I'll be able to attend this year but I will see what I can do.

Hey Fred, wouldn't it be cool if someone in the club was intimately involved in the race? Say, co-designer of the course, creating all GPS files and maps (main event, LCQ, and UTV race), coordinating course marking, spending 2 weeks at Hammertown before the race, and, for the 3rd year, coordinating Film Crew Transport for the DVD of the race?

That would be a good thing to mention in this thread, don't you think?

Coverage on Pirate4x4.com has begun. A great overview of the week is here:

http://www.pirate4x4.com/king-of-the-ha ... /index.php

Who might you be talking about Mark???

Hey, I know a guy like that!

I met Guy at the near the main event area Friday morning and then headed out to watch some of the rock crawling action. The best action we witnessed took place mid afternoon while the rigs were crawling up Sledge Hammer-a rocky trail considered to be somewhat mild compared to other nearby Hammer trails. About 1/2 way up one vehicle broke while attemping to climb a rock ledge and partially blocked the trail. Other arriving drivers began to go arround the broken rig, but soon were also having problems climbing the ledge. A few rigs needed to winch their way up while others-after many trys and with vocal encouargement from the large and noisy spectator crowd-managed to eventually crawl up the ledge. We heard later that the recent heavy rains made the trails alot more challenging...
I was planning to visit some of the vendor displays but it wasgetting late in the afternoon so we decided to head back for home. I wasn't aware of any driver injuries, but we saw at least three spectators at Sledge Hammer that were being treated for fall injuries while walking or climbing up the canyon, and a few people were injured by falling rocks knocked loose by spectators climbing up the canyons sides. The spectators at these events seem to be more at risk for injury than the contestants-especially the guys toting their Buds and Coors Lite...