Put The Hammer Down

Just managing to finish America’s most extreme offroad race known as the king of the Hammers is a feat in itself … but winning means testing pain and frustration tolerances to the max, as two aussie teams found out.

- Mad Matt

If you were to go to the Means dry lakebed east of Los Angeles, California, at Christmas time you would find a desolate, cold and lonely desert. It’s either complete silence or a howling windstorm around the rocky outcrops. You may spot a couple of four-wheel drivers picking their way across the remains of the WWII bombing range still faintly etched into the lakebed, a reminder of the intensity of the bombs exploding as men prepared for war.

In contrast, if you went in early February you would have found ‘Hammer Town’ had risen from the desert floor, with its population peaking at more than 50,000 people from across the world in preparation for a modern form of war. A town has risen but its life will be fleeting, as it will be returned to the desert within a few short days. Those eight days will be epic, as the faithful prepare to destroy the desert trails in the main event with extravagantly expensive Ultra4 race cars. Welcome to the King Of The Hammers ... the world’s toughest one-day off-road race held each year in the Johnson Valley.