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2016 King
of the Hammers
Johnson Valley, California
UTV / SXS Racing
February 3, 2016
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Blake Van de Loo Crowned
King of the Hammers
KOH / King of the Hammers
UTV Race Report
2016
King of the Hammers
KOH Links
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Johnson Valley, CA (2/6/2016) –
With the largest field in history, and a challenging
desert and rock valley course, this year’s King
of the Hammers UTV race was certain to please. Jagged
X Racing’s Blake Van de Loo was the most pleased
as he came out of a long battle with ITP / Super
ATV’s Mitch Guthrie to win the America’s toughest
UTV racing event. LSR / ITP’s Branden Sims finished
second, ahead of STI’s Chad Hughes and Arctic Cat’s
Dean Bulloch. Guthrie held on for fifth.
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Polaris /
Jagged X Racing's Blake Van de Loo claimed
the 2016 King of the Hammers UTV race
win on Wednesday
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The 110+ mile long course was tamed down slightly
for 2016, and there was 21 finishers of the record
60 entries, so it worked. Over 30,000 spectators
were in attendance and with picture-perfect weather,
the venue was set for one of the most competitive
races in history. The fact the off-road legend
Robby Gordon was making his side-by-side debut
made it even sweeter along with some other top
offroad racers including, Rob MacCachren (200
Wins), Marcus Patronelli (Dakar ATV Winner), Dustin
Nelson (Quad-X Champion), and many more big names
from all forms of off-road racing.
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Over the
course of a week the Johnson Valley turns
into a city with over 30,000 people showing
up for te King of the Hammers
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Blake Van de Loo and Mitch Guthrie put on a show
for most of the event with both swapping the lead
several times. Van de Loo would take over the
lead in the rocks, while Guthrie’s desert racing
skills were well tested as he took back over the
lead in the dry lake. In the end, Guthrie was
sidelined with a broken heim joint with just 20
miles to go, handing the lead and the victory
to Van de Loo.
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Blake Van
de Loo & Mitch Guthrie swapped the
lead back & forth through out the
King of the Hammers race
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“That was a cool race,” said Van de Loo who competed
with co-driver Chad Hummer in a Polaris RZR. “We
caught Mitch right before Bessemer on the second
time through. Then we got into the rocks swapped
the lead a couple times back and forth. Mitch
is such a classy driver. We’d catch him and he’d
let us by. He’d catch us and we’d let him by.
It was just fun. We got lucky in the Chocolate
Thunder section. We picked a good line and went
right on through. I think Mitch may have broken
something. Ten minutes later, he was back on our
tail again and we were dicing. We traded the lead
five more times after that.”
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Method Wheel's
Steven Bell waves the checkered flag for
Blake Van de Loo for the King of the Hammers
UTV win
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For his King of the Hammers win, Van de Loo won
a brand new Polaris RZR Turbo. “Polaris Industries
is amazing with the amount they put into this.
This is so cool.
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Blake Van
de Loo was awarded a brand new Polaris
RZR Turbo for taking the King of the Hammers
Win
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