The violence of 600 Horsepower rang through the canyon walls of Chocolate Thunder like the trumpets of Jericho as Tom Wayes assaulted the “Gate Keeper” that now resembles a sand embedded wall of rock blocking access to the trail beyond.
The Griffin King of the Hammers Happy Hour pitted the best in Ultra4 racing in a nonstop barrage of horsepower, dust and adrenalin. Past Kings found themselves mired at the beginning of the course watching their hopes for a early starting position vanish before their eyes.
Jason Sherer is his PSC single seat IFS car was not able to tackle the obstacle with out two separate exits from the vehicle, turning his sub 4 minute run through the desert now distorted by his failure at the gate keeper into an average that resembled first time runners of the race at 12:12. Past King Loren Healy had the worst finishing time of the day at 15:39 and placed him in 55th for the day out of 81.
Ben Napier sat in complete disgrace having finished with a time of 9:09 45th for the day, but his effort to try a new line to the left open the door for his team mate Randy Slawson who schooled the obstacle and netted a 5th place qualifier time of 5:09 thanks largely in part to Napier’s line selection. Shannon Campbell proved he is still the King of the Hammers with a second place finishing time of 4:57:06 making short work of the three-mile course.
An Early run by Greg Adler kept him on the pole most of the day, but he landed in 3rd after Rick Mooneyham erased Adlers hope of a repeat on the pole in 2012. Rick Mooneyham sent a wake up call to any who doubt his ability reminding everyone he is a front-runner who intendeds to lead the 2012 line up. His time of 4:41:25 will be hard to beat today as we start day two of Time trials with all eyes on Robby Gordon’s debut into Rock Sports here at KOH.