How do you tell the real story of King of the Hammers? We had a meeting of the minds and decide that embedding with a race team was the only true way to express what it really takes to bring the story to life. We contacted one of our Brand Ambassadors Mike Heston and asked if I could jump on board their ride to Hammers and of course Mike and the whole RFA racing team jumped at the opportunity.

I flew to Chicago to meet up with the crew at RFA Racing headquarters where last minute changes were being done on the Poison Spyder car Venom 1. Mike had hired Chris “Greezy” Graves to be his Crew Chief and Co-Dawg, as he had a large hand in building the car at Poison Spyder, and he was hard at work on making sure the car was prepped and ready to be tested and broke in on the Lakebed within a few days. The team had decided that the car needed a few changes from last year and opted for another 100 horse to the LS3 motor and with that also came a change in transfer case ratio. I spent some time interviewing Mike about how close he and Greezy had come to finishing last years KOH and how not finishing was going to drive the team as well as himself to come to the podium this year. He stated that to get so close and not be able to bring the car in under regulated time crushed him, he has an immense sense of duty to get the car in with a good finish to reward everyone that is a part of the team and not being able to achieve that last year was fueling his fire.

It took a solid day to load all the trailers with the necessary parts and tools and tires for the two weeks we would be spending in Johnson Valley. We were also taking down two other Jeeps to help with Pre Running and for chasing parts and pits during the race. Once the vehicles and equipment had been loaded and taken care of we were off to the grocery store to get the necessary items to ensure a happy and well fed crew. Once the groceries were put away and last minute items had been handled everyone was off to get some sleep before we started the road trip to Hammer Town USA, we were going to try and make the trip in two days and everyone would need to be rested.

Everyone met back at the Warehouse at 6:00 and we fired up the Haulers and were were off with dreams and aspirations of a solid finish at the hardest single day race in the World. Johnson Valley Here we come….IMG_2046