2024 King of Hammers Update!
Rodrigo Ampudia wins the UTV Stock class in the Hammers’ desert portion of the competition, Tim Herbst 2nd in T1 Trophy Trucks.
With the dust finally settling on the desert portion of the 18th annual running of the 2024 Progressive King of the Hammers, presented by Nitto and Powered by OPTIMA Batteries, a couple familiar Monster Energy names emerged from the sands of the famed Johnson Valley Desert near San Bernardino, Calif., with some solid hardware.
Winning the Toyo Tires Desert Challenge, presented by Monster Energy, race in the UTV Pro Stock class was longtime Monster Energy-backed off-road racer Rodrigo Ampudia. The former Baja 1000 champ, aka “RodAmp!,” brought his Can-Am Maverick X3 X RC Turbo RR home with a class-best time of 3:56:55. Also running well in the class, fresh off her 4th place finish at the famed Dakar Rally, was Monster Energy’s Sara Price. Price, racing as well for Can-Am, would make the top five (4th) with a time of 4:23:27.
Monster Energy’s Phil Blurton (UTV Pro Mod) and Cameron Steele (UTV Open) also put up top ten numbers in the heavily populated class, with Burton scoring a 6th place, while Steele came in 8th.
Action continues on Thursday in the UTV class when the Hammers’ program moves to the renown rock portion of the foothills and mountains surrounding Johnson Valley, with Monster Energy’s aforementioned racers, along with fellow heavy footed UTVers running the iconic glowing green M-claw logo, including multi-time UTV champ Dustin Jones, Midwest short course off-road legends Johnny & CJ Greaves, Monster Energy AMA Supercross’ all-time winner Jeremy “Showtime” McGrath and one of the founding fathers of the freestyle motocross movement himself, Brian Deegan. In addition to the Monster Energy-backed racers, NOS Energy, part of the Monster Energy family, will feature past off-road champion Ronnie Anderson.
Also blazing out of the Toyo Tires Desert Challenge, presented by Monster Energy, with a big-assed trophy waiting for him was Monster Energy’s Tim Herbst, who placed 2nd in the Trophy Truck T1 class. Herbst would clock a 3:19:20. And winning the Spec Truck T2 class was the Monster Energy-backed Camburg Beast team’s Kyle Jergensen, who started 6th overall and raced to the class win with a time of 3:22:57 – which put him in 3rd place out of all the classes.
Other Monster Energy-backed racers with top ten results in the Toyo Tires Desert Challenge, presented by Monster Energy, include: Thor Herbst (T2, 4th), Dustin Grabowski (T2, 5th) and Steele (T2, 7th).
Again, Monster Energy would like to thank the Johnson Valley OHV Recreation Area’s management team – the region’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) – for working with the KOH promoters, racers, fans and sponsors to pull off another epic event on the 81,000 acre parcel of land outside San Bernardino. All sorts of excellent synergy between the government and the private sector that will entertain some 100,000 people over two weeks in the barren region north of Highway 247 in the Mojave Desert.
How to watch KOH
Check out all of the 2024 Progressive King of the Hammers, presented by Nitto and Powered by OPTIMA Batteries, action on the event’s official YouTube channel.
Here are race results and the schedule.