AS SEEN IN OUR TREAD JULY/AUGUST 2026 ISSUE – Buy Now!

King of the Hammers

King of the Hammers—it’s not just a race in the desert; it is THE race in the desert. You’ve heard of the Baja 500, Baja 1000, San Felipe 250, and Vegas to Reno, but KOH is a race that is put together in the heart of Johnson Valley for three straight weeks of mayhem, organized chaos, and some of the coolest rigs you will ever see out in the desert getting used and abused, all with a smile on the drivers’ faces.

People know King of the Hammers for the big party that’s happening at Chocolate Thunder or Backdoor at night, but do not be mistaken—those are two small events compared to what is happening in the daytime. Being a part of the media covering this event, I see it all happen through a camera lens. From the first weekend kicking off King of the Hammers with King of the Motos and letting motocross and endurocross riders get out in the desert and rocks to compete in the ultimate challenge of man and bike. From a shotgun-style start with all the riders side-by-side taking off in waves, it is instant action-packed, shoulder-to-shoulder, bike-to-bike carnage all the way up and out of the start.

Jumping into the second week, you have the Desert Challenge, which is full of trophy trucks, buggies, side-by-sides, and crazy builds like the Sierra EV karts blazing through the desert. There is something for everyone at this race when it comes to off-roading. And the final third week? That’s when the big dogs come out! The Race of Kings is a three-day race with multiple classes in UTV, Every Man Challenge, and King of Kings. That is where the hardest of the hard are taken to the next level and put drivers, co-drivers, parts, vehicles, and entire teams to the absolute limit.

We are going to dive into the core of the races that I chase and what I chase as an individual with my teams while out on the King of the Hammers lakebed. Starting off on week one, we arrive and get camp set up because this will be our home for the next three weeks. Yes, I said it: three weeks to capture everything going on at the lakebed. Weekend one is for King of the Motos. Ricky from Nachos Racing and I took off to Chocolate Thunder to watch the chaos unfold and enjoy the day. Shortly after hanging out there for a bit, we started to go out and hit the rock trails to take some notes for Ricky’s race in two weeks. For the next few days we took our time and kept unloading and setting up camp for everyone as people slowly funneled in and got their campers and RVs set up in our camp.

Fast forward another few days to Desert Challenge time. I took off early in the morning at 6 a.m. for the media tent in Hammertown, a small town built on the Hammers lakebed that is full of vendors, sponsors, and racers camping out in the pits. After going over safety rules, I headed back to camp and got started on breakfast and relaxed as they started lining up drivers. Soon, I took off to my media spot to capture the racers coming down a small S turn that involves them taking a small bump on the way out and exiting down towards race mile #2. Shortly after this is happening, I get a text from Ricky and the Nacho Racing team as they take off to the Dirty Life Wheels photoshoot! This is a shoot I cannot miss, as some big names in the Ultra4 world are going to get rowdy for the camera. I took a break from watching qualifying as I got all the competitors I needed and raced over to the dunes in Johnson Valley to find the photoshoot was just starting so I wouldn’t miss any of the action going on there. Watching the Goodall family, Chuck Crossland, Fire River Racing, and others throw down some of the craziest roosts and action was incredible to witness!

After that, the Desert Challenge wrapped up for me for the day, so I headed back to camp and started planning some pre-running with the team so that we can take notes and get ready for race day. We are just a week out now, and time is getting slim because I have a lot to shoot and a lot to get done, but I want to make sure my team is prepped and ready with or without me there, and that is what counts! I have photoshoots planned for the whole next day, as I’m here, there, everywhere. There’s never a slow moment for me, and the guys take off to go hit some trails and get ready for the race. I meet up with the boys from Allied Fab and get some crazy shots of those guys, as you can find in another article in this issue. I go out after this, and I shoot a rock crawler XJ and have some fun in the rocks, and then shortly after I take off back to camp and get to work in the trailer, editing, sorting, and trying to write up as much as I can while I wait for the team to get back from prerunning. When they do show up, we will go over strategy, notes, and more to ensure the success of our team.

Qualifying for us was a basic task. We weren’t aiming for the fastest time of the day; we just didn’t want to come in dead last. During our qualifying days we did exactly that, and our plan went well. We qualified in the middle of the pack and had some work to get done on race day. Slow and steady wins the race, right? Well, not at this race because even though it’s a full day and only 200+ miles, it’s a gruesome 200+ miles of desert and rocks—fast, slow, tight, and wide-open trails all the way. Starting off on UTV race day, I positioned myself about a half mile outside the track to catch my guys going through the dust and whoops at a tight close-up section. From there, I chased them over to the end of lap 1, catching them coming down the sand hill and into a cool turn that blasts sand. From there, I watched them go back down into the lakebed and continue at a steady pace. After this section, I raced over to Outer Limits, where Nacho had broken a tie rod. Like an absolute hero, he HIKED over a mile out of this steep, uphill canyon, got the part, and hiked back down into the canyon to fix the car. Unfortunately, even with this heroic story, they called the race and saved the energy for the last day.

Well here it is—the 4400 Race of Kings. The biggest and baddest drivers in Ultra4 from around the world are here and ready to battle it out. Starting off, I didn’t take position near the starting line—nope! There’s too much dust with this caliber of horsepower and 40- to 42-inch tires slinging dirt, so I took off far back on the first lap just above Outer Limits. I caught racers coming through what I call “the moon rocks,” as these rocks are slick and have a sandpaper-like surface, which are really cool to look at from afar. From there I raced these boys to the end of lap 1 up into the wash, where turning out of this corner really gives you a good sandy shot of the wheels biting into that sand berm and kicking up dust. Well, our boys were on a good run with good timing and were going at a steady pace to finish. I headed over to Jack Hammer to see if I could catch the guys coming through here. During this time they had some issues to fix, so I headed to another spot to catch my other client for media, Glenn Page, heading through Idle Issues, which is a cool trail that allows a lot of the fans to see the action. I stopped there for a bit and was able to catch some of the leaders before hearing that Nacho had rolled on Jack North, and it took some time for them to get it back up and over.

By this time, the day was slowly ending and the sun was setting quickly. I look at my GPS to see Nacho is right over the hill from me, so I race over to find them overheated in the back hills and fixing some issues with the car but still in the race. From there I followed them from trail to trail, just shooting the entire time and capturing them every moment—even into the darkness.

I am proud of this team and everyone for racing this year, as only three finishers came across the line, and it will be talked about as the hardest race to ever exist in motorsports. We walked out of King of the Hammers with our heads held high and feeling good with a hunger to finish next year at this race! We thank our sponsors for everything they do for us, and we are excited to take on the rest of the 2026 racing season. Until then, Tread on!