King of Hammers 2022
McGrath and Deegan join the Campbells, Greaves’, Gittin Jr., Steele, Currie, Herbst, Price and other 4x4 freaks for the annual California mountain, desert, rock crawl race.
The off-road visionaries Jeff Knoll and Dave Cole drew on a cocktail napkin, creating the gold standard by which all other rock crawl/race events are judged. The event’s name alone – King of the Hammers – causes even the most hardened off-road racers’ socks to roll up and down, recalling the unbridled bodily abuse and billet-bursting mechanical corruption the course doles out, with malice, to both man and machine. One hundred and sixty-five miles of flat-out brutal Mojave desert racing, coupled with the most torturous rock crawling features ever lined up for the aptly named Ultra4 style Unlimited vehicles.
So it should be no surprise that Monster Energy is again partnering with Ultra4 Racing and King of the Hammers – as it has since the halcyon days of KOH – and is not only presenting this year’s Toyo Tires Desert Challenge for Unlimited Trucks, Unlimited Buggies and Limited Buggies but also helping deliver a sizable portion of the event’s star power. This includes all-time supercross winner and short course off-road racer Jeremy “Showtime” McGrath; MX/SX/FMX/rally/off-road great Brian Deegan; three-time KOH winner Shannon Campbell and his way fast offspring Wayland and Bailey; short course off-road race legend Johnny Greaves and his equally fast son, CJ; drifter-turned-Hammer Vaughn Gittin Jr.; off-road TV announcer/champion Baja racer Cameron Steele; short course and Dakar Rally great Casey Currie; Tim Herbst of Terrible Herbst Motorsports and motocross/X Games great Sara Price.
“King of the Hammers is to rock racing/rock crawling as Daytona is to stock cars. It’s our sport’s premier event of the year, kicking off a country-wide ten race Ultra4 series and Monster Energy is pumped to again play a major role both as event and racer sponsor,” said Monster Energy’s Matt Chapman. “If you can get out to one event like this a year, make sure King of the Hammers is the one you hit. Monster Energy will be out in full force in Hammertown and we look forward to supporting our racers and providing sample products for the fans.”
Monster Energy lineup & class at 2022 King of the Hammers
Trophy Truck Sunday, Jan. 30th
Bobby PeCoy
UTV Desert race Saturday, Jan. 29th
Phil Blurton
UTV Rock race Thursday, Feb. 3rd
Phil Blurton
RJ Anderson
Ronnie Anderson
EMC Friday, Feb. 4th
4500 Saturday, Feb. 5th
Bailey Campbell
Up Now
Main gates open to Hammertown on Thursday, Jan. 27, for the 16th annual Progressive King of the Hammers, powered by Optima Batteries. Full course pre-running takes place on the 27th and Friday, Jan. 28th. The first official KOH race is Saturday, Jan. 30th with the running of the Toyo Tires Desert Challenge for Limited Buggies, presented by Monster Energy. Racing continues through the next seven days, culminating on Saturday, Feb. 5th with the premier 2022 Nitto Race of Kings presented by Optima Batteries. A lot is going on so check out Ultra4 Racing for more information.