Since its debut in 2008 the King of the Hammers (KOH)
race has been deemed the toughest off-road race in the world. This year's
course of 115 miles
of open desert racing and huge rock trails proved to be the most difficult
course yet-so difficult that race organizer Dave Cole didn't think a UTV could
do it. When the dust settled only three of the 35 UTVs entered had proven Cole
wrong, all of them RZR XP
900s.
On Feb. 7 Mitch Guthrie, who has now won four KOH races and taken one
second, and his co-driver Mitch Guthrie Jr. took the checkered flag with his
Holz Racing RZR XP 900, with Jon Crowley
and Blake Van de Loo in their Jagged X-supported RZR XP 900 taking second. Matt Enochs in
the Team Nasty RZR finished third.
Thirty-five UTVs lined up at 9 a.m. on Thursday morning to
try to conquer one of the toughest KOH courses to date in eight hours or less.
Brandon Sims in his RZR XP 900 would get the early lead but
succumb to the toughness of the course along with 31 other racers, leaving Guthrie,
Crowley and
Enochs to duke it out for the win.
Guthrie finished the race in 7
hours, 51 minutes and 52 seconds, running the last four rock trails and 30 miles of desert with no
brakes. Crowley
finished only 16 seconds behind him. Enochs finished with only five minutes
left, showing the grit and durability of the RZR XP
900 with a clean sweep of this year's King of the Hammers.
