See a full race recap and photo gallery at UTVunderground.com

February 4th was the King of the Hammers race presented by Polaris RZR. My stepdad and I were ready to take on one of the toughest UTV races in the world. 53 UTV’s signed up in the pro and sportsman class. KOH drew starting positions and we got lucky starting on the pole in the Sportsman class. I was co-dawg for this race which means I had to navigate the 125 mile race course and spot through the tougher rock sections winching our way out of giant rock hills. We started the race about 34 out of 53 overall being sent off the starting line side by side every 30 seconds. When the green flag dropped we hit some jumps leaving hammer town to be quickly stopped at our first hill climb. One UTV was blocking the first trail and we took a higher line which lead us around the jam and right up the hill. From race mile 3-6 we hit the dry lake bed going about 70 mph where a helicopter followed just feet above us leading into the first pit stop. In the pits the American Rock Rods crew did a quick check of the rzr and sent us back out for the rest of lap 1 (roughly 40 miles). After a couple rock hills we managed to pass a few utvs that got stuck behind other cars. Around race mile 40 I called the main pit in hammer town letting them know we are coming into the pits, the rzr 1000 felt good and was still in good condition. As we passed through the start/finish line coming into the main pit for gas and a quick check, we quickly realized we were running in the top 10 overall. Keeping a constant speed we hit our next climb called aftershock at race mile 63. A loud snap quickly ended our day with a front broken diff. Very bummed on losing 4wd but was very happy for our first King of the Hammers race.

Catch up on more news from Katie Vernola at her website, KatieVRacing.com

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