Hammerking Productions held its starting draw for the 2009 King of the Hammers “2nd Crusade” rock crawl/desert race at the Off-Road Expo presented by Toyota in Pomona, California, on Sunday, October 5.

Scheduled for February 27, 2009 at the Johnson Valley OHV Park in Johnson Valley, California, King of the Hammers, “2nd Crusade” will boast a star-studded field of comprised of 92 starters, with 82 drivers, including reigning King of the Hammers Champion Shannon Campbell (above), selected through the draw process and the final 10 via a Last Chance Qualifier held the day before the main event. The LCQ will be contested among 65 drivers.
 
“I think this is going to be the Daytona of rock crawling,” Hammerking Productions co-promoter Jeff Knoll said. “We have a whole week of activities planned for this year. The first year didn’t really count. That was just a test to see if it was feasible. Last year was the real deal, and this year we have stepped it up even more. We have more drivers and a longer and tougher course. Whoever wins this event will be a real animal because it is going to be really tough. This 100-mile course is going to be every bit as tough as racing 1000 miles.”

Knoll said the he and partner Dave Cole have been overwhelmed by the support and interest the 2009 event has received even from outside the traditional ranks of the rock crawling.

“We can’t believe how well the industry has responded to this event,” he said. “Having [reigning Tecate SCORE Baja 500 Champion] BJ Baldwin come on board is pretty huge, and there are some others who have been calling from the desert side, but unfortunately our field is full.”

Cole added that Walker Evans will be the Grand Marshal of the event.
Having Walker Evans as our Grand Marshal is about as cool as it gets and, with BF Goodrich being the official tire of the event, it is definitely indicative that the industry is behind us, and the drivers are too,” Cole said. “We’re very thankful for that, and we are going to keep working hard to make it the best event possible.”

Like last year’s event, King of the Hammers “2nd Crusade” will be run on a Friday rather than on a Saturday or Sunday. Knoll said that there are three very good reasons for that.
“The first reason is safety,” Knoll said. “I race locally with some of the off-road racing. I can’t tell you the times that I have been off-road racing out here with other sanctions and seen a motorcycle or ATV guy cross the course having no idea that there was even a race going on out there. The second is that we don’t want to impact the weekend recreational users in the area. We don’t want to keep the guy who is coming out with his family on the weekend to just ride around and enjoy the area to be unable to ride where he wants to because there is an event going on. I don’t like the idea of having to lock someone out of a particular area on the weekend. And third, we’ve found out that the Internet coverage is way better on a weekday. People are out enjoying recreational activities on the weekend.

2009 King of the Hammers Starting Field

1. Jeff Mello                             2. Tom Wayes
3. Will Carter                           4. Matt Messer
5. Rusty Bray                           6. LCQ 10
7. Jason Paule                          8. Clay Egan
9. Roger Lovell                         10. JR Van Ortwick
11. Jody Everding                     12. Cary Steiner
13. Larry Trim              14. Drew Burroughs
15. Becca Webster                   16. Team Sukenic
17. Randy Slawson                   18. Buzzy Bronsema
19. LCQ 1                               20. Wyatt Pemberton
21. JT Taylor                            22. Jack Adams
23. Bart Dixon              24. Derek Trent
25. Jason Scherer                     26. LCQ 8
27. Richear Gauthier                 28. Barry Toledano
29. LCQ 4                               30. Tracy Jordan
31. Cottin Rodd                       32. Nathan La Russo
33. Robert Usnick                    34. LCQ 3
35. Casey Currie                      36. Jason Conover
37. Shane Henry                       38. RJ Brown
39. Tim Lund                            40. Kevin Yoder
41. Nick Sessions                     42. Dustin Emick
43. Ryan Melton                       44. Eric Anderson
45. Jesse Haines                       46. Brian Ellinger
47. Scott Porter                        48. Derek West
49. LCQ 2                               50. LCQ 5
51. Rob McKinney                   52. BJ Baldwin
53. LCQ 9                               54. Ted Wiens
55. Marty Hart                         56. Doug Bigelow
57. Brad Lovell                        58. John Reynolds
59. RG Dickey                         60. Brandon Naves
61. Cameron Steele                  62. Ian Plaine
63. Tom Allen              64. Dean Bulloch
65. Shannon Campbell  66. Bob Roggy
67. Adam Woodlee                  68. Joey Archuleta
69. Adam Lunn                        70. Jack Graef
71. Dave Schneider                  72. Rick Deremo
73. John James                         74. Wayne Israelsen
75. Rob Bonney                       76. Joachim Schweisow
77. Hobie Smith                       78. Nicole Johnson
79. Damon Jefferies                  80. Team Williams
81. Ray Mandel                        82. Ken Mercer
83. Pete Sohren                        84. LCQ 6
85. Weston Blackie                  86. Rick Mooneyham
87. Brett Porter                        88. Dieter Duytschaever
89. LCQ 7                               90. Larry Gipson
91. Scott Ellinger                      92. Brian Shirley