Earlier this month, Money Pit Classifieds attended the 2018 King of the Hammers in Johnson Valley California to provide race support to Team GenRight Off Road. We were set up in the garage area for about 10 days to work in the pits and manage the communications for race day.
Thursday, Feberuary 8th, during the Smittybuilt, Everyman Challange race we had the honor of transporting 2 wounded veterans around the race course to get a first hand look at the 4500 class cars doing their work on race day.
Rocksanne, Money Pit's 4 seat rock buggy, was displayed in the
Raceline Wheels booth where the Veterans gathered for pictures and swag bags. About 1 pm we loaded 2 eager riders and headed out of gate 4 toward one of the hardest obstacles on the race course. Back Door is a 12 foot high slippery rock waterfall and is well know for flipping over the vehicles of any daring participant that tries to crest the ledge. In this year's race all of the race vehicles would be going down Back Door which is no easy feat.
We pulled out of gate 4 in Hammertown, put Rocksanne in first gear, and off we went with our two passengers. On race day Back Door is packed with about 2-3 thousand people and 4-5 hundred vehicles. Parking is usually followed by a substantial walk through the sand and rock terrain. But today right there in the front row of vehicles, against the fence separating the fans from the race course were 3 open parking spots with a perfect view of the obstacle and the race cars attempting its descent. Wow! So awesome to just pull up to the perfect seat and watch the action from our car. The veterans LOVED it!
After we spent an hour or so at Back Door we were off to the next location. The vets got a 60-70 mph run through the desert as we made our way to Chocolate Thunder. Again we pulled right up to the viewing area and parked. The two vets in Rocksanne wanted to get out to see some close up action so we all unloaded and walked to the spectator fence. As luck would have it, just as we found a place to watch, eight Ultra4 -4500 cars came racing down the rocks just before turning up into Chocolate Thunder. We saw some great racing action and even some breakage in the obstacle.
We had a great time chaufeurring the Veterans around the desert; for all they do for us, we were honored to give back in this small way. We hope they enjoyed their day as much as we did!