2016 King of the Hammers Johnson Valley, California UTV / SXS Racing February 3, 2016

Branden Sims, with co-driver Justin Krause in his Polaris RZR, started 38th on the inverted draw start and had his work cut out for him. With quick driving through the desert section, Sims avoided traffic, made it through the many rock sections and came out in the runner-up slot.

ITP's Branden Sims secured the 2nd Spot at the King of the Hammers

“After starting 37th, I had a long ways to go and needed to avoid any bottlenecks,” said Sims. “The desert section was fast and fun. I didn’t want to push the car too hard. There were a couple of times that we got bound up and we ended up winching the car to avoid breaking it.”

Chad Hughes started just ahead of Sims in 35th. Interestingly, he ran a set of 32” STI tires on his machine and ran into zero problems during the race.

STI's Chad Hughes secured a podium finish at the King of the Hammers

“We started 35th, ate a lot of dust and everything went well,” said Hughes. “We ran STI’s 32” tires and everyone said we were crazy, but here we are on the podium. We put together a nice shop-owned car, nothing fancy, and we kept going. The course was definitely easier, but they did have a lot better finishing percentage. It was a great course, though: a lot of desert and some rock canyons. The hardest section was the first desert section. It had a lot of chop to it and a lot of sharp-edged whoops.”

Dean Bulloch competed in an Arctic Cat Wildcat 700 Trail and proved that small horsepower and short wheelbased vehicles are still competitive in The Hammer…although he had to work for it.

Arctic Cat's Dean Bulloch raced the Wildcat 700 Sport to a 4th place finish at the King of the Hammers

“The desert really took its toll on my little 700,” said Bulloch. “We broke three times. We wanted more rock canyons than desert. We didn’t have to winch at all. We just drove through. The desert takes its toll on a small short wheelbase car, but the 700 is better in the canyons than any of these cars. It’s much more maneuverable.”

A huge crowd of spectators gathered around Chocolate Thunder to watch the UTV racers climb the rock covered hill