King of the Hammers is an off-road race that combines desert racing and rock crawling. This race is held in February on Means Dry Lake at Johnson Valley, California USA.
The King of the Hammers was founded by Jeff Knoll and Dave Cole in 2007. The race has evolved from 12 teams racing for bragging rights and a case of beer, to more than 300 teams competing before more than 35,000 fans in person and nearly 500,000 watching online.
The race vehicles used at the King of the Hammers are known as Ultra 4 vehicles, come in all shapes and sizes, and are are capable of speeds over 100 miles per hour for the desert sections, but still contain gear ratios of 100 to 1 or lower for technical rock crawling. This Ultra 4 class is unlimited, and every vehicle is custom fabricated by each team
Competitors start side-by-side, two vehicles every thirty seconds, and must complete the 165-mile course in less than 14 hours. The course challenges drivers to compete in a wide variety of terrain from endurance desert racing to competition-style rock crawls to short course racing. Each team must pass through seven checkpoints and at all times stay within one hundred feet of the centre line of the course. KOH is a no-chase-team race; repairs can only be done on the track by the racers or in the pit area.
We are honoured to be providing a tracking solution to another Ultra 4 competition, having previously tracked King of the Valleys. Each of the participating cars will be equipped with a YB3 tracker which will collect and and transmit data every ten minutes. The data is passed through the Iridium satellite network which has global coverage and since the location is pretty much as remote as you can get in America, it's the perfect solution for never missing a position.
For all the families at home and international fans our tracking system includes a website based race player that will update automatically as the trackers transmit. So you can sit back in comfort while watching your favourite team battle it out to become King of the Hammers.
For more information please visit the Ultra 4 King of the Hammers website.