Jeff Martin claims overall UTV Hammers Championship

In a field full of factory-sponsored hotshoes, it was Jeff Martin taking the overall and Open UTV victory at the Can-Am UTV Hammers Championship, marking the first time a privateer has won the race.

Completing the two tours of the course in his No. 968 Can-Am in 4h54m30.2s, Martin was the surprise winner after many of the expected contenders fell by the wayside due to maladies both external and self-inflicted. Martin's time was more than seven minutes better than the second-place Polaris RAZR of Cole Clark.

“We did hit some traffic, and we hit some bottlenecks,” explained Martin “After pit two, when we headed down Aftershock, we really scaled it back. We didn't want to damage the car. We were having problems with it being stuck in low.. And then when Cole [Clark] got behind us, he was right there, and we decided to just let him go.

"Then we were out in the desert, and man, we were going as fast as we can, watching temps – car started getting a little warm – just keeping everything at bay. And then, lo and behold, Cole had a problem and pulled over. So it was just home free. But we were pushing it 100 percent the whole way.”

The first race of Rocks week at the Griffin Radiator King of the Hammers event in Johnson Valley, Calif., the course proved tough for the UTVs. That was especially true for the Jackhammer trail, which claimed numerous competitors with broken parts, rollovers and blockages.

Brock Heger had posted the fastest qualifying time, and completed the first nearly 60-mile desert-only lap in a blistering 1h08m03.965s. But the rocks proved Heger's undoing as it did to many others, as he broke two axles on Jackhammer, eliminating hope for a second-consecutive victory. Heger ended up in third place.

Ronnie Anderson was only 2m slower on the first lap, but a navigational error had Anderson entering the short-course-section in the wrong direction and crossing start/finish in backward, earning him a disqualification.

Scott Lesage took the victory in Pro Mod UTV with a time of 6h55m04.8s, good for fifth overall. Kurt Mackie won Pro Stock Turbo UTV, and Jeremy McGrath took Pro Stock NA UTV. Only 25 out of more than 100 entries completed the full course in the 10-hour time limit.

Up next are the Yokohama Everyman Challenge and Saturday's Race of Kings. Watch highlights of King of the Hammers on RACER Network each night at 7pm ET.