Slawson wins King of the Hammers Race of Kings for a record fourth time

What could go down as the toughest King of the Hammers in the event's 20-year history had new trails, a record set for longest winning time, and a lot of broken cars and broken drivers.

In the end, as others struck issues, Randy Slawson and co-driver Dustin Emick kept their Bomber Fabrication 4400 going for Slawson to be crowned King of the Hammers a fourth time, the first racer to earn the honor and break a tie between he, Jason Scherer and Shannon Campbell.

His finishing time of 13h1m51.434s will go down as the longest winning time in the event's history. And in another twist, Slawson, the only driver to race all 20 King of the Hammers races since the first in 2007, also won the previous longest race at 8h15m.

Slawson had to replace two power steering rams during the race to finish.

“We were a lap-and-a-half or two laps in, and running in 12th and having problems,” explained Slawson. “And I was like, ‘There's no way we can reel all these guys in.’ But Dustin did a heck of a job spotting me up Ball Peen [Trail] and holding winch, and we put on a clinic on a couple different trails, and just passed everybody in sight.”

Following Slawson back into Hammertown a little over 23 minutes later was Josh Blyler, who won the race in 2020, for second place. Despite the growing prevalence of high-tech independent-front-suspension chassis, the only finishers won with solid beam front axles.

The third lap proved the undoing for many teams. While it bypassed two trails that leave cars stuck and co-drivers dragging out the winches, Jackhammer and Chocolate Thunder, it incorporated several new sections, such as a new loop that incorporated Dead Blow and WOR trails. In addition to the introduction of the new trails, the drivers weren't allowed to pre-run them, so they were seeing them for the first time in the race. Plus, each team was required to do the Back Door trail on one of their laps, and most saved it for the final circuit.

It meant that the final half or more of the third lap was run in darkness for all the teams. And the organizers cut off 40 miles of the final desert loop so that at a minimum, someone might be able to finish under the 14-hour time limit.

As the race entered its closing stages, it appeared it might come down to a battle between Paul Wolff and Loren Healy, who was looking to join the three-timer club. But Wolff hit power steering issues, and then Healy rolled over in Claw Valley. Both got going again after lengthy delays, but ended up commiserating in the remote pits as Healy's transmission had given up and Wolff's issue appeared terminal, although as Slawson headed toward Hammertown, Wolff's crew was trying to get him going again.

While a few cars were still running and expected to make it to the finish, none were able to make it under the time limit.