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“Who run Hammer Town?”
At the end of the event, podiums were announced and winners were decided. 2011 King of the Hammers Winner, Shannon Campbell, in his Campbell Monster Energy IFS rig was able to pull off a Third Place finish. His last minute pass by a broke down rig allowed him to get a podium spot. “I'm happy I'm here!” began Campbell after the race, “Just to finish this race is something and every year, you know I come to win but if you can't win and just to finish is a great feat. With these guys, it's saying something after the troubles we had today.” He drives with no co-driver, so he is also his own navigator.
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| Coming in Third, the 2011 King of the Hammers, Shannon Campbell! |
Rick “EZ” Mooneyham and his Co-Driver, Brian Smith came away with a second place spot despite some tire troubles. “We had a couple of incidents where I ran out of talent,” said Mooneyham, “It's just a part of the game!” Brian Smith added, “Excellent, the car was phenomenal! It was just fast and we did everything we could to keep tires on it.”
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| Finishing in second place, Rick ”EZ” Mooneyham! |
Finally the 2012 King of the Hammers Winner was announced and it was Cumberland, Maryland's own, Erik Miller of Miller Motorsports! Being an East Coast driver, Erik was limited to how and when he could test his rig, “My grand-parents have a farm in West Virginia that they allow us to practice at.” With being crowned the KoH, he added, “It feels great! I'm really happy to do this for my team, they worked really hard all year and I wanted to bring (the King of the Hammers trophy) back East. It really, really meant something to me to bring it back home!” His Co-Driver, Robert Ruggiero from Gloversville, New York was not with him at the finish because he had to stay out of the car after Miller's rig had an issue.
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| Your King of the Hammers, Erik Miller! |
“Save The Hammers!
Before you head to the bottom of the page for our King of the Hammers Gallery, I would like you all to read about the following. – JB, Writer
That was it from this year's Griffin King of the Hammers, but there is still a race going on there right now. It is the race to keep the Hammers and Johnson Valley as a whole open to the public instead of being taken away by the 29 Palms Military Base. While I can respect our Military, it is not right nor should they be allowed to take away public land for base expansion. “Johnson Valley OHV comprises 50 percent of the OHV area of all of Southern California,” says Dave Cole, “If we lose it, half of what we can do in all of So-Cal is gone! Not only that, but not just in acreage, because we can't measure in acreage what we can do here, if you look at the topography in this area we can't do this anywhere else in the world!”
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The topography of Johnson Valley is very vast and very random, from wide open desert to mountains and hills, Johnson Valley OHV is very unique in this world. “The reality is there is no reason to lose it,” Dave continues, “(29 Palms Military Base) has its own 100,000 acres that they haven't touched in 50 years!”
