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Grab a snack and a beverage (adult kind preferred) It’s time for Thorson’s Racing King of the Hammers 2020 Race Recap!

King of the hammers 2020, WHAT AN EVENT! Everytime you think it cannot get better, Dave and his crew continue to impress. Both on and off the race course! Definitely one for the record books!

Thorson’s Racing had a GREAT race! While we didn’t get to cross the big stage, we are excited with our finish nonetheless.

We started out the week with the usual unpacking, setting up pits, and getting settled into our home away from home. The course map was released a few days after our arrival, we loaded it up into our Lowrance GPS and started to do a bit of pre-running. We took some friends out on lap 1 and just took it easy, the course was familiar, so no need to beat up Hells Bells.

Monday race week was here, on the schedule was a interview with MadMatt 4WD, drivers meeting, and prepping the truck for qualifying Tuesday morning 9AM. We woke up early, cooked breakfast and headed out to meet Matt, Australian Matt. Matt is a YouTube creator focused on building and educating the off road community. We had a bunch of fun filming with MadMatt, he is a great guy and very funny! Check out the interview of Matt Thorson and Hells Bells here!

Late afternoon we headed out to the drivers meeting. While at the drivers meeting we decided to hit the qualifying course one last time before we qualified the next morning. We suited up and headed to the short course, where everything went south. Upon entering the short course, Matt put the skinny pedal down and the truck started to buck and stumble but cleared up quickly. Matt shifted into second gear, and the RPMs hit the rev limiter. NO GOOD. We limp around the track shifting back and forth, all the while the truck started to run rough again, we needed to get back to pits and figure this out.

We through the computer on the truck and found lazy O2 sensors, swapped those out and it ran a little better, but still seemed to be free revving in second gear and engine missing a bit. Another look over the truck showed a fuel fitting on the supply line sucking air. It was late by this point, so the team decided to wake up early and get it handled before qualifying. Tuesday morning we tracked down a fitting and replaced it. Slapped on the Wide Band AFR monitor and took it for a drive, engine was fixed! But the transmission was not happy. 2nd gear was gone, it didn’t want to be apart of the party anymore, 1 hour before qualifying.

We opted out of qualifying to not damage the transmission anymore, and hijacked our friend Watson Racing #1943 (THANK YOU RANDY!) pit tent and got to work. We had 3 days to get this transmission sorted out, we would start in the back of the pack, but we will be starting. With the help of our amazing crew, we had the transmission out in 2 hours! Quite a feat in Hells Bells! We drug it over to SEI Racing’s enclosed trailer to pull it apart, with the help of Nor-Cal Transmission directing us over the phone! We found some burnt clutches, but everything else seemed to be ok, we are looking good we thought.

After some phone calls, we found the parts locally to KOH, from a transmission shop called Maximum Off-Road Transmissions. Chris from Maximum had the parts in hand and would deliver them to the lake bed! Awesome! Chris arrived, and not being transmission builders ourselves, figured it was best for him to take a look at it before he went home and we put it back together, and boy are we glad we did. The actual issue was that we rolled the 36 Element Super Sprag. Chris said he had everything needed at his shop to fix it and said to be at his shop at 8AM Wednesday morning. Very thankful he took the time to check it out before he left, otherwise we would have put it back together and been right back to square one.

Chris and his crew had the transmission completely rebuilt in two hours, along with updating and upgrading some components in the transmission. We were back in business! HUGE THANK YOU to Chris and crew at Maximum Off-Road Transmission, you saved our race!

Back on the lake bed, Thorson’s crew got the transmission back in Hells Bells and driving in 4 hours! Turn around time of less than 30 hours from broken to back in business, spirits were up, and race day was on the brain! Thank you all for your hard work!

Race Day is here! We headed out to line up, we would be starting 101 out of 108 Cars. That’s alright, it is a long race. This year we were surprised with a Marine Corps Fly Over, VERY COOL! We left the line around 8:30AM. The first lap was a breeze, finding a good pace and putting miles in the books. Skipped Remote 1 the first time though, we waved at the crew and took off. We got into cougar buttes and found a upside down Texan! The Rufus crew are our friends, so we spun around and offered help. They had already strapped the car up and was in the process of recovering and waved us on. Sorry we weren’t there soon guys, we wanted to help! Hit Remote 1 coming back though for a splash of gas on on our way to main pit.

We arrived at main pit at 11:30AM and took 24 Gallons of race fuel and headed out on our second lap. Our second lap was SMOOTH. Hells Bells is at home in the rocks, for the most part their isn’t a line we can’t take with the 54″ Mickey Thompson TTC Claws. Breezing through traffic, and picking off the rock trails. Stopped at Pit 2 for a splash of fuel and headed back to main to finish off our second lap and start our 3rd and final lap of King of the Hammers 2020.

We left main around 3:30PM. We had a good pace, and kept it going. Hit a little snag between Main and Remote 1, Fuel leak and loose fuel pump. Our crew, with the help of SEI Racing, they had the pump secured and the fuel leak stopped, back to racing.

First rock trail on the 3rd lap, a new one, called “Hell to Pay”. Hell to Pay is a short but exciting trail, narrow in spots, waterfalls and big rocks. This is where Hells Bells would pay up, and unfortunately end our day. Snaking around a rock and dropping into a wash, we got bound up and broke a rear axle shaft, we got out of that and continued down the trail to end of Hell to Pay. We dropped into a pretty narrow section ( KOH, if your reading, pick wider trails please! Hahah!) and got stuck, trying to muscle it out we ended up breaking the other rear axle shaft and ripping a steering clevis off the steering ram! We were done, nowhere to go, no rocks big enough to winch from, and no cars heavy enough to winch us out. Not how we wanted the race to go.

26 miles, we were 26 miles from the checkered flag. Our race pace at that moment would have put us in a early 9 hour finishing time. Which by the looks would have been good for a solid Top 15, and knocking on a top 10!

That’s racing for you though, what can happen will happen. We learned a lot this year. We grew as a team, and overcame obstacles together. We had our BEST King of the Hammers to date, and cannot wait to get back in the seat for King of the Hammers 2021. You haven’t seen the last of Hells Bells and Crew!

Big thanks to our crew. You guys are the nuts and bolts to this racing program, and we literally couldn’t do it without you. Rolling into pits seeing you all in Route 666 gear put a smile on our face every time we came though. It is a great feeling knowing you guys and gals have everything under control while we do our best to get to you as fast as we can!

Partners, another big piece to the puzzle. We have been fortunate enough to partner up with some of the best in the industry throughout our years of racing, and we appreciate everything you do. We are proud to represent you, and hope for more checkers in the future!!

• RPM Engines And Machine – Engine Builder and Tuner of Hells Bells LS9
• Amsoil – The Blood of Hells Bells -We run Amsoil Radiator to Gear Fluid, and convinced this is why we have such minimal wear in our components
• Summit Machine – Burley 7075 Aluminum Links – We danced all 8,000 lbs of Hells Bells on these and they are straight as an arrow!
• Design-it Prototype – Thank you for making all our weird ideas reality!
• Nor-Cal Transmission – Best Transmission Builder in Nor-Cal Hands Down!
• Ouverson Engineering – Beef Cake Drivetrain components – For when you want to run 54″ tires in Ultra4 Racing
• Mickey Thompson Tires – Allowing us to drive into 3′ boulders at 30mph and not worry about a tire!
• Howe Performance Power Steering – Keeping the tires pointed in the right direction!
• TBM Brakes – Literally the only brakes to be running in this sport, if you can’t stop, get at em!
• Warn – Continued support since day one! We wouldn’t trust any other winch on the market!
• Rugged Radios & Crew – You guys are legit, always there to help us hear clear on race day!
• Off Road Design – Hells Bells Proof Magnum Box / NP205 Setup
• Cryo-Heat – Making strong parts stronger!!

What can we say about King of the Hammers 2019? It was cold, that’s one thing for sure. Aside from the cold, Thorson’s Racing had a great race. We ultimately had transmission issues that ended our day.

This year Thorson’s Racing grew to a two car team and welcomed long time friend and crew member Randy Watson of Watson Racing. Along with his Co-Driver James Treadway and their families. Randy and James have been pitting for us for the past few years and as of 2018 have been racing their own car. This would be their first King of the Hammers and we were excited to be able to help them at this race and the journey to KOH.

Hells Bells had just been torn down and had all the major components rebuilt prior to KOH. With everything gone though, refreshed and race prep’d, we headed out to the lake bed. Everything went very smooth all week leading up to the race. Pre running was going well, #666 didn’t need anything besides a bolt being tightened here and  there. With a moderate qualifying run, we qualified 90th. Going into this race we weren’t too concerned in our placement, our goal was to bring it over the finish line in time.

Race day came and it was a very brisk morning! We started the race and headed off into our 91 mile first lap. Our plan was to skip remote pit 1 the first time though and did just that. We kept a comfortable pace out in the desert and boy was it rough! We continued on until we came though remote pit the second time. We stopped and took 11 gallons of gas, had the crew look over the truck, everything looked good and felt good. We headed out and head back to main pit to complete our first lap. Thank you guys and gals at remote pit 1 for waking up early and taking care of RP1!!

Pulled into main pit for a quick fuel top off and off we went. Now on our second lap, we were passing cars, keeping a good pace up and having a great time. We started the rock sections and we’re having ball. Dealt with a little traffic here and there but nothing too bad. We pulled into remote pit 2b for fuel and ready to finish off our second lap. Unfortunately during the pit stop the crew noticed a leaking rear steer pump. Having a spare but located at main, they were quick to get on the radios and was able to get our spare out to us in record time. The crew robbed parts from the spare to rebuild the pump on the truck, got it fixed and we were out in a little over a hour. Thank you guys and gals for busting that repair out!!!

We had one rock trail left before we were back into the desert headed to main pit, Aftershock. We started down aftershock, when we got to the waterfall we encountered a upside down car at the bottom directly in the middle of it. #666 Co-driver gets out to help winch the car over and get them out of the way so we can continue. Our winch cable was jammed so we were going to hook them up and pull backwards in reverse to flip him over, that was when we found out we didn’t have reverse! Now we couldn’t go anywhere with cars coming down the trail. Not a good situation! We got the winch cable unjammed, was able to turn the upside down car over, but the driver killed the batteries while they were trying to winch the car themselves. This was very inconvenient as we couldn’t proceed forward due to him being directly in the way, and couldn’t go backward to hit the bypass because reverse was lost. We ended up sitting for 2.5 hours waiting for the driver and co driver to get back with a jump box to start the car. while they were gone we guided and helped multiple drivers navigating around the two cars blocking the trail.

Once they got the car started and out of the way, we continued on. Not far down the the trail we noticed along with reverse being gone, we also had lost second gear. Things were starting to look dim. We continued on, contemplating what we were going to do. We decided that we would finish our second lap and officially start our 3rd, and call the race. We milked it back, and pulled into our pit which was full of our crew congratulating us on our efforts and going as far as we ever have before in this race, 170 miles.

Although we did not finish, we as a team came together and did the very best we could, and went farther than we ever have before. We are proud of that. Every year we learn something new, and as a team we grow stronger, we will finish this race!!

Thank you everyone who comes out and helps us do this crazy race. Each and everyone of you play a very important role, and without your help, we couldn’t do this. We are forever grateful!

Lastly, thank you to our partners. Thank you for taking a risk and joining us in this wild racing program we having going. We really appreciate it!  We are looking forward to the Ultra4 Racing West Coast Series to start off here on March 22nd, 2019 at Prairie City SVRA. We have some exciting things coming up for the 2019 racing season and beyond and cannot wait to share it all with you!! coughIFScough 🙂

Also, congratulations to Watson Racing #1942 for a solid first KOH race! They had a flawless day and ended up timing out with roughly 40 miles to go! You got it next year guys!!

King of the Hammers 2018 has came and gone, and KOH did not disappoint. Ok, maybe a little bit.   

KOH for Thorson’s Racing kicked off on February 1st, leaving home in Santa Rosa, California on a 12 hour drive down to Johnson’s Valley. Thankfully, it was a uneventful and smooth trip to the lake bed.

After unpacking, setting up the RV, moving pits and getting all the registration stuff dealt with, we were ready to hit the desert for some much needed pre-running. That was when things started to go down hill.

#666 had developed a engine issue. After changing some fuel filters and poking around to no avail, we need to get a hold of our friends and Engine Builder / Tuner at RPM Engine and Machine . After a few data logs and email exchanges with Jason from RPM, we concluded that we need to track down a few O2 Sensors, MAF Sensor, and a Wideband O2 to be able to dial the LS9 back into its happy place.

We sent a couple of our crew guys into town on the hunt for parts, while we scoured HammerTown for a Wideband. Striking out with the Wideband, we decided to have Jason send his down with our buddy who was leaving the next day. Parts were sourced and when the wideband got there, it was Monday night the day before we needed to qualify. With huge help  from Chip Sterndahl of SEI Racing, we were able to use his Wifi hotspot to allow Jason to remote log into our laptop and data log and remote tune Hells Bells from over 550 Miles away! ( Thank you again Chip! Couldn’t have gotten it sorted out without your help!) After a few hours of tuning, and many cold and dusty test runs, Jason got Hells Bells running like a top and ready for the 4400 Class Qualifying. Thank you again Jason!! Your help was more than appreciated! Sorry for keeping you up past your bedtime haha!

   6A.M. Tuesday morning we head out to get a few laps in on the qualifying course before qualifying starts. After 3 laps, we felt comfortable and knew the lines we wanted to take. Qualifying started at noon, and we would be 43rd off the line. We ended up with a decent qualifying time of 2:26:xx that put us in 74th for the big day. 

Thursday, all our crew was at HammerTown, and was time to get ready for the big dance on Friday. The crew gave #666 a good once over, found and corrected a few issues. They mounted up a fresh set of 44″ Pitbull Rockers, we were feeling good, this was going to be a great race.

FRIDAY! Race day is here! 209 miles between us and the finish line.  Line up at 6 A.M., green flag dropping at 8 A.M. The crew got everything in order, pits packed and ready to rock. The green flagged dropped, and instantly we had issues. The engine bogged, spit and popped.  Thankfully, about a mile into the race she cleared up and we were now chasing down cars. The dust was thick, visibility was low. Looking for a way around the two cars in front of us around mile marker 3, we had a front axle shaft failure that put the truck up on its nose and off course right at the bottom of a sand wash. Trying to make it up the wash in 3 wheel drive wasn’t the greatest for this big girl, but we made it over the top and radioed into pits requesting a axle shaft at remote pit. For the next 10 miles, we limped along trying to keep a pace with only 3 wheel drive, luckily there weren’t many rocks to deal with. Around mile 4.5, we got a flat. Drove hard on the dead rim for about 8 more miles until we got to pit. 

Our pit crew already had the tire ready to go, tools out and ready for action. Co-Driver hopped out to address the axle shaft, and tire situation. Our awesome crew at remote pit 1 got the tire changed. While waiting for the axle shaft we looked over the truck to find two blown shocks, a Inner C ripping away from the axle tube, another tire going flat and a intake getting close to interfering with the serpentine belt. We felt confident in the ability to fix everything besides the Inner C issue. We had only gone 13 miles so far, and had not gotten into the rough stuff yet. Knowing that if we bubble gummed it back together and had a failure somewhere else on the race course, we would be a major trail blockage. We decided it was best to call our race…. 13 miles in….Our worst hammers finish ever.

That is the name of the game. King of the Hammers is not a guarantee. King of the Hammers is a equal opportunity car destroyer, it does not show mercy to anyone. 

Thorson’s Racing would like to thank Randy, James, Josh, Jake, Jason, Brad, Lucas, Dustin, Curtis, Ed, Pete, Beau, Stephanie, Ginger, Big Dills, Ingrid, Dakota, Dustin #2 ( to the few im sure im missing, SORRY!! ) and the Entire SEI Racing Team. Without each and everyone of your guys help, we absolutely wouldn’t be able to do this. Thank you for coming out to the desert year after year. Thank you for being such a awesome group of people and friends. Already counting down the days until KOH 2019.

Lastly, thank you to our partners. While we might not podium, or even finish every race, our partners stand besides us as we stand besides them. It means alot having the support from some of best in the business. Thorson’s Racing is truly humbled to be working with you. We hope for much more success with you in the coming future.

 #Amsoil #Pitbulltires #RPMEngines #TBM Brakes #Designitprototype #Howeperformancesteering #arpbolts #kingbearings #optimabattery #warn #Norcaltransmission #ouversonengineering #ruggedradios #offroaddesign #DEI #hiddenvalleyautobody 

Welcome!

Thorson’s Off Road would like to welcome you to our new website! We apologize for the abomination of a page we had before. What can we say, were off road enthusiasts, not web designers (hahah).

In the near future, we will be updating the page with both past and current projects, as well as information pertaining to our Ultra4 Racing program.

Stay Tuned!

-Thorson’s Off Road