By Jon Crowley
King of the Hammers celebrated its’ 20th year with some incredible racing. Ending the week with the Race of Kings was an epic race that will inspire many new racers to suit up and head to Johnson Valley to take on the toughest “one-day race in the world”.
I have been on the lakebed every year since UTVs were involved in 2009 – as a racer, a co-dog, a media guy or a live show commentator. The UTV Hammers Championship was a quick sprint in the desert with a few rocks tossed in until 2013. For the next few years, the UTV rock race lasted a full day and had a finish rate of about 10%. In my opinion, we need to get back to this!
Since about 2019, when I co-dogged for Mitch Guthrie Jr. (and we took 1st Place), the race has been dominated by factory teams and finish times by lunch. The vehicles are so much better than what we raced 10 year ago and the skill of the drivers has also grown considerably. But the other thing that happened is bypasses were created on some of the most iconic Hammers trails making them so much easier than in years past.
In 2025, Ultra4 Racing instituted and enforced more RCPs (Rock Check Points) than ever before. This helped keep racers in the rocks on several trails, but more was needed. For 2026, the technology advanced further and more RCPs were added which made many of these trails more difficult again.
The 2026 UTV Hammers Championship was one of the most exciting races to date with lots of lead changes, breakdowns and bottlenecks. And for the first time since 2009-2010-ish when Mitch Guthrie Sr. started his winning streak as a privateer, another non-factory backed racer won the race!
Jeffro Martin takes the overall win at the 2026 UTV Hammers Championship in his Can-Am Maverick X3
While the race was one of the most exciting races to date to watch, I would still like to see a few changes to make it even better! In my opinion, not just the Race of Kings, but also the UTV Hammers Championship should be able to say it is the hardest one-day race in the world. While the 2026 Race of Kings can certainly hang its’ hat on that, the UTV Hammers Championship has some work to do.
While I agree with Dave Cole taking out a few tough trails or sections of trails that were early in lap 2 (Kings Veto and the upper part of Outer Limits), we need more tough trails so the race doesn’t end with the first competitor crossing the finish line in under 5 hours!
Upper Outer Limits was removed from the race the day before race day!
Racing Hammers should be hard and there are so many UTV teams that absolutely suck when tough things happen and alternate lines and/or winching is required. I predicted a traffic jam would happen on Jack Hammer, and it was a mess on race day.
2026 UTV Hammers Championship – Jack Hammer Parking Lot
Jack Hammer Course Preview
This was my 5th year commentating for the Ultra4 Racing Live Show since 2020. You can watch the full show below.
2026 UTV Hammers Championship Live Feed
Ronnie Anderson was leading the race when he got the news that he was DQ’d for going the wrong way on course while coming into Hammertown at the end of lap 1.
Cole Clark would go to sleep thinking he won the race based on penalties applied to Jeffro Martin, only to learn the next day that he would get 2nd place.
Last year’s king, Brock Heger would get 3rd place after breaking two axles while leading the race in Jack Hammer
2026 UTV Hammers Championship Race Results
Overall
- Jeff Martin – Can-Am
- Cole Clark – Polaris
- Brock Heger – Polaris
Pro Open
- Jeff Martin – Can-Am
- Cole Clark – Polaris
- Brock Heger – Polaris
Pro Mod
- Scott Lasage – Polaris
- Tomy Thompson – Can-Am
- Ryan Dunn – Can-Am
Pro Stock Turbo
- Kurt Mackie – Can-Am
- Brian Deegan – Can-Am
- Aiden Gilbert – Can-Am
Pro Stock NA
- Jeremy McGrath – Kawasaki
- Cayden McCachren – Polaris
Sportsman Stock
- Hubert Rowland – Can-Am
Youth 1000
- Peanut Fulcher
- Tyce Healy
- Mason Dowker
Here are my suggestions to “Make the UTV Hammers Championship Race Great Again”:
- Design a course where first finisher would be expected to cross the line no earlier than 3PM.
- Eliminate several classes so we don’t have “everybody wins a trophy” situations. No more than 3 classes would be great!
- Just put Polaris RZR Pro R in with everyone else and get rid of the Open class. Get rid of custom chassis, adding turbos and certain suspension changes in the UTV class. UTVs should “look” like something you can get at your dealer, not some Mad Max contraption. Race of Kings is for those vehicles.
- Add more rock trails (easier) to lap 1 to spread the field out.
- Try to design the lap 2 course so harder trails/obstacles are further into lap 2 so bottlenecks are less likely to impact the race for people coming from the back.
- Add a few spots where 90-95% of racers will have to winch, but add them further into lap 2 (eg. Kings Veto)
- Try to add in more RCPs near Lazer Nut Alley, Her Problem & Idle Issues. These are great spectator locations and RCPs can be placed in spots to create new difficult race lines.
- Don’t be afraid to end the race with going up Back Door and Resolution (with RCPs). Every UTV can make it up Back Door with a good winch!
- Make lap 2 secret until the day before the race so you cannot pre-run.
- Figure out how to dependably and quickly check RCPs and VCPs so race results don’t have to wait until the next day.
- It’s 2026, why limit tire sizes in any UTV class?!
