2013 Griffin King of the Hammers

Randy Slawson Wins The Griffin King of the Hammers

The 7th annual Griffin King of the Hammers was rumored to be the toughest race to date, and it did not disappoint. With freezing temperatures and extreme wind, Hammerking estimates approximately 30,000 people braved the elements at Hammertown on Friday setting previous attendance records. It may have been cold, but that didn't stop everyone from enjoying the action at several spectator friendly locations, or even just watching from the jumbotron in main camp.


Randy Slawson and his co-driver and brother PaulStranger laid the smack down on the competition with a winning time of 7 hours and 28 minutes. Randy has been racing in KOH since the beginning, and even shared victory with John "JR" Reynolds in the very first King of the Hammers back in 2007 as his co-driver. Slawson has been close to victory over the years as a driver, but he was finally able to put together a near perfect run this year.

"Mike and I never got out of the car once the entire race", said Slawson.

Shannon Campbell, two time previous King, finished behind Slawson with a time of 7:48. Shannon had a tough race and got lost a couple of times due to not having a co-driver. He also rolled completely over at one point.

Another favorite and previous King, Jason Scherer battled hard and was a front runner for much of the race. Scherer had the pole position and elected to go straight to back door right at the start. He made short work of Back Door and Resolution and was picking off cars left and right in the desert slowly working his way back to the front of the pack with Backdoor under his belt. Unfortunately several mechanical issues got the best of Scherer later in the race and he had to settle for 21st place.


Along with Randy Slawson and Shannon Campbell, Chicky Barton would take the third spot on the podium with a finishing time of 8:23. Erik Miller, last year's King would take fourth place and Australian Ben Napier would round out the top five in his brand new Penhall built IFS car.

Desert racers Robby Gordon, BJ Baldwin, and TJ Flores would all fall victim to the brutal course. An astonishing 27 of 129 competitors were able to complete the course which would confirm the suspicions that this years race was by far the toughest in KOH history.

“The capabilities of Ultra4 vehicles grow by leaps and bounds each year,” promoter Dave Cole explained. “We added longer stretches of desert and more challenging rocks this year in order to test the abilities of these vehicles and drivers.”