King of the Hammers on now - live streaming

You want technical freedom in your racing? Here's some technical freedom for you. The unlimited class of the KoH is on the course now.

http://ultra4racing.com/live/

I've been trying to watch it, but something between me and them doesn't have enough bandwidth. I don't think it's my Internet connection, I have plenty enough bandwidth for a 480p stream.

Checking it out now. Never heard of the event.

Been following on Pirate, and the Every Man Challenge yesterday.

The live tracking seems a bit flaky. Watching Adler (#210) and Gilstrap (#26) on the video feed a few truck lengths apart, but the tracking map shows them miles away from each other.

In reply to T.J.:

It's not 100% accurate, but it also only updates ever ~5 min.

For those who have never heard: the event includes hard-core rock crawling plus high speed lakebed driving. The course is long and traverses some serious obstacles. First one through wins :) 900 hp V8 engines, huge amounts of suspension travel, dust, broken everything and a whole bunch of cars on the course at the same time. They will literally drive over each other.

Ultra4 is some very cool stuff. There are some GRM-ish classes for homebuilt rigs as well as the unlimiteds. What makes it really fun is that there still isn't consensus on just what works. Solid vs independent front axles. Do you build for speed on the dirt or ability in the rocks? Is it possible to have too much power? The answer the last appears to be settling on "no".

They're stagger started 30 sec. apart, so quickest time, corrected for any penalties gathered during the race, wins.

There really is nothing like it on the planet, Rock Racing and Baja all rolled up into one.

Today's race is the "Big Show," a lot of money and sponsorships, still amazing tech and drivers. Most of the GRM-ish stuff was earlier in the week/yesterday, in the LCQ and EMC events. There's a SxS and Moto race as well.

Just to show how brutal it is, during yesterdays EMC the Stock class had 20 competitors, only 1 finished.

This is the Stock class rig that finished/won.

Heck there were 70 or more competitors between the Modified, Spec, and Legends classes, only 11 finished.

If you want a good rundown of the event, the 2014 movie "Element of survival" does a great job of showcasing all the classes. They even run bikes! The local Jeep club does a charity showing of the movie every year around this time, it's a fun night out.

http://www.kohthemovie.com/

Only 17 finished of the 130 in the main event. Granted some of those DNF'd on time, there was a 3 hour traffic jam on Jack Hammer, I heard 50 rigs stuck there on various laps at one point in time. Still it shows just how difficult this event is. The best rigs, and best drivers from all over the world, and only 17 finished.

http://ultra4racing.com/the-inside-line/2015-nitto-king-hammers-presented-4-wheel-parts-results/

Slawson won again.

I had the chance to spend an evening sitting under the stars, chatting racing with Tony Pellegrino. 2nd place last year, 9th this year. Interesting guy, and he wants to learn everything he can about other kinds of racing so he can do better at KOH. For example, he wants to crew on a Thunderhill 25 team.

Anyhow, he reports that the traffic jam this year was epic.

Also, there are a lot of people who feel Slawson should have been DQ'd due to pit misbehavior - more than 10 mph over the pit limit is supposed to be a DQ, and he also did donuts right beside a crew that was trying to change a transmission. Some bad feelings in the community at the moment. Some of it might be legit, some of it might be the usual adrenaline-fed frustration spillover that happens after a race. But there are definitely some post-donut rut pictures out there.

In reply to Keith Tanner:

Yeah, I don't have a dog in the fight, but plenty of "eye witnesses" claiming it was a J turn, using throttle to swing the rear around to have a better exit from the pit. He wasn't the only one doing the same maneuver, but he sent Campbells crew ducking for cover when he did it, their pits were close to each other. He wasn't the only one pushing the speed limits in the pits either. If he wasn't the winner and Campbell wasn't such a huge name in the sport, we'd probably never hear about it.

I don't care I was rooting for 192 Kenny Blume, he DNF'd

Photo of the alleged incident. I read he's got a spool in the rear and some kind of custom Detroit in the front, so he'll be slinging dirt from at least one side in any kind of tight turn.

It was a truck killer for sure. Sorry your guy didn't make it, he was in the majority.

I didn't watch the race live from this year, but the King of the Motos is just plain nuts.

My brother-in-law has a rig that could take this race on. I think I'm going to have to convince him we need to take a run at it. Not sure if I want to navigate/spot or just do logistics.

In reply to Keith Tanner:

That looks like a really quick way to get a really expensive helicopter flight to the ER.

Hammerking laid it all out, Slawson will not be penalized.

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=884282291613865