2024 King Of The Hammers Email from Dave

[tribal4krawler]

Hope Everyone's Having a Great Summer,



I wanted to touch base with you all to let you know some of the things we are working on this summer. As always, if you have any questions, comments or concerns, please give me a call @ 909-273-0216.



The KOH schedule is up. You may view it on our website here.



New for 2024….



Youth Racing:

• In addition to the KOH Kids 170 race and Youth UTV Racing with Great American Shortcourse, KOH 2024 will be the first year of the KOH Futures Race, a 4900 subclass.
• Lap one of the Can-Am UTV Hammers Championship, starting two hours after the main race.
• Leverages existing live show infrastructure.
• Production 1000cc UTV (adult co-driver required), bridging the gap between a 170 and full adult class. Additional details to follow.

In-Car Content Collaboration:

• We have developed a solution that will aggregate in-car footage produced by the teams directly.
• Best examples would be Bryce Menzies and Chuck Crossland (I won the bet that I could use both of their names in the same sentence - Love you Chuck).
• Teams produce and publish a live feed that HKP will use UNEDITED in our live show.
• We’ve been testing packages that will work at KOH for less than $5k total investment all in, and we’re working on a rental/loaner solution.
• Think of your car’s cameras and tech as the most valuable mechanical assembly on your car, because it is.
• Give us a good feed, we will 100% get you viewers (nearly 3 million unique on the live show alone in 2023).

Purse Model:

• Historically, more than 2/3’s of your entry fee has gone to pay the purse. Effective immediately, none of the purse will be funded by competitor entries.
• Nitto, Toyo, and Can-Am have stepped forward to fund the purses of their respective races; all will still exceed $100k.

Entry Fee Reduction:

• By removing the burden of supplementing the purse, we are reducing entry fees.
• The earlier you register, the larger the discount; the opening entry fee price is $25 (see Competitor Entry Code Sale details in an email to follow).

Rookie Program Presented by Gravel Kings:

• After a record 58 rookies raced last year, we are incredibly proud to announce our new partnership with Gravel Kings as Presenting Sponsor in a multi-year partnership.
• 10 full-length episodes of the “Quest to the Crown.”
• Five weekend experiential events.

Adopt-A-Trail:

• We need a Rookie Program for Participants.
• The “Spectator” trails are on the verge of being out of control. There used to be enough “experienced” people in the crowd that they would educate their peers when they lacked common sense.
• I believe it’s our opportunity AND obligation to educate newbies on the responsibility we assume when we off-road on public land or, for that matter, anywhere.
• The ‘easy access’ and the crowds of KOH provide thousands with their first real exposure to off-road culture. Let’s make it count.
• I am looking for three different organizations/groups to manage Backdoor, Chocolate Thunder and Turkey Claw. You set the tone. Lead by example: Fun, Education, Responsibility (Trash, Safety, Monitoring).
• Make it cool, make it fun, make it safe.

Pre-Run, Poker Run - KOH Style:

• Experience the desert in a completely different way.
• Competitors and partners collaborate to create unique experiences and opportunities out in the desert (rock and desert loops separate).

eCEO:

• We have partnered with Joey DiGiovanni and UnitedSim.Co, to bring authentic and certified KOH maps, environments and vehicles to your computer.
• Our goal is to release the 2024 KOH map online by the end of 2023.

Board of Directors:

• We are creating a Board of Directors and would like to include a veteran racer and industry partner for two of the seats.
• If anyone would like to submit someone OTHER than themselves send me an email.

I appreciate you all. As always, if you can make it to the Hammers, every racer is welcome at the Ranch year-round. Let me know if you are around and want to go wheeling

 

[ridered3]

Some cool changes mentioned in the email. Going to fix up the RzR to let the kiddos race?

 

[tribal4krawler]

Some cool changes mentioned in the email. Going to fix up the RzR to let the kiddos race?

My game plan is to fix the turbo S and then possibly see if I can keep it at the ranch to be able to fly in and prerun/have fun. I don’t think any of the kiddos will race KoH anytime in the remote future - it’s just too far away and too much time away from school.

 

[ridered3]

My game plan is to fix the turbo S and then possibly see if I can keep it at the ranch to be able to fly in and prerun/have fun. I don’t think any of the kiddos will race KoH anytime in the remote future - it’s just too far away and too much time away from school.

Understandable all around there.

 

[RunningProblem]

Volunteers to ‘manage’ Backdoor should be interesting. I don’t think many people are going to listen to a volunteer saying ‘you can do that.’ I’m sure they’d get a ‘fuck you’ or a ‘watch me’ in return

 

[06h3]

Volunteers to ‘manage’ Backdoor should be interesting. I don’t think many people are going to listen to a volunteer saying ‘you can do that.’ I’m sure they’d get a ‘fuck you’ or a ‘watch me’ in return

I did recovery at backdoor for years so I was around the volunteers who managed backdoor. You’d be surprised. Most people listened, of course there were the few that didn’t. All they tried to do was keep you off the course when a car is flying by.

I’d say the recovery team got more “fuck you, I can do it better” or “you should be winching like this” than the crowd control. I assume the people yelling at recovery have a fucking YJ with a Dana 35 and don’t know their head from their ass.

 

[RunningProblem]

I did recovery at backdoor for years so I was around the volunteers who managed backdoor. You’d be surprised. Most people listened, of course there were the few that didn’t. All they tried to do was keep you off the course when a car is flying by.

I’d say the recovery team got more “fuck you, I can do it better” or “you should be winching like this” than the crowd control. I assume the people yelling at recovery have a fucking YJ with a Dana 35 and don’t know their head from their ass.

I must have incorrectly assumed the volunteers were also working crowds at night. When he says ‘manage’ I interpret it to be the entire time the event is going on (I.e. all week) so the newbies showing up every day and night get educated on proper etiquette for public wheeling at large gatherings so things aren’t shut down.

 

[06h3]

I must have incorrectly assumed the volunteers were also working crowds at night. When he says ‘manage’ I interpret it to be the entire time the event is going on (I.e. all week) so the newbies showing up every day and night get educated on proper etiquette for public wheeling at large gatherings so things aren’t shut down.

Once the race is over his volunteers are done. If they went into the night I’m sure it would be a shit show like you mentioned in the first post.

This is my personal opinion so take it with a grain of salt and admittedly things have changed in the past year from what I’m told. Back when I started the volunteers were treated with respect and they were valued. In my opinion, as time went on they were treated worse and worse. Finally, I’m like why the fuck am I doing this? So I stopped. Last year I guess they paid certain volunteers but again, it was only $100 for a 12+ hour day. It wasn’t about the money, it was about not being treated like shit by racers and U4.

I get racers are in the heat of the moment but we were asked to do post race recoveries for disabled rigs. We gave them gas and parts and weren’t reimbursed. We have been yelled at by racers and gotten snarky comments by racers for doing our job in a way they didn’t like. Admittedly it was just a few of them, most were cool but without the volunteers your race fees go up significantly or there’s no race. Usually the guys who flipped out on us were not the legit wheelers, they are the rich guy who heard there’s this badass race in the desert and it’s their new challenge.

U4 did a dinner/meeting for us each year, back in the day they gave out cool swag and truly appreciated the fact that we volunteered our time. They raffled off things like tires, winches etc. some would win, most would get the swag bag. The swag bag got worse and worse. Eventually they were just giving us shit they couldn’t sell, here’s a 4xl KOH 2014 t shirt.

The group I’d volunteer for now, and randomly ran into and helped was one of the trail conservation groups (forgot their name) but they spent 1-2 hours the next morning picking up the thousands upon thousands of empty beer cans left at the party spots. As the event has gotten bigger and bigger it’s been attracting the morons and the morons leave a mess. Their efforts keep trails open, volunteering for U4, not so much.

 

[SurfnSnow]

Once the race is over his volunteers are done. If they went into the night I’m sure it would be a shit show like you mentioned in the first post.

This is my personal opinion so take it with a grain of salt and admittedly things have changed in the past year from what I’m told. Back when I started the volunteers were treated with respect and they were valued. In my opinion, as time went on they were treated worse and worse. Finally, I’m like why the fuck am I doing this? So I stopped. Last year I guess they paid certain volunteers but again, it was only $100 for a 12+ hour day. It wasn’t about the money, it was about not being treated like shit by racers and U4.

I get racers are in the heat of the moment but we were asked to do post race recoveries for disabled rigs. We gave them gas and parts and weren’t reimbursed. We have been yelled at by racers and gotten snarky comments by racers for doing our job in a way they didn’t like. Admittedly it was just a few of them, most were cool but without the volunteers your race fees go up significantly or there’s no race. Usually the guys who flipped out on us were not the legit wheelers, they are the rich guy who heard there’s this badass race in the desert and it’s their new challenge.

U4 did a dinner/meeting for us each year, back in the day they gave out cool swag and truly appreciated the fact that we volunteered our time. They raffled off things like tires, winches etc. some would win, most would get the swag bag. The swag bag got worse and worse. Eventually they were just giving us shit they couldn’t sell, here’s a 4xl KOH 2014 t shirt.

The group I’d volunteer for now, and randomly ran into and helped was one of the trail conservation groups (forgot their name) but they spent 1-2 hours the next morning picking up the thousands upon thousands of empty beer cans left at the party spots. As the event has gotten bigger and bigger it’s been attracting the morons and the morons leave a mess. Their efforts keep trails open, volunteering for U4, not so much.

I think it might have been Tread Lightly, at least that was the group I ran into at the base of Chocolate Thunder in the morning before one of the qualifying events.

 

[white-rhino]

Tread Lightly does a lot of cleanup after KOH.

 

[RPS1030]

I think it might have been Tread Lightly, at least that was the group I ran into at the base of Chocolate Thunder in the morning before one of the qualifying events.

Some from my camp were with Tread Lightly and hitting Back Door and Chocolate Thunder every morning.

 

[06h3]

Yep! It was tread lightly! Volunteering for them is only a couple hours and makes a big difference for the off-road community. Volunteering for U4 doesn’t really make a difference in my opinion. They claim you get to see things average spectators don’t. Yeah, for some it’s true. For most, you’re standing in BFE watching a race car on an uneventful part of the course.

 

[tribal4krawler]

Yep! It was tread lightly! Volunteering for them is only a couple hours and makes a big difference for the off-road community. Volunteering for U4 doesn’t really make a difference in my opinion. They claim you get to see things average spectators don’t. Yeah, for some it’s true. For most, you’re standing in BFE watching a race car on an uneventful part of the course.

For what it’s worth, I’ve heard a lot of conversations within Ultra4 revolving around how important the volunteers are. I think with the absolute mayhem of KOH and how big it’s getting they’ve let the appreciation of the volunteers down quite a bit over the past couple years. They definitely value everybody that puts time and effort in at such a crazy race, and I think those true asshole racers you mentioned are pretty few and far between. You also have to see it from our perspective where if you’re having to help us, our hopes and dreams have been crushed and all the money, time, blood sweat and tears to make this race happen is wasted and so it can be hard to be gracious and appreciative. I’ve definitely had moments where I’ve needed recovering due to being broke and being completely in my head trying to work out how to fix the damage and completely forget to thank the recovery crew. Regardless, thanks for volunteering for Ultra4 previously and good on you for volunteering with Tread Lightly!

 

[06h3]

For what it’s worth, I’ve heard a lot of conversations within Ultra4 revolving around how important the volunteers are. I think with the absolute mayhem of KOH and how big it’s getting they’ve let the appreciation of the volunteers down quite a bit over the past couple years. They definitely value everybody that puts time and effort in at such a crazy race, and I think those true asshole racers you mentioned are pretty few and far between. You also have to see it from our perspective where if you’re having to help us, our hopes and dreams have been crushed and all the money, time, blood sweat and tears to make this race happen is wasted and so it can be hard to be gracious and appreciative. I’ve definitely had moments where I’ve needed recovering due to being broke and being completely in my head trying to work out how to fix the damage and completely forget to thank the recovery crew. Regardless, thanks for volunteering for Ultra4 previously and good on you for volunteering with Tread Lightly!

Absolutely. My posts were not intended to be an ass kissing moment where I hope to be praised for my work. I enjoy doing it and had fun for years and had lots of great memories. Unfortunately, U4’s actions spoke louder than their words and that’s why I bailed. As Dave once yelled, “if you don’t know where the race course is then get the hell out.” While I wasn’t racing, I got the hell out because it cost me more then my time, it started costing me money and frustration.