So You Think You Can Handle King of the Hammers + Video

Lucas Cooney
by Lucas Cooney
A brief look at Jason Weller's YXZ1000R at KOH


The King of the Hammers is perhaps the most challenging off-road race in North America, combining high-speed desert racing with some absolutely gnarly rock crawling.

Yamaha’s new YXZ1000R made its first appearance at this year’s event, which happened earlier this week. Jason Weller piloted the car to a seventh place finish in the UTV race, which is a huge accomplishment after leaving the starting line 47th out of 60 racers.

“We did it! We started 47th and ended up 7th!” Weller posted to his Facebook page after the race. “Our new Yamaha YXZ1000R ran flawless and took a beating. I believed we could do it and we did it! Kyle Anderson was a great navigator / co-pilot keeping me calm, focused and on point the whole time. Thanks to everyone involved and everyone that helped us get here!”

While the driver gets most of the credit, Weller was right to compliment his navigator, Kyle Anderson. To get through some of the King of the Hammers obstacles, you need a great navigator to guide you to the right lines. You can watch the two work together in the video below they tackle one of the many challenging rock crawling sections on the course. This short video shows exactly why it’s a huge accomplishment to even finish this race in a UTV.

Get the Flash Player to see this player.

Lucas Cooney
Lucas Cooney

I have been working exclusively in digital media since 1997. I started out with TSN.ca, spending nearly nine years creating and editing content on Canada's leading sports website. I left to join VerticalScope, Inc., one of the world's largest online publishers, to start a number of powersports publications. While at VerticalScope, I've helped create and oversee content for a wide variety of different publications, including ATV.com, Off-Road.com, ArcheryTalk.com, Tractor.com, RVGuide.com, and many more.

More by Lucas Cooney

Next