Race Day at a Glance
0600 hours: The ORA crew is up: quick coffee, doughnut, and we're out mounting cameras on race rigs.
0700: All teams stage in the pits and sort out starting positions.
0755: Racing legend and King of the Hammers Grand Marshal, Walker Evans stepped to the start line and with just four words, "Gentlemen, Start Your Engines," a hundred engines screamed to life... the race was on.
0800: The first of one hundred rigs pulled away from the start/finish line, side-by-side. The ORA crew shoots the first thirteen groups off the start.
0812: ORA crew heads to Race Marker 2.5 (RM2.5) at the big sand wash. To win this race, you must be in the front of the group before you get to the Hammer Trails. Rigs are pushing the limits three-abreast jockeying for position. All teams pass, at 0835 we move to RM22.
0851: First vehicles passed checkpoint one. One roll over and a few breakdowns reported. Shannon Campbell goes back to the pits on a strap.
0920: Most of the teams (that didn't break or roll) have passed race marker 22 (RM22). The 4 Wheel Parts/Rancho team of Greg Adler and Bob Willis have broken, then rolled. The ORA crew heads east to RM42 and the BFG pits.
1023: BFG pits are in full swing. The top rigs have refueled and headed out. The rest of the pack begins to trickle in. Pit crews are busy welding broken parts and swapping tires. A fifteen-mile desert section awaits, then the Resolution and Backdoor Trails. 1050: ORA crew jumps in the Two Week Taco and races (literally... against a pre-runner Ford and a Buggy--we won!!!) down a seven mile sand wash to catch a few rigs at the entrance of Claw Hammer.
1115: ORA crew sets up for shots of rigs crossing a dry lakebed - reports on the race radio that Shannon Campbell, though disqualified for getting towed back to the pits, swapped in a new tranny and is back on the course.
1122: ORA crew heads for big waterfall on the Backdoor Trail - report of first vehicle passing checkpoint five.
1215: Gourmet lunch of beef jerky, granola bars and Monster Energy drink.
1231: The ORA crew races back to the finish line.
1248: Jason Scherer and Co-pilot Jason Berger cross the finish line with a time of 4:42 and 59 seconds to become the 2009 King of the Hammers champions.
1307: Casey Currie of Currie Enterprises takes 2nd place.
1341: Rick Mooneyham crosses the line for 3rd.
1404: We head to the Hammer trails to catch the carnage on Sledgehammer.
1521: Shannon Campbell is driving over cars to get through traffic on the Hammers. The crowd goes wild.
1739: ORA crew heads back to finish line for stragglers.
1900: Awards followed by a raging party.
