For 2012, King of the Hammers by Ultra4 came together with Jimmy Lewis to collaborate on a concept race that would participate in the annual rock-crawling desert race. Deep in the Lucerne Valley desert, a select group of the finest off-road riders including Graham Jarvis, Kyle Redmond (both Husaberg TE 300), Kurt Caselli, Nick Burson, Max Eddy, David Pearson, Gary Sutherlin, Brad Pace, M ike Slawson, and other extremely talented off-road riders, gathered at the base of a virgin hill with overwhelmingly rocky terrain for the first annual King of the Motos.

Starting by standing at the back of their bike, the riders held onto the rear fender and crouched in preperation of getting on their bike, starting it and reaching the top of the hill. Although a start would not be the total key in this race, Kurt Caselli was first to his electric start and made it to the top of the hill in first, with Graham Jarvis, Cody Webb, Kyle Redmond and Gary Sutherlin in tow. Destry Abbott struggled up the hill and tipped over as well as David Pearson who struggled with a handful of others….and the race had only just begun.

Jetting off into the open desert, the racers strategically chose their lines to get ahead. By mile 45, Webb was in the lead ahead of Redmond, and minutes back was Caselli, who was minutes ahead of Abbott. By mile 57, Webb still had the lead, but Jarvis was moving up. Coming over Fissure Mountain and over the crest just before the Jackhammers, Redmond was the first to peak over with Jarvis very close behind. Next through was Caselli who took off over the sand dune, but never made it over because of a seized clutch.

In the Jackhammers, Jarvis made the pass on Redmond. Between the Jackhammers and the Backdoor, the two became lost but quickly found their way back. In the end, Graham Jarvis finished the race with a time of 2:57:19 just 12 minutes ahead of Kyle Redmond who came in at 3:09:41. What made the finish so cool is the fact that both Jarvis and Redmond were on borrowed Husaberg TE 300 two-strokes and each of the bikes belonged to a different magazine! Dirt Rider loaned their Berg to Jarvis (the winner) and Dirt Bike Magazine offered their TE 300 to Redmond who put in an impressive ride. Was the race really that gnarly that the guys didn't want to thrash their own personal ri des? Possibly. But either way, these riders showed that stock Husabergs are fine bikes and can take the beating across miles and miles of over-sized desert whoops, nasty rock gardens and the softest power-robbing sand dunes.


The first words of the winner Graham Jarvis were "It was crazy fast! fast and tough!"

Only 6 out of the 21 started riders made it to the finish.

You can find a great video recap of the event here.

Report by www.offroad-journal.com
Pics by www.dirtrider.com and www.offroad-journal.com