Gunning to be king of the desert

Two years ago, Marty Mann and Tom More drove the more than 1,200 miles from their homes in Kalispell to Johnson Valley, California, to see the fabled King of the Hammers off-road endurance race for the first time.

They vowed it wouldn’t be the last time.

“We went down there, watched the races, and then that was it for me,” More said. “I knew that I needed to build one of these things.”

Mann, an accomplished driver, and More, a passionate builder, set off almost immediately to bring that vision to life. Now, this week, the pair is going back. And this time it’s not just to watch.

“We’re not just going to go there to drive around and say we did it,” More said. “That’s not the way we are.”

THE MYTHOLOGY of the King of the Hammers is matched only by the sheer absurdity of the race itself.

Shannon Welch, the communications director for the Ultra4 racing series that now sponsors races year-round, including the King of the Hammers, said the event was founded in 2007 as “12 guys racing for a case of beer on a bet.”

Today, races in five different classes cover more than 100 miles in the High Desert of California, a test billed as “the toughest one-day off-road race in the world.” The course traverses wide-open desert and rigorous rock climbing, all done in heavily modified vehicles — the overgrown spawn of an all-terrain vehicle and a pickup.

For drivers and vehicles that choose to enter, the stories of failure are legendary. In last year’s 4500 (modified) class, the race Mann and More will be running, just 16 of the 41 entrants finished the race. Twelve failed to even complete the first of two laps.

“The attrition rate is ridiculous,” More said. “Last year’s points champion, it took him three tries just to finish.”

Courses are “marked” in GPS navigation systems provided to racers and surround the so-called Hammertown, a pop-up community of more than 60,000 spectators that takes over Mean’s Dry Lake. The loop resembles other off-road tracks but is exaggerated for maximum punishment.

“You find the nastiest desert terrain that you can, with big sand whoops and gullies and washouts, and that type of terrain you’re trying to go fast on,” Mann said. “And then you find the hardest, gnarliest rock canyons that you would ever consider trying to take a vehicle up. You combine all that in one race and that’s what it is.

“It’s the most brutal race that is around. It flat beats the driver, the co-driver, mentally, physically and then, of course, the car gets beat down.”

Inside the cabin, Mann will drive while More navigates — both with the GPS and by scouting out rock-climbing paths — and winches, if needed.

Mann, 42, is a Flathead High School grad, former Montana motocross champion and accomplished motorcycle racer, and he tackled the King of the Motos (the motocross race held during the King of the Hammers) two years ago.

“When I raced, we ran through stuff that no one’s ever put a tire on,” he said. “It’s just unreal where they make you go. It’s insane.

“It’s cool, though.”

MORE, TOO, has an automotive background, although it’s the two men’s differences that help them fit together inside the cabin during races.

He has been enamored with building things since the time he discovered Legos growing up in Havre. The truck the two will race was built with deliberate care in More’s garage, where it stays when the two are not out racing.

More, 43, is the truck’s owner. He pilots a different off-highway vehicle he built for fun, but being behind the wheel isn’t where his biggest thrills come from.

“For me, it’s the building of it,” he said. “Trying to visualize what I’m trying to accomplish and then coming out (to the garage) and working with steel and welding and creating. That is the most enjoyment for me.”

More has no formal training as a mechanic but the racing vehicle he’s built has been remarkably successful in a short period of time.

In just their second-ever race together — after winning a 100-mile night race in Columbus, Montana — the pair entered an Ultra4 series event. Not knowing exactly what to expect, they went out and won their class.

“Reno, it just blew my mind,” More said. “We wanted to go against our competition and the classification of trucks that we’re in, we wanted to compete against them and just see how we would fare with them.”

“Second time out, a couple guys that don’t know what they’re doing turned heads,” Mann said.

It wasn’t just the operators that turned heads, either. Both More and Mann described themselves as faithful “Toyota guys” and the truck they built has a Toyota Tundra body. Under the hood, More chose to use a four-cylinder engine (instead of the V6 or V8 engines more typically seen). With the help of LC Engineering, an Arizona engine-builder, More packed 500 horsepower into that four-cylinder engine.

“Everybody’s mind was blown,” More said of the race in Columbus. “It’s an engine out of a Toyota Tacoma pickup is all it is, but it makes 500 horsepower. It’ll flat-out scare you, how quick that thing is.”

WHAT SCARES a layman about the King of the Hammers is the course itself — and the way the competitors talk about the ride. Races like Reno are punishing enough, but the Hammers is on another level.

“It’s brutal,” More said. “You’re in washing machine. It’s like a car crash, just getting thrown around.

“You have to be an athlete to do this. You can’t go out there and expect to just get behind the wheel or sit in the passenger seat and not be completely wore out.”

Then there’s the mental part. The winner of last year’s King of the Hammers in their class finished the race in seven and a half hours. The rock-climbing portions, in which the trucks look like giant metal lizards, carefully slithering from one rock to the next without getting stuck, are particularly challenging.

“You’ve always got to be looking one, two, three, four steps ahead,” More said. “It’s a lot like playing chess. You put a piece here in anticipation.”

“You’re running 100 miles an hour across the desert,” he added. “And one lapse in judgment and this thing’s going to take a 100 mile an hour end-over-end.”

They credit their success to one more thing, beyond Mann’s driving, More’s building and their precise paths. It’s their shared competitiveness that has both men thinking big this week.

“It’s amazing, it’s an opportunity of a lifetime for me,” Mann said. “I’ve always dreamed of wanting to do it and to get to where I can get in a competitive car … Failure isn’t really an option and it never has been.”

“My expectation is to win,” More said. “If we have a perfect day with Marty behind the wheel and what we’ve built, there’s no reason why we can’t win.”

HAMMERTOWN OPENED Friday, and the first preliminary races began Saturday. Mann and More, in the 4500 (modified) series, will tackle the course during the Smittybilt Every Man Challenge on Thursday.

The 4500 is the second-highest of the four vehicle series. The top level (4400) hits the course Friday. The King of the Motos is today.

Races will be broadcast live at www.ultra4racing.com/live.

Entertainment editor Andy Viano can be reached at (406) 758-4439 or aviano@dailyinterlake.com.