Extreme Roc Rigs

2009 King of the Hill

Posted on 04. Oct, 2009 by xrr in News

The 8th annual King of the Hill was held on August 22, 2009 just south of Huntsville, AL in a small neck of the woods called Florette and eXtreme Roc Rigs was there to sponsor and support the event. King of the Hill is a rock race that draws competitors of many classes from all over the South-East in to race their vehicles from the bottom of the rock infested hill to the top and back down again. This event was has been successful for the past 7 years and 2009 was no different.

The format for the race is pretty simple, sign-up, pay your entrance fee, get in line, and race the course. If your rig is capable of trying the course a second time, get back in line and try it again….best run from each class wins. SCCA was there to provide providing timing triggered with lasers to make sure timing was accurate and it’s a good thing because the top two in the unlimited class finished within hundredths of a second from each other.

On Friday evening, before the event, it rained quite a bit which made the course even more difficult than the “evil” course designers intended it to be. There were 25 or so competitors spread across 3 classes, Limited Small, Limited Big, and Unlimited and we were 10 competitors into the race before the first one actually completed the course before timing out or breaking. A few other competitors were able to finish the course on their first runs and as the day went on and the course dried out the times began to improve.

King of the Hill 2009

The last run had to start by 5pm sharp and there was less than 10 seconds between the two top competitors who had traded best times all day long. Adam Carter had the lead with a time of 1:26:946 over Travis Wilson with about 30 minutes left in the completion. Travis flipped his unlimited class buggy over while trying to regain the lead and most thought it was over; however, Travis was able to get back in the line and run one final time in which he completed the course in 1:26:895 to become the 2009 King of the Hill.

For additional pictures, a complete list of competitors and their times, or general information about King of the Hill 2009 and future King of the Hill events, visit www.koth4×4.com.

Tags: rock crawling, rock racing