No brand knows how to conquer King of the Hammers, the world’s toughest single-day off-road race, like King Shocks does. After a sweep of last year’s podium in Ultra4’s biggest event, King Shocks once again returned to the top of the podium at the grueling race, with driver Raul Gomez conquering the event for the first time and taking home $67,000 for the victory, plus a $25,000 cash award from King Shocks. Gomez’s victory completed a dominant event for King Shocks, which dominated the top classes of off-road racing across 10 days of competition.
After finishing third in the Race of Kings last year, joining three-time winner Randy Slawson and his brother JP on an all-King Shocks podium, Gomez returned to Johnson Valley, California with a brand new race vehicle. The car was so new, in fact, that it had fewer than 20 miles of testing before attempting to conquer the 227-mile race. Gomez elected to put the new car to the test across the three-lap event, and the King Shocks Tuners stepped up to the task and tuned Raul’s brand new UFO race car to perfection, a grueling challenge given the hurdles the team was presented with.
And while just 44 of the 101 competitors on hand could complete the race within the 14-hour time limit, Gomez’s performance was never in question. Third overall at the end of the first lap, he took over the top spot on the second and kept it together through the third to score the victory by more than 15 minutes over his closest competition with a total time of 6:57:12.881. Gomez was joined in the top five by his brother Marcos, who posted the fastest pass on the final lap and whose total result of 7:39:23.713 was good enough for fourth place overall.
“Congratulations to King Shocks’ own Raul Gomez for scoring this well-deserved King of the Hammers win!” said Ramses Perez, King Shocks Senior Director of Marketing. “The entire Gomez family has been among the most popular and exciting group of racers to watch at this event for years. We’ve known that their first victory was only a matter of time. Raul’s first KOH win is special enough, but to do it in our very own title sponsored car, and to add another win here for our team in a brand new car, is also proof of just how strong and reliable our products are right out of the box. King Shocks can stand up to the roughest terrain that Ultra4 can throw at them!”
King Shocks would like to thank all of its racers at King of the Hammers for proving that its products are second to none at facing off-road racing’s ultimate challenges. Along with Gomez’s victory in the Race of Kings, King Shocks also took the wins in all three Unlimited classes in the Desert Challenge with T1 winner Kyle Jergensen, T2 winner Christopher Polvoorde, and B1 winner Adam Lunn. Blake Wilkey also rode King Shocks to victory in the Class 11 Showdown, cementing King’s unchallenged status at the forefront of King of the Hammers.
Racing, prerunning or just having fun, whatever your application; King Shocks has the shock for you with the performance, reliability, precise tuning and adjustability you need. King Shocks, The Leader in Off-Road Technology!
About King Off-Road Shocks
King Shocks is a world-class manufacturer and servicer of custom made adjustable and rebuildable automotive shock absorbers and performance racing products for utility vehicles, OEM replacement and professional racing use. For over twenty years King Shocks has taken pride in putting quality, performance and customer service above all. Every product sold is the result of constant testing and development done with top racers in competition worldwide. This real world testing exposes their designs to a level of abuse and destructive forces that cannot be duplicated in a laboratory. King Shocks, The leader in Off-Road Shock Technology.
