Fun-Haver Ford Bronco takes 4600 Stock win, fourth place overall finish
After taking on two challenging laps of competition in Johnson Valley, Monster Energy athletes Loren Healy and Vaughn Gittin Jr. found themselves standing atop the podium once again in the 2023 Every Man Challenge at King of the Hammers. Gittin kicked off the race in the #2567 Fun-Haver Ford Bronco by running the desert lap before handing off to Healy to run the rock lap, and when all was said and done, they took the checkered flag in the 4600 Stock class for the second year in a row—and walked away with a $50,000 check as a result.
The Every Man Challenge features three divisions of racing—the Legends, Modified, and Stock classes—creating a unique mix of racing machines and drivers of all backgrounds and skill sets. For many drivers, including Gittin and Healy themselves, it also serves as another opportunity to get behind the wheel before taking on the Race of Kings in the 4400 class to cap off the weekend. Their win in the 2022 edition of the event saw them finish fifth overall, well over 20 minutes ahead of second in class, and both drivers looked ahead to an even better result in 2023.
The #2567 team qualified second in class, but with a large fleet of Legends and Modified vehicles ahead of it, the team would also have to face quite a bit of traffic throughout the day. Gittin would have the car in class podium contention when he handed it off to Healy, and Healy would put the skills that won him the Race of Kings in 2010 and 2014 into action in the rocks. Not only would he erase the gap to first in class, he’d also outmaneuver plenty of cars from the other classes along the way.
When all was said and done, Healy crossed the line for the team with a time of 5:19:27, good enough to win the class by just under two minutes. The time was also good for fourth overall, a one-spot overall improvement from last year, and just over three minutes away from taking an overall podium.
“We now have back-to-back wins for the Fun-Haver Ford Bronco,” Healy told King of the Hammers media at the finish line. “It’s unbelievable what this Bronco can do. We were passing the 4800s and the 4500s all day long in this stock class truck. It’s unreal!”
Following the Every Man Challenge victory, both Healy and Gittin would set their sights on Saturday’s Race of Kings. They qualified sixth and 11th, respectively, joining fellow Monster athletes like Cameron Steele, Casey Currie, and the Campbell family in King of the Hammers’ headline race.
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