HAMMERTOWN, Calif. – Sunday’s second day of the Toyo Tires Desert Challenge Presented by Monster Energy saw an attrition rate of nearly half as T1, T2 and B1 class cars took on the treacherous race course that was designed for the King of the Hammers competition.
Bryce Menzies entered as the defending overall winner in 2020 and 2021 and said after his prologue effort, “I’ve never driven that hard for a solid half-hour. It was intense.”
He knew that if he wasn’t out first, he would end up in somebody’s dust trail most of the day. Thus, he made sure to earn the first starting position with his prologue time.
Much of the talk leading up to the race was about the rematch between Menzies and Luke McMillin in the T1 class. Both men are former event winners, with McMillin having won the inaugural running of the race in 2019.
WATCH: The King of the Hammers LIVE From Pre-Show (Wednesday at 7 p.m. Pacific)
Within the first few miles of McMillin’s prologue attempt, the race course hit him with a gut punch. He crashed into a rock obscured by the dust of a slower competitor when the two got tangled up in the saddle of a mean hill known as Heartbreak. It took long time to extricate his truck, and some damage had been done, but officials decided to allow him a prologue restart. He cracked the whip and qualified fourth on the starting grid.
The carnage had begun early, and Heartbreak would earn its name again and again during this race. Terry Householder rolled his T1 entry at Heartbreak but was later able to get going again, and Victor Munoz’s T2 spec truck broke down at Heartbreak.
Menzies and Kyle Jergensen were running close and leading the race while a small group of other competitors were not far behind them. Menzies and his co-driver were under the truck when Jergensen passed him. A driveshaft and link bar were laying in the sand beside the truck. They did what they could with what they had and got it going again, but it wasn’t long before Menzies called it a day.
The rough and rocky race course continued its treacherous work. Justin Lofton was down early in the race with a broken transmission. Bobby Pecoy went into the main pits and was out of the race with steering issues about halfway through the race. Cameron Steele was stopped at mile two and it looked like he was out of the race.
By the end of the second lap, Jergensen was first T1 on the road and first overall on elapsed time. Christopher Polvoorde was the T2 leader and second overall, and Dustin Grabowski was second in T2 class. The B1 leader and eventual class winner was the No. 103 car with R.J. Anderson and Adam Lunn making it happen. McMillin was having some problems with a drive-by-wire system for the gas pedal. He was able to get it fixed and McMillin was running strong and second in the T1 class. However, he was nine minutes behind Jergensen at the beginning of the third and final lap of the race.
VIDEO: A Special Look At King Of The Hammers
In the end, the overall and T1 class victory went to Jergensen.
“This was a rough race for just about every team, but I was never worried after we took the lead,” Jergensen said. “We had a 10-minute minute lead at one point and really went into cruise control. We made sure we did everything to get where we are right now. We never missed a beat, and the crew was perfect.”
Second overall and first the T2 entry across the finish line was 21-year-old Polvoorde.
“I’m pumped to be second overall,” said Polvoorde. “This is one heck of a race. We caught a corner on the backside of the course, went up and left, and we saw sky, dirt, sky, dirt. Somehow, we landed on all four tires. Those last 20 miles (into the finish line) were nerve-racking. I was shaking, and it felt like it took four hours.”
McMillin was third overall, second in T1, and happy to have finished the race. He was especially happy to be on the podium.
“This is my 13th consecutive race standing on the podium. I was afraid this race was going to break the streak, but here we are,” McMillin said.
