Chaney nails historic King of the Hammers victory

In a week dominated by memorable performances, Ohio’s Kyle Chaney shook the sport’s current paradigm to its core by taking a historic overall victory in Saturday’s King of the Hammers “Race of Kings.” With a field filled with the sport’s best drivers and most potent race vehicles, Chaney piloted a Can-Am based UTV to victory against machines costing four times as much (or more) that carry four to six times the horsepower.

For the most part, the first part of the race was over run over familiar territory. Up front, the factory Ford Bronco of former race winner Loren Healy got past pole winner Paul Wolff early. Healy led for much of the first lap and a half before succumbing to terminal drivetrain woes.

Defending race winner JP Gomez was first back to Hammertown after the second lap, hoping to make some time on a rapidly moving Jason Scherer, who had been carving through the field from his rear starting position. Also in the hunt at this point was the Jeep-based racer of Casey Currie.

In an unusual move by race promoter Dave Cole, this year’s third lap was plotted over some virgin rock trails and kept secret until just before the race. Gomez was the first to enter the new section, which proved as much of a navigational challenge as a driving one. Close behind was former king Josh Blyler, followed by the Can-Am of Chaney and navigator Terry Madden before a second Can-Am of Cody Miller.

Without any pre-running of the so-called “Mystery Lap,” the last circuit provided thrilling action on the rocks that saw Blyler and Gomez exchanging the physical lead before Blyer broke his car trying to extract himself out of the rocks. At the same time a solo Gomez was forced to fix a flat, opening the door for Chaney and Miller to get by. On the next rock section Chaney made it through cleanly, but Miller’s car literary broke its chassis in half.

After that, it was down to Chaney and Gomez, with the latter having to stop at least once to overcome an electrical issue. Nobody else was within two hours of the leaders.

After coming so close to winning in 2024, Chaney finally took the King of the Hammer’s “Race of Kings” checkered flag, providing Can-Am the honors of being the first UTV-based vehicle to win the title. The veteran desert and short-course racer had dominated the KOH UTV rock races in the past but made the move to a purpose-built chassis with Can-Am components and reliable 37-inch Maxxis tires to finally win the big one.

A tired but happy Gomez came home second just over 30 minutes later, followed by Brian Caprera, Robby Gordon (who shared driving with son Max) and Cody Addington in fifth. Only 27 of the original 97 started earned a race finish, a testament to the difficultly baked into the 2025 Race of Kings recipe by KOH’s Dave Cole.

The commitment by Ford and Ford Performance to King of the Hammers competition was evident by Brad Lovell’s overall victory on Friday’s Yokohama Tire Every Man Challenge race. A 2022 Off-Road Motorsports Hall of Fame inductee, Lovell piloted his No. 4621 Amsoil Ford Bronco with son Adam as his navigator to a surprise win in the 4600 Stock class. The duo defeated all the 4800 Legends and 4500 Modified entries, that, on paper, offer far more capability and performance.

First physically back to the Hammertown finish line was Amber Slawson in the No. 70 Legends class machine, with Cody Young next in his No. 4862 Legends car. Slawson was hit with several time penalties that prevented her from becoming the first women to overall a KOH race, dropping her to third. Lovell’s time was just 5h3952s, just over 14 minutes faster than Young’s corrected time. After a long week of disappointments Cameron Steele earned a third-place finish in the Legends class, and fourth overall.

Taking 16th overall and winning the Every May Challenge Modified class was the No. 218 Toyota of Dan Wyrick. Only 30 of 120 starters managed to complete the two-lap marathon.

Thursday’s Can-Am King of the Hammers UTV Championship race provided yet another platform for Polaris racer Brock Heger to add to this amazing current hot streak. Using last year’s RZR Pro R Factory, the 2025 Dakar UTV champion and winner of the week’s UTV Desert Challenge race secured the overall and Pro UTV Open class win as the only driver to finish in under four hours while crossing the line 26 minutes ahead of the next physical competitor.

Heger started the race from the second line after qualifying third, and once the green flag waved, it was clear that this would be another commanding performance. Setting a blistering pace from the start, he had already stretched out a nearly two-minute lead by mile 50. The car’s large fuel tank eliminated pit stop time, as did choosing to drive over rock obstacles many other competitors chose to overcome with the aid of on-board winches.

Other class winners included Casey Currie in a Polaris (4900 Pro Stock Turbo UTV), motocross legend Jeremy McGrath in a Kawasaki (4900 Pro Stock NA UTV), Cody Miller’s Can-Am in 4900 Pro Mod UTV, the Can-Am of Jonathan Nelson (4900 Sportsman Stock UTV) and young Cameron Sorensen in a Speed UTV taking the 4900 Futures Youth 1000 UTV division.