King of the Hammers (KOH) is one of the crown jewels for off-road desert racers, presented on a challenging course with insane obstacles that require a mix of sheer skill and badass machinery. Vaughn Gittin Jr. brought the Ultra4 Ford Bronco to this year’s run at KOH, and he pushed it to the absolute limit. Unfortunately, he found that limit, and ended up rolling the off-road racer after misjudging a steep portion of the course.
Gittin described the incident on his YouTube channel. He and his codriver were navigating a steep, rocky portion of the trail, giving a competitor a trunk full of their headlights as they lurched through the terrain. On this particular part of the trail, there was no prerunning allowed, meaning that Gittin was flying by the seat of his pants as he urged the Ford Bronco over the trail, hot on the heels of another racer just in front of him.
“We get through all the big stuff… with very little drama,” he says, pointing out that certain portions of the course looked like a “yard sale,” with other vehicles flipped and spewing parts. However, trouble struck once they got out of the “big stuff,” they followed the competitor through a canyon. The vehicle lurched like it had gotten hung up, so Gittin decided to venture onto a ridge to make the pass.
Once they got onto the ridge, though, Gittin felt the Ford Bronco drop as he and his codriver nose-dived down steep terrain. They made it through that, but found themselves stuck on the side of a canyon, and promptly rolled the Bronco. It was so stuck, they decided to not recover it until the morning. Thankfully, it wasn’t too damaged and was able to continue on.
It wasn’t all doom and gloom for The Blue Oval at KOH. In fact, Ford Bronco teams swept the podium at this year’s event, proving that Ford knows what it’s about in off-road racing situations. KOH isn’t Gittins’ only venture with Ford, either – he’s partnered with the automaker to make the Ford Mustang RTR a reality, too.
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