Casey Currie / KOH Race Report

82 miles, five hours and 100,000 rocks after the start of the 2009 “King of the Hammers” off- road race, Casey Currie crossed the finish line in 2nd place, in his Campbell Enterprises purpose built single seater.

After finishing second in the inaugural 2008 event, Casey looked to improve one position in this year’s edition, and came ever so close. Working within the confines of the no assistance rule, Casey ran solo without benefit of a co-driver and with zero outside assistance. This required a well prepped vehicle equipped with Motive Gear Performance ring and pinion sets as part of the Currie Built axle assemblies, bullet proof BF Goodrich Tires and a well prepared race plan.

Proof of the difficulty, lies in the fact that over 2/3 of the entrants did not even finish the event. Casey’s comments about the preparation, “this race is no easy task, our car was not built to carry spare parts and was not built to go long distances, so planning and preparing ahead of time was all we could do. Shannon gave us a perfect car, and with prep by my crew chief and the Currie Racing Team, we came up with a perfect strategy, making all the pit stops go as planned.” Running a conservative pace for the first half of the race, Currie moved up the running order as the desert and rocks claimed many racers. Starting 36th and working his way through a few bottlenecks of stacked up vehicles, allowed the earlier starters an opportunity to gap the field. Casey stepped up the pace to close the gap, and caught and passed all but one competitor by the checkered flag. “I knew I had to make up time from the beginning, the way the rules were set up, I had to drive a half mile at 25 MPH to get to my first pit, and back to the race course. None of the leaders had to do this, so I was set back by 5 minutes and 10 positions at race mile 23, from there on I drove a pace that I knew would allow me to finish. The car wasn’t set up for big whoop sections so I had to take it easy there, but as soon as I hit the rocks I stepped up the pace. I nailed the rock sections, the car goes where you put it and it is dialed in for the rocks. Our pits worked out great and we had no problems on the course. Next year I will hopefully be driving Shannon’s new rig as it is faster then anything in the rocks and desert making it the COT . ” said Currie about the difficult race. We would like to congratulate Jason Scherer the 2009 King of the Hammers.

Look for Casey Currie competing this year in Short Course races around the country, various desert races and motorcycle events in the Southwest. Check out CaseyCurrie.com for more information, pictures and video.

Thanks to: Motive Gear, Currie Enterprises, BFGoodrich Tires, Oakley, Sign Pros Shannon Campbell, Shannon Campbell’s sponsors and team, Currie Racing Team, My Dad and Uncles for the support, Oren for getting everything dialed and prepped, David for helping me out all the time with everything. My Mom for basically everything.