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Emmitsburg,
MD - February 29, 2008
 Bigelow Motorsports owner and driver
Doug Bigelow took home a top 5 finish with a 4th place finish at the
Johnson Valley, CA "King of the Hammers" off road race February 22,
2008. The race featured 44 of the top four wheel drive racers in the
industry and the race was a tough one with only 26 of the 44 drivers
finishing the race. Held in southern California's Johnson Valley ORV
area the 49.2 mile race covered fast sections of the local desert
terrain along with 90% of the tough and famed rock crawling "Hammer"
trails.
Bigelow finished with a time of 3:59:54 in his first time ever
at the Hammers and after driving 2600 miles to attend the race from
Maryland.
Bigelow drew a starting position for the race at the very back of
the pack starting in 42nd position out of 44 drivers. Commented
Bigelow, "We knew we didn't have the fastest race truck this weekend
so starting at the front and pushing the vehicle beyond its limits
wasn't the idea. Starting at the
back actually allowed us to run our race and focus on what we needed to
do. We knew this would be a race of attrition and fortunately our game
plan paid off".
When asked about his thoughts on the 49.2 mile race Bigelow had this to
say, "I had the most fun doing this type of racing. After seeing so many
pictures of the Hammer trails and knowing what type of competition would
be there with the likes of eventual winner Campbell and the likes of
Pistol Pete, Cameron Steele, Dean Bullock and Tracy Jordan we knew we
had to step it up. When we ran out of gas coming into the 3rd pit stop
after passing a few racers only to have them pass us again I was pretty
determined to get it back. I ran the buggy as hard as I could through
the rocks and passed the guys again and got to the desert section and
was able to put some space between us. About mile marker 40 I noticed
the buggy hit 230 degrees and was overheating.
I figured at that point it would blow or we would make it. When we
rounded the corner to the finish line to have our drive flange fall off,
with the tire wobbling and the headers being melted down about 4 inches
due to the heat I was elated, one of the greatest feelings ever
finishing a race like that much less coming in 4th".
Bigelow Motorsports will be in action again next at the XRRA Eastern
Series opener in Gray Rock, Alabama April 19th. They would like to thank
all of the sponsors for staring 2008 with a great finish.
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