When I first met Will Gentile, he was filming his buddies on the trails of Rausch Creek Offroad Park in Pennsylvania. At the time I was writing for LowRange Magazine and was doing a piece on Will’s club of wheelers from the New England area. Now several years later through social media, I’ve been able to watch Will create and grow HeavyMetal Concepts into a premiere filming company producing state of the art offroading films.
Element of Survival – 2014 king of the Hammers is not your standard race day announcers giving you blow by blow of the race. It is so much more. The slow motion shots, the on board camera angles, the overhead shots, the interviews mixed with narration, music and the roar of the engines is all combined in an art form not typical for motor sports films. Its better than typical, way better.
What is King of the Hammers
King of the Hammers (KOH) began in 2007 and is held each year in Johnson Valley, California. Competitors in highly modified 4×4 vehicles in a few different classes must complete the 165-mile course in less than 14 hours. Each team must pass through seven checkpoints and at all times stay within one hundred feet of the centerline of the course. The varying terrain within the course is what makes KOH so unique. From desert sections with speeds of 100 MPH to nasty slow crawl rock sections, no other offroad race can compare. Think of the baja 1000 with a rock crawling section placed in the middle and you have the idea. KOH is a no-chase-team race; repairs can only be done on the track by the racers or in the pit area. For most of the racers, just finishing is a win. In 2014 only 32 of the 158 teams finished in time.
Element of Survival
The recap movie of this year’s 2014 race takes the viewer through each class in vivid filming I’ve not seen before in the world of offroad racing. If you have spent any time on youtube watching the shaky, out of focus, amateur videos of Jeeps and trucks getting muddy, climbing hills, or rock crawling, then you will truly appreciate the professional production value put into this hour plus movie. Get a copy and see for yourself. You never know maybe it will inspire you to start wrenching on your own KOH race vehicle. It sure got me thinking.
