OffRoad Design Stephen Watson Will Start 65th at the 2013 King of the Hammers
CARBONDALE, CO FEBRUARY 6, 2013 Stephen Watson, driver of record for the #4488 Offroad Design Ultra4 car, will start the 2013 Griffin King of the Hammers with brother Brandon as the co-driver. Both have either driven or co-driven and have multiple King of the Hammer finishes between them. “Our qualifying time was 4:42:53 which puts us in 65th starting position,” said Stephen Watson. “We didn’t want to kill the car before the race on Friday. We purposely slowed down at the rocks and ended up taking two stabs at it. We got 70 miles of desert to get to the rocks to get everyone sorted out, so we’re not really worried about it.”
“It is so long that it’s just going to be brutal to get through it all. You can’t sprint through 2 laps of every trail in Johnson Valley,” finished Watson as they left in the darkness to test the Baja Designs light bar. The Orange and White OffRoad Designs car still looks the same as last year. “Unfortunately,” chimed in Brandon Watson. “We did a full prep and stepped up from 2.5” King Shocks to 3” bypasses, but that is about all the changes that we have made since last year. We have been working with King and tuned with Wayne Israelsen from AllTech Motorsports, which has dramatically increased our speeds. Now we are sorting out all the other new possible breakage problems.”
In 2012 they finished the King of the Hammers in 12th place, giving them a top 20 starting position in this years 2013 event. Also in 2012, they finished top 10 in all the other races this year. To reflect on past years: 2009 they were 5th in LCQ and finished 13th in the main race. In 2010, they qualified through a 2nd place finish in BITD Vegas to Reno and both Stephen (in the Pacific Fabrication car) and Brandon, raced with Brandon taking a 18th position finish. With the top 20 finish they were automatically qualified for 2011 where they broke in Aftershock but still finished in the top 30 and Stephen Watson was awarded the Sportsmanship Award. To run the 2012 race they qualified through the Glen Helen event and finished 12th in the King of the Hammers.
The Watson family is very supportive of the Off Road industry and racing world. The entire family and crew is volunteer basis that is very appreciated in these heroic one day experiences.
Watch the Live Coverage at http://www.ultra4racing.
More Information on Offroad Design: http://www.offroaddesign.com/
Partners: Goodyear Tires, Amsoil, King Shocks, PSC Steering, Trail Ready Wheels, Baja Designs, Tom Woods Driveshaft, Pacific Fab, Bighorn Graphics, Griffin Radiator, Superior Axle and Gear, Dynomax
About Offroad Design Racing: The Offroad Design racing team is a family affair with brothers Stephen and Brandon Watson in the cockpit and father James Watson as their crew chief. They have successfully finished four King of the Hammers races with strong 12th, 13th, 17th and 28th finishes and finished 2nd in the 2009 1000mile BITD Vegas to Reno 3 day race. The Offroad Design Ultra4 rig is built with the exact same race proven parts that they use to build customer vehicles. Stephen is president of Offroad Design which manufactures and sells offroad equipment largely for fullsize trucks, James is co-owner at ORD and handles the manufacturing shop and Brandon is a project manager for a large commercial and high end residential contractor in the Aspen area.
Photo Credit: Bower Motorsports Media
Quick Link w/ High Res Photo: http://bowermedia.com/
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Category: King of the Hammers, Offroad, Press Releases, Race Recap
