T1 Toyo Tire Desert Invitational – Tearing it Up at KOH 2019

I’ve been around off-roading many years. I’ve been around high horsepower many years. I’ve had the opportunity to chase the Baja 1000 a couple of times, even for a Trophy Truck. Every… single… time I’m around these trucks they just make me smile. Something about the horsepower… or the way they move dirt… in fact that’s it! I’m just going to call these guys “Earth Movers”!

From the pictures I think you will understand why!

New for this year’s King of the Hammers is the Toyo Tire Desert Invitational Presented by Monster. Desert racers have been looking for their own race at KOH for a while now, and Toyo Tires and Monster Energy put up a $125,000 purse to get the attention of the best drivers in Trophy (or T1) Trucks.

A purse like that is unheard of in the world of T1, so, when the purse was announced… the drivers came running.

On the morning of Thursday, February 7th, the T1 drivers ran a timed prologue, one truck at a
time, to determine starting position for the main race later that day.

Teams would have very little time between the qualifier and main race to let their T1 trucks cool down and make any necessary repairs or changes before taking the green flag for the 240-mile race.

One the race started, it was another first, side by side starts with T1 trucks going for the hole shot.

While this year was the first year that T1 trucks competed at the Ultra4 Racing King of the Hammers in Johnson Valley, California, we can be guaranteed that it won’t be the last!

With a finishing time of 4 hours and 4 minutes, Luke McMillan, in truck #83 took the checkered flag.

“I told my fiancée last night I had this weird feeling,” Luke said after the race. “I usually get really nervous (before a race) because I’m very dedicated to racing, and it means a lot to me, but last night, I had this weird feeling about being excited. When I got out on the course, as soon as we took off, I felt like we were in the rhythm. The truck was working so well and things were clicking. My expectation was to have a clean day and run conservatively and to my surprise we were reeling in people left and right even though were running conservatively. It was a win, win.”

“It’s funny, this course is different than other desert races we do,” Luke added. “It’s hard to describe. It’s extreme rock and ditches. It’s a good old fashion desert race like we used to do in Barstow and Plaster City. That’s kind of what it felt like with the gnarly rock climbs. It’s very different than Baja or anything else, but I loved it. It was an awesome course.”

“This is by far the biggest prize purse I’ve ever won so thank you to Dave Cole and everyone at Ultra4. I’m going to put it right back into the truck and keep winning races.”

Truly a class act.