Five Team Arctic Wildcat racers competed in the brutal 2016 King of the Hammers UTV off-road desert race in Johnson Valley, Calif.
After boulders, dust, whoops and general chaos, Team Arctic’s Dean Bulloch captured 4th overall, while Sheldon Creed and Robby Gordon finished 18th and 21st respectively after being penalized 135 minutes for missing part of the race course.
Fourth-place finisher Bulloch (on a Wildcat Sport) is one of three Arctic Cat racers racers to finish in the top 12, as off-road racer Sheldon Creed finished seventh and veteran Robby Gordon finished in 12th, both while piloting a Wildcat X.
Gordon and Creed were near the front of the pack for a good chunk of the race, but while both are well versed short course and desert racers they struggled at times in the rocks. Gordon actually noted after the race his lack of rock experience, but he said he loved the race and was pleased he finished while testing new parts for Arctic Cat.
“We’re happy with what we did with Arctic Cat,” Gordon (above) said. “We wanted to test out some new parts, so we’re just really happy the car survived.”
Gordon ran into trouble on Wrecking Ball while running in the top five, and it hurt his chances at the win.
“I just got stuck going down the waterfall there, and we should’ve gone around the other side,” he said. “We actually broke our winch at that point.”
Even with the mistake, Gordon was happy with the team’s effort and his machine, noting, “Didn’t have any mechanicals – just a driver mistake that got us wedged in a hole.”
Official Results – 2016 UTV King of the Hammers
1. Blake Van de Loo – 4:22:55
2. Branden Sims – 4:55:21
3. Chad Hughes – 5:05:54
4. Dean Bulloch – 5:11:44
5. Mitch Guthrie – 5:14:19
6. Rob MacCachren – 5:21:33
7. Jason Weller – 5:30:52
8. Evan Engelhardy – 5:36:55
9. Erik Miller – 5:37:23
10. Richard Bronsema – 5:43:18
11. Ross Pilgreen – 6:26:54
12. Brian King – 6:29:19
13. Tyler Greeves – 6:34:36
14. Austin Massingill – 7:01:54
15. Anthony Yount – 7:22:44
16. Brent Zimmerman – 7:22:45
17. Wesley Gryner – 7:37:58
18. Sheldon Creed – 7:42:51*
19. Jesse Johnson – 7:47:12
20. Brian Fisher – 7:54:40
21. Robby Gordon – 8:18:59*
*Both Creed and Gordon were assessed 135-minute time penalties for missing part of the course.
