Jeff Martin isn’t the only driver with that name at King of the Hammers, so his team decided to sign him up under his nickname “Jeffro” to distinguish himself from the 4800 competitor.

“I’ve had the other Jeff, he’s from Indiana, get my registration. I’m 4900 and he’s 4800, so there’s always been confusion,” he recalled. “When I went to get my papers, they said, ‘There’s not a Jeff, there’s a Jeffro.’ I went, ‘Oh, close enough. That’ll work.’”

While Indiana Jeff will be doing the Every Man Challenge on Friday, Jeffro was hauling ass in the Can-Am UTV Hammers Championship on Thursday.

Although Chris Blais and his Blais Racing Services are among the best in the business, the Maverick X3 they prepped for Martin isn’t as fast or new as his factory-backed peers in Maverick Rs and Polaris RZRs. Still, he hung around with the leaders even as he ran into bottlenecks and traffic. It was certainly a stressful experience, with Martin admitting he has a “hot temper so I was yelling a lot” such that he probably would’ve gotten out of the car and punched the drivers stuck in front of him.

With some work, he eventually got out even if he had to run into some guys like eventual runner-up Cole Clark. Clark, who was orbiting Martin, also rolled at one point in the rocks. Martin stopped and his navigator Dave Dzida went out to help him back on his wheels.

“I didn’t think I’d be here without Jeff’s co-driver,” Clark quipped at the finish. “If anyone’s going to beat me, I’m glad it’s him.”

Once out of the woods (or rocks in this case), Martin started to race more conservatively since he “didn’t want to damage the car”. It also didn’t help that the Maverick was stuck in a low gear, for which he had to rock it to kick it back up.

Clark caught up and Martin let him pass, only for the former’s belt to break. He had also been dealing with a driveshaft issue that caused it to shake throughout the week.

“Cole put out a deal on Instagram saying ‘Nobody ever passes me or runs in the back of me,’ so I had to take advantage of run into him a couple times right there,” Martin remarked. “I held out my camera too while I was doing it.”

Clark in turn clarified that the post is about “passing me under power.”

With Clark out of the picture, Martin drove off to the win. He was the only driver to set a time below five hours. Martin proclaimed on the stage that he was “speechless” about his victory.

“Chris (Blais) was a huge help,” he commented. “We did a lot of pre-running before we came out here. We pre-ran probably about nine times and at least once or twice a week. Chris wrote me and the whole time he goes, ‘Why do you guys do this? I don’t understand. Why are you coming out here and destroying your car, beating your brains against the wall?’

“I was like, ‘This is fun, Chris. I love it.’ I think Chris likes it now.”

Conversely, Ronnie Anderson had to wonder what could’ve been. He dominated the first lap, but made a mistake that caused him to go backward on the course for three corners. As he was about to finish Lap 2, he was disqualified.

Anderson wasn’t the only DQ either. Jeremy “Twitch” Stenberg had topped Sportsman Stock before receiving a disqualification for missing multiple sections on the course, a fate that also befell Alan Burton.

Stenberg’s penalty spoiled an otherwise memorable day for former bike racers. Supercross legend Jeremy McGrath, who also oversees the Hammers’ bike races, won the Naturally Aspirated class for the second year in a row.

Brian Deegan, who followed a similar trajectory to Stenberg going from FMX to four-wheelers and short course, finished second in Pro Stock Turbo. His time was 26 minutes back of winner Kurt Mackie.

“What an interesting race,” said Deegan. “It was long. I mean, it went on forever.

“Just when we thought we were out of it, we weren’t, we got back in the battle, we did some tuning with the shocks at pit stop, got them quite a bit better for the desert on the way back. What a fun year. We kicked ass.”

RZR Factory Racing had an uncharacteristically rough outing. Defending winner Brock Heger, who won the Toyo Tires Desert Challenge Limited Race on Saturday, settled for third overall after getting stuck at the Jackhammer section. Reigning Championship Off-Road Pro 4 champ C.J. Greaves was taken out by a steering failure that broke his axle, so his role became a rapid assistance car to help Heger. Cayden MacCachren was second in Pro Stock NA, nearly 50 minutes behind McGrath.

Class winners

Class	Overall	Number	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Laps	Total Time
Open UTV	1	968	Jeff Martin	Blais Racing Services	Can-Am	2	4:54:30.195
Pro Mod UTV	5	4932	Scott LeSage	Sage Alternatives	Polaris	2	6:55:04.8
Pro Stock Naturally Aspirated	9	1	Jeremy McGrath	Jeremy McGrath Motorsports	Kawasaki	2	7:13:51.2
Pro Stock Turbo UTV	8	64	Kurt Mackie	Mackie Racing	Can-Am	2	6:53:21.217
Sportsman Stock	21	615	Hubert Rowland	RedNek Racing	Can-Am	2	9:39:55.8

Featured image credit: Blais Racing Services