Two Former Kings Win Top Awards at Nitto National Championship
September 29th, 2013, CONGRESS, AZ: With less than 300 points separating the top ten drivers in the ULTRA4 series, there was a lot riding on last weekend’s Nitto Tire National Championship held at Thunder Rock Off Road Ranch in Congress, AZ. All top 10 drivers in series points along with 38 additional ULTRA4 cars were on hand to compete not only for the race win, but also for the series championship.
At the end of the day, two former Kings again stood atop the podiums. 2009 King of The Hammers, Jason Scherer, won the race while the only two- time King of the Hammers, Shannon Campbell, came in 11 minutes behind him in 8th place, earning enough points to secure the 2013 Nitto Tire National Championship.
Drivers had to complete five laps of a sixteen mile desert course designed for ULTRA4 cars. The course was filled with open desert and plenty of tight, technical rock sections. Shannon Campbell started the race in the pole position, while Scherer started 12th. Starting order was determined by series points with drivers starting one every 30 seconds. The first three off the line were Campbell, followed by 2010 King of The Hammers, Loren Healy, and then Campbell’s 17 year old son, Wayland Campbell who was only 77 points behind his father going into Saturday’s race.
Wayland Campbell was the first to take the checkered flag with Nitto drivers Jason Scherer and Rick Mooneyham making their way up from the middle of the pack. On corrected time, Jason Scherer would finish nearly three minutes ahead of Wayland with Rick Mooneyham less than 25 seconds behind him. Scherer was penalized 20 seconds for missing an obstacle on course making the gap between 1st and 2nd less than 5 seconds.
Ten cars equally divided between Pro Comp Stock Class and Rubicon Express Modified Class competed last weekend. Arizona driver Alan Johnson, won the Mod class with Shawn Rants taking 2nd place. In the Stock class, Matthew Peterson won the race in the only stock vehicle to finish the 2013 Smittybilt Every Man Challenge. Richard Gauthier came in 2nd in the stock class and earned enough points to clinch the Stock Class National Championship. Despite suffering technical difficulties at Saturday’s race, Mod driver, Wayne Hartwig, earned enough points throughout the season to retain his lead and won the National Championship for the Mod class.
Several other awards were given including ULTRA4 Sportsman of the Year, Rookie of the Year and Partner of the Year. Sportsman of the Year was voted on by ULTRA4 Drivers and this year Shannon Campbell won by an overwhelming majority.
Jake Hallenbeck won the Dynomax Rookie of the Year for his breakout 2013 season. This was Jake’s first year with ULTRA4 Racing and he finished 6th in the series.
Partner of the year went to Thom Kingston of Spidertrax for his continuous support of the series which included helping Levi Shirley compete in Europe and his excellent work photographing and promoting every 2013 ULTRA4 Race.
The full list of Results for the season are below:
4400s
Car
Driver Name
KOH
Penalties
Total Time
Points
1
76
Jason Scherer
20 sec
2:38:11.90
1000
2
554
Rick Mooneyham
2:38:15.92
973
3
407
Wayland Campbell
2:41:34.02
961
4
966
Jason Blanton
2:43:01.92
955
5
4420
Derek West
2:44:38.83
949
6
5252
Bill Baird
2:45:42.93
945
7
26
Clay Gilstrap
2:47:39.96
937
8
5
Shannon Campbell
2:49:55.02
929
9
53
Chris Hoyt
2:51:34.20
922
10
524
Mark Danzo
2:51:39.60
922
11
4414
Jason Shipman
2:52:08.63
920
12
4775
Jake Hallenbeck
2:52:38.80
918
13
4421
Erik Miller
2:54:44.00
910
14
4427
Jeff Russell
2:57:53.85
898
15
4481
Alex Hardaway
3:04:33.21
873
16
4468
John Webb
yes
3:16:27.22
827
17
4440
Travis Cook
3:18:05.81
821
18
777
John Brock
yes
3:20:11.65
813
19
4441
Darren Henke
3:21:58.81
806
20
75
Scott Foley
yes
3:22:44.13
803
21
4494
Chris Garrison
yes
3:23:47.49
799
22
62
James Evans
yes
3:26:57.33
787
23
6148
Jonathan Dawes
yes
3:30:16.00
774
24
929
Mike Feagins
3:35:09.43
755
25
602
Airen Patrick
yes
3:42:18.53
728
26
97
Jeremy Hammer
yes
3:47:28.00
708
27
840
Travis Leach
yes
4:16:30.20
597
28
74
Matthew Rager
4:17:27.31
593
29
4486
Marcos Gomez
4:26:55.19
557
30
890
Jonathan Terhune
4:43:25.39
494
31
4437
Dustin Sexton
yes
5:40:47.04
274
DNF
67
Loren Healy
DNF
120
DNF
4435
Kevin Sacalas
DNF
100
DNF
4482
JP Gomez
DNF
180
DNF
4493
Andrew McLaughlin
DNF
100
DNF
775
Robert Daly
DNF
100
DNF
4407
Randy Rodd
DNF
100
DNF
7779
Kenneth Goodall
DNF
180
Stock Race Results
Matt Peterson
1000
Richard Gauthier
966
Mel Wade
880
Bailey Cole
844
Kevin Adler
836
Mod Race Results
Alan Johnson
1000
Shawn Rants
441
Sportsman of the year
Shannon Campbell
Rookie of the year
Jake Hallenbeck
Partner of the year
Spidertrax
4400 Championship Points
Car Number
Driver Name
Champ Points
1
5
Shannon Campbell
3837
2
407
Wayland Campbell
3793
3
966
Jason Blanton
3765
4
4420
Derek West
3698
5
26
Clay Gilstrap
3684
6
4775
Jake Hallenbeck
3679
7
4427
Jeff Russell
3670
8
4421
Erik Miller
3556
9
76
Jason Scherer
3484
10
4481
Alex Hardaway
3387
11
67
Loren Healy
3018
12
4486
Marcos Gomez
2971
13
524
Mark Danzo
2912
14
4435
Kevin Sacalas
2840
15
4441
Darren Henke
2638
16
4440
Travis Cook
2637
17
554
Rick Mooneyham
2373
18
4414
Jason Shipman
2338
19
4482
JP Gomez
2311
20
890
Jonathan Terhune
2027
21
74
Matthew Rager
1875
22
929
Mike Feagins
1830
23
602
Airen Patrick
1571
24
4493
Andrew McLaughlin
1429
25
5252
Bill Baird
1405
26
53
Chris Hoyt
1404
27
4468
John Webb
1197
28
775
Robert Daly
1162
29
62
James Evans
1115
30
4494
Chris Garrison
999
31
777
John Brock
913
32
75
Scott Foley
903
33
4407
Randy Rodd
865
34
6148
Jonathan Dawes
774
35
97
Jeremy Hammer
708
36
840
Travis Leach
597
37
4437
Dustin Sexton
505
38
7779
Kenneth Goodall
180
Stock Series Championship
Richard Gauthier
3791
Kevin Adler
3467
Bailey Cole
3292
Mod Series Championship
Wayne Hartwig
2730
Shawn Rants
1981
Paul Bickerton
1133
West Coast 4400 Series Champion
Wayland Campbell
2830
Jason Blanton
2810
Jeff Russell
2772
Hallenbeck
2761
Sacalas
2740
East Coast 4400 Series Champion
Derek West
2749
Shannon Campbell
2551
Erik Miller
1947
Gilstrap
1794
Terhune
1523