King of the Hammers for the Fun of It
Billy Slade and Brandon Twitchell Tried It For Fun, and Got Hooked
Once considered the anti-racer, Billy Slade never wanted any of his purpose-built “pretty” UTVs to touch a racecourse. Somehow, he was convinced to compete in the Red Bull Sand Scramble, and won. He was now hooked, and just a few months later he found himself at the insanity that is King of the Hammers. Billy managed to talk a close friend of his, Brandon Twitchell of HCR, into tackling KOH with him. Neither Billy nor Brandon had much racing experience before jumping headfirst into KOH, so let’s delve deep into their heads and see what they were thinking and why.
UTV Sports: You two are known for being characters of play, what made you guys decide to race?
Billy Slade: I think it was something we both had as a goal that we never thought we could achieve separately. But when we combined forces, I guess it was a tangible goal, and that was four or five months ago. We were like “wait, we can actually do this?” So then we were like, if we tell people we are going to do it, then we have to do it. There’s no backing out. We could hem and haw about it, or we could just tell people. That way, we were forced to do it.
Brandon Twitchell: I have been going to KOH for 15 years or so, mostly for work, and every year I leave I tell myself, “next year I’m going to do it.” Basically, my wife and I made a trip to California near the end of summer last year to visit Billy and his wife. After some campfire chat, we convinced ourselves we were going to race Billy’s four-seat Turbo R, mostly because he’d already bought it. I knew better than to enter a four-seat car, but it was worth the risk to get the experience. After we committed to doing it, we realized the four-seat car was not an option, so we bit the bullet and bought a two-seat Turbo R and went for it. Our good friends at Polaris were kind enough to loan us another Turbo R to prerun, which was a huge help. It would have been a whole different situation without it.
USM: Brandon, do you have any history in racing at all?
Brandon: I’ve dabbled a little here and there. I started at a young age with downhill mountain bike racing and still mess around with that today. I raced motocross for about 10 years at an amateur level. I did a season in the BORE series in a class 5/1600 Baja Bug. More recently, I did a season and got my racer’s license in the NASA road racing series in Utah.
USM: Billy, was your effort at the Red Bull Sand Scramble any type of preparation for this?
Billy: I think a little bit for myself, but also for the Polaris RZR. We wanted to put the RZR up to a challenge and see where we stood, but it was still in the process of being built.
USM: Standing on that podium box, having won the Sportsman class at the Sand Scramble, obviously your sights were set on KOH pretty bright?
Billy: Yes. I knew I would be driving the desert section. I knew that I needed a little bit of competition beforehand, a bit of rubbing tires and just getting out there, because I’ve never done it before. I kind of said, “Hey I’m just going to throw it out there and see where I land.”
USM: Billy’s effort at the Red Bull Sand Scramble got him fired up. Brandon, what was it that got you excited about racing KOH?
Brandon: Honestly, I was a little hesitant to do it. We still had so much to do at that point, and rushed things more than I wanted. But Billy was so excited about it. How do I shut that down? Billy went into that race with a plan and executed it perfectly. I definitely think that gave him the confidence and motivation to put everything we have into KOH. I felt like I have been ready to race KOH since the first time I went. Partnering up with Billy and splitting the financial part down the middle made it a reality.
USM: Were your sights set pretty high heading into KOH week?
Brandon: On our second trip, prerunning out at Johnson Valley, we were able to meet up with the Anderson brothers and spent a full day with them in the rocks. Being able to run with others that have done the race at a decent pace gave me a huge confidence boost. I felt really good about putting on a good show and bringing the car to the finish line.
USM: You’ve always built “pretty” cars. Even though you do use them, they mainly sit in booths at shows and look amazing. How did you change your tune when building this race-worthy RZR?
Billy: Well, I think when I build my personal play cars, I only beat them as much as I want to beat them when I’m out riding. When I build a rock crawler like my four-seater RZR, I’m okay with it getting scratched, nicked, and dinged. But when it came to building this RZR, I knew going into it that it was going to get hurt. I mean, body panels were going to get damaged, to say the least. So for me, mentally, when I’m preparing to build one, knowing beforehand that it’s going to get way more than just scratched, I’m okay with it.
Brandon: To be honest this car was probably the prettiest car either one of us had built. We had so much support from so many of the best in the business, manufacturers that made this car over the top. Even with all the fancy parts, they all had a purpose, and Billy did a great job making it look like a show car.
USM: Was building this RZR to someone else’s specifications rather than your own foreign to you?
Billy: Building a race-spec vehicle, yes, very foreign. So I started researching and asking questions to people that have raced about what I need to have and what can’t be used. It was a very big learning curve finding out all the aspects like a siren, window nets, thickness of the roof, harnesses, and all those kinds of things. I was almost in shock. I’ve built a bunch of UTVs, but now all of a sudden I have to build it to race specifications. Safety came first when building this RZR. It wasn’t just making it look good with safety as as an added component. It was safety first, and making it look good was second.
Brandon: Honestly, there was not a lot different than any other build, other than the safety components such as window nets, secondary door latches, multiple fire extinguishers, legit Sparco Race seats with five-point harnesses, siren, and a chase light.
USM: Fast forward to KOH UTV race day. You may have done prerunning, but sitting in your RZR that morning, knowing you’re about to get a green flag and do this race, what was going through your mind? What was different than any other moment in a driver’s seat?
Billy: Knowing how long and how brutal the KOH race is, you can’t go full-bore from the very beginning. The vehicle just won’t make it. So you have to pace yourself at a rate where you’re still competitive, but not to the point where you break the vehicle. It’s that fine line of dancing around with how fast to go.
Brandon: Honestly, qualifying was a lot more intense than the actual start, mostly because when we left the line we had a part fail and had to do the entire qualifying course in three-wheel drive. It wasn’t pretty, but we got it done, which gave me confidence going into the big race. If we can pull that off, we should be good to go!
USM: A lot of racers tell themselves they’re not going to break the car, or they’re going to go easy through the rocks. Did you go into it thinking that? Did that change during your loop?
Billy: Going into it, Brandon and I sat down and talked about this. His job was to calm me down, and my job was to calm him down the entire time. So we told each other, probably hundreds of times, we were out riding with friends just a little ahead of us, and we’re just trying to catch up. I knew my job was to get to the main pit, then hand the RZR over to Brandon to drive. All that was on my mind was to give him a healthy vehicle so he could do his job of driving through the rocks. But running navigation and race pace were both foreign to us. Also, having someone else in the vehicle with you, plus being loaded down with all of the gear that you need just in case you break, the vehicle acts so much differently with all that weight added to it.
Brandon: Unfortunately, our winch shorted out after the first lap, so when we switched seats we went into the rocks knowing we had no winch. That being said, my mindset was, “We have to take it easy in the rocks.”
USM: You’re always in the driver’s seat. What was it like being in the passenger’s seat through the desert?
Billy: I’m getting used to it. When Brandon and I decided to race, neither of us wanted to be in the passenger’s seat. We both wanted to be in the driver’s seat. But we said, “Okay, I’m going to take one for the team, and you take one for the team, and we’ll see where we land.” I do have to admit that Brandon is a backseat driver. He was very vocal with every berm, every turn, correcting me, why are you doing this?
Brandon: I really questioned how much I would like being a passenger, but Billy and I practiced quite a bit together and ended up having a lot of fun. I’d say the downfall for either of us was just the experience of being in that situation.
USM: Who did you reach out to partner with on this race RZR build, and why?
Billy: I reached out to Doug at TMW Offroad for the roll cage. Although he is not known for building race cages, he builds awesome cages, so I just gave him the criteria we needed and he gladly accommodated it. We also partnered with TPR Industries because I knew we wanted an oil catch can, the billet intercooler, and small parts that help make the car better, as well as preventive things to make the vehicle go the distance.
Brandon: Well, obviously HCR. The kit we designed for the RZR has the most effort for strength and ground clearance we have ever done. It was amazing how big of a difference it made in the rocks. We chose TMW Offroad for cage, doors, and bumpers. TMW is known for outstanding work for recreational cars, and they wanted to step up to make a race-legal cage. To say they knocked it out of the park is an understatement. The cage is probably one of my most favorite parts on the car.
We went with race proven Metal FX wheels. The looks and function are top notch. BFG KM3 tires are lightweight for a 35” tire, and we have had very good luck pre-running them and using them on our recreational cars for years. Rugged Radios for communications. They’re our homies and have top notch products and customer support. They also helped get me set up with my helmet and neck restraints. Switch Pros for wiring; their system is hard to beat for multiple accessories. Viper machine gated shifter for those trouble spots where you have to get into reverse quickly.
It was a tough choice for seats and safety gear because there are so many great options, but we chose Sparco because it was a one-stop shop and the best choice for keeping us safe in all aspects. RCV axles and ball joints are the strongest axles on the planet. We used TPR engine mods. This was my first time working with Greg, and all I can say is he makes some amazing products. I also learned things I never knew were a thing in these RZR engines, and those things can make or break your car and whether you finish a race or not. Union Graphics did the wrap. Corbin did an awesome job putting our vision into reality and made the RZR look like the pros.
USM: Billy, with TMW Offroad and TPR Industries, it sounds like you reached out and told them what you wanted. Did they have input on the race perspective, or how much input did you give them?
Billy: Not a lot, actually. I read through the rule books. That’s another new thing for me, going through a KOH rulebook or a BITD rule book and finding out what is legal, what will pass tech, what won’t pass tech, and then relaying that information to them. So I basically asked them to give me a vehicle that will pass tech.
USM: Was anything a major surprise to you as far as getting ready for a race as a driver?
Billy: Yes, I think it’s how many people you have to count on to even be a competitor in something like this. Things like asking your friends to come out here and spend a week in the desert, all of the safety features that you have to have when pitting, and having nightly meetings and weekly meetings with our team prior to the race. Honestly, when we went into this, I was like, “We’ll build a race car and we’ll go race,” and everybody was like “but what about this and this?” I was like, “Oh my gosh, I never even thought about any of that.” I think that was the biggest surprise. I want to give a huge shoutout to every single person that came out here and gave us five days of their time. Once again, when Brandon and I did this, it was a team effort, and none of it was possible without every single person that played a part in it.
Brandon: I would say the only surprise I really had was not taking enough time to test parts we mixed and matched together. Had we done a little more testing it would have been a whole different experience.
USM: With all of that being said, would you do it again?
Billy: Oh yes, 1000%.
Brandon: With the right pieces to the puzzle, absofreakinlutly.
USM: What will you change for next year?
Billy: Next time, we will bring a prepped race car that has been proven before we get to KOH.
Brandon: I want more seat time in the race car.
USM: We’ve heard that before!
Billy: But how many racers built a race car with their buddy for the first time that also lives three states apart, and were handing off the vehicle back and forth? We built the car in time, but barely had any time to test it.
USM: On the race side of things, your desert loop seemed to go well, with just a couple of minor issues like a belt change. What was it that did you guys in?
Billy: A simple mistake. There are literally a thousand different places that can trip you up out here. This is definitely one of those races where if you take your eyes off the road for two seconds, that literally ends your day, and that’s how our day ended.
USM: There are a lot of distractions when you’re out there racing, and they can take over. It sounds like you guys felt some of that?
Billy: Yes, there were plenty of times where Brandon was good at helping with that while he was in the passenger’s seat. I’d look over at a car that was about to pass us and he’s like, “Don’t even look at them. I’ll let you know who that is and where they might pass you.” Brandon did excellent in the desert with things like that, and when you’re doing 70 mph through some of those choppy sections, it helped to have him tell me to focus on driving and he would take care of everything else.
Brandon: Distractions all stemmed from the race car. I’d say we stayed very focused other than that.
USM: What we really want to know is if there are any regrets or “racer’s remorse?”
Billy: Absolutely not. Will I come back with a lot more experience for 2024 KOH? Absolutely.
Brandon: Not one bit. We went in with all the right tools and the right mindset to make it happen. We just experienced what most already know, which is that when you slap numbers on a car, everything and anything can go wrong.
USM: What are you going to do next?
Billy: I’m going to hang out with all of my friends, not think about racing for the rest of this trip, and relax, until I have to go clean that trailer.
USM: As far as racing, will you stick to KOH, or do you have other races in mind?
Billy: Realistically, we know that I like desert racing, and Brandon is good in the rocks, so that’s why we started thinking about doing this. We are friends, familiar with each other, we trust each other, and I think that’s the biggest thing. I would like to do some desert races this year, but what those races will be, I don’t know yet. I also want to do some stadium or short course races, something more tangible like weekend races rather than “a week in the desert” type races.
Brandon: I 100% want to finish KOH, and I am without a doubt capable of doing it. We just have to put in what we learned and make it happen. Any races after that would be awesome, but KOH will be my focus.
UTV Sports Photo by Angela McCorison