Hunter Miller Tops Stacked UTV King of the Hammers Field

One of the toughest UTV races in the world didn’t just have a first-time winner on Sunday—it had a winner who had never even attempted the race before. GNCC regular Hunter Miller qualified second for this year’s Can-Am UTV King of the Hammers, just behind his brother Cody, and paid off that speed by scoring the win. Miller led fellow Can-Am racers Kyle Chaney and Phil Blurton in a sweep of the podium.

“Next to the day my wife said yes, this is the best day of my life,” Miller said at the finish line. “I was surprised at how hard it was.  It’s the absolute hardest race I’ve ever done in my entire life, and I’ve been racing for 25 years now, and I’ve never experienced anything like this. I mean, had it not been for my copilot Chad Hughes I wouldn’t have made it through, I’d be sitting out there on the trail for sure.”

The drama was heavy throughout the day, and perhaps no moment was more dramatic than Chaney’s rollover on a steep hill. After resetting the UTV on its wheels, it rolled backwards and ran over his leg, forcing him to finish the race in pain.

“We caught up to Hunter in the lakebed, and were going up the hill after the lakebed, and I thought the trail went right behind him,” explained Chaney. “I was in the dust and I went off of a cliff, and it rolled. Thank God we had a Pro Eagle jack to help get the thing up a little bit, and then we picked it up, and then the car kind of dragged me with it down the hill. And you know, it all kind of went bad from there. I was able to put it back together, and just get here to the finish.”

Six-time KOH UTV champion Mitch Guthrie Sr. was the top-finishing Polaris racer in fourth, while Nathan Wolff completed the top five. Just 33 of the 131 racers who started the event completed both laps, with a number of heartbreaking DNFs on the second lap for big names. Wayne Matlock, CJ Greaves, Bryce Menzies, and Dustin Jones were just a few of the additional 71 drivers that only finished one lap. While its difficulty level has never been in question, KOH proved its toughness yet again by defeating Brock Heger, Branden Sims, Johnny Greaves, and Shannon, Wayland, and Bailey Campbell before any of them could complete a lap.

Full results from this year’s Can-Am UTV King of the Hammers are as follows:

Pos. No. Name Laps Total Time Diff.
1 190 Hunter Miller 2 04:29:44.201  
2 191 Kyle Chaney 2 04:32:24.935 00:02:40.734
3 944 Phil Blurton 2 04:36:17.552 00:06:33.351
4 56 Mitch Guthrie Sr. 2 04:47:14.386 00:17:30.185
5 71 Nathan Wolff 2 04:55:05.224 00:25:21.023
6 222 Trey Mckinlay 2 05:07:21.644 00:37:37.443
7 2 Casey Currie 2 05:08:49.996 00:39:05.795
8 1910 Jason Weller 2 05:28:07.029 00:58:22.828
9 221 Cody Miller 2 05:30:34.249 01:00:50.048
10 922 Nicholas Turner 2 05:36:54.780 01:07:10.579
11 1945 Blake Van de Loo 2 05:42:16.003 01:12:31.802
12 4932 Scott Lesage 2 05:46:32.296 01:16:48.095
13 954 Austin Weiland 2 05:55:25.309 01:25:41.108
14 1929 Lanse Chournos 2 05:56:29.031 01:26:44.830
15 1950 Logan Goodall 2 05:58:48.842 01:29:04.641
16 9 Mitch Guthrie Jr. 2 05:59:32.517 01:29:48.316
17 94 Christopher Polvoorde 2 06:01:40.550 01:31:56.349
18 4959 Richard Farmer 2 06:04:46.948 01:35:02.747
19 844 Greg Uffens 2 06:06:34.369 01:36:50.168
20 278 Knox Griffin 2 06:07:12.008 01:37:27.807
21 83 Raul Gomez 2 06:13:44.313 01:44:00.112
22 13 Chip MacLaughlin 2 07:11:18.838 02:41:34.637
23 187 Robert Butler 2 07:15:44.752 02:46:00.551
24 1920 John Duckworth 2 07:17:49.047 02:48:04.846
25 52 Nathan Zollinger 2 07:24:09.101 02:54:24.900
26 3 Eliott Watson 2 07:29:19.485 02:59:35.284
27 54 Kristen Matlock 2 07:39:52.378 03:10:08.177
28 417 Justin Barth 2 07:40:21.534 03:10:37.333
29 15 Jeremy McGrath 2 07:42:15.531 03:12:31.330
30 82 JP Gomez 2 07:58:28.090 03:28:43.889
31 4999 Kyle Osborne 2 08:04:49.074 03:35:04.873
32 86 Marcos Gomez 2 08:06:41.516 03:36:57.315
33 247 Matthew Zeiler 2 08:16:37.929 03:46:53.728
34 36 Rodrigo Ampudia 1 02:04:16.598 1 Lap
35 4952 Ronnie Anderson 1 02:10:33.290 1 Lap
36 2971 Wayne Matlock 1 02:10:46.858 1 Lap
37 34 Jeff Mckinlay 1 02:11:16.289 1 Lap
38 969 Logan Gastel 1 02:15:49.349 1 Lap
39 78 Sara Price 1 02:17:14.020 1 Lap
40 1911 Paul Hart 1 02:19:26.526 1 Lap
41 1481 Chayse Caprara 1 02:20:58.041 1 Lap
42 33 CJ Greaves 1 02:20:58.703 1 Lap
43 95 Ryan Conery 1 02:21:03.767 1 Lap
44 1995 Kaden Wells 1 02:24:22.635 1 Lap
45 7 Bryce Menzies 1 02:26:18.268 1 Lap
46 570 Ben Jones 1 02:29:24.227 1 Lap
47 94 Rodrigo Arriagada 1 02:29:49.069 1 Lap
48 1954 Matthew Peterson 1 02:35:13.528 1 Lap
49 4972 Justin Cochran 1 02:37:08.144 1 Lap
50 924 Patrick Larraburu 1 02:38:10.327 1 Lap
51 2377 Luis Leon Gonzalez 1 02:39:40.183 1 Lap
52 804 Matthew Torney 1 02:40:06.338 1 Lap
53 311 Dustin Robbins 1 02:40:50.050 1 Lap
54 805 Mark Morisoli 1 02:43:20.834 1 Lap
55 501 Grant Farwell 1 02:43:21.785 1 Lap
56 965 Robert Smith 1 02:45:19.231 1 Lap
57 978 Dustin Jones 1 02:47:42.857 1 Lap
58 1003 Aaron Clark 1 02:51:03.593 1 Lap
59 4903 Will Harris 1 02:54:05.918 1 Lap
60 341 Alex Cummins 1 02:57:18.970 1 Lap
61 425 Jerod Birzer 1 02:57:52.392 1 Lap
62 4934 Scott Raymer 1 03:01:03.220 1 Lap
63 5612 Robert Lunsford 1 03:01:18.806 1 Lap
64 412 Michael Snook 1 03:02:44.436 1 Lap
65 209 Aaron Henry 1 03:08:24.189 1 Lap
66 921 Brandon Miller 1 03:08:27.422 1 Lap
67 502 James Cantrell 1 03:09:09.167 1 Lap
68 558 Chris Leaming 1 03:09:45.126 1 Lap
69 4046 Chris Branton 1 03:09:52.518 1 Lap
70 1800 Joshua Grasseth 1 03:19:41.256 1 Lap
71 577 Tristan Leon Gonzalez 1 03:19:46.822 1 Lap
72 4904 Anthony McAbee 1 03:27:52.992 1 Lap
73 17 David Newell 1 03:30:10.524 1 Lap
74 223 Shane Smith 1 03:30:25.252 1 Lap
75 99 Alex Parpottas 1 03:30:58.754 1 Lap
76 4973 Chris Holland 1 03:33:53.322 1 Lap
77 1948 Joshua Smith 1 03:36:05.859 1 Lap
78 261 Daniel Waller 1 03:40:02.870 1 Lap
79 4950 William Eisenberg 1 03:41:04.077 1 Lap
80 4977 BJ Leach 1 03:44:48.207 1 Lap
81 1988 Robert Bieth 1 03:45:28.524 1 Lap
82 6851 Tanner Stephens 1 03:48:03.127 1 Lap
83 747 Chad Jessee 1 03:49:51.511 1 Lap
84 125 Malcolm McKenzie 1 03:51:58.897 1 Lap
85 409 Robert Sims 1 03:53:28.895 1 Lap
86 823 Levi Metzinger 1 03:54:12.599 1 Lap
87 513 Steve Robinson 1 03:58:36.303 1 Lap
88 4990 David Ainsworth 1 03:58:37.810 1 Lap
89 4 Zandy Willems 1 04:04:56.737 1 Lap
90 127 Devin Aymond 1 04:16:58.908 1 Lap
91 67 Loren Healy 1 04:21:25.630 1 Lap
92 4905 Michael Sawyer 1 04:25:46.657 1 Lap
93 16 Cameron Steele 1 04:26:54.638 1 Lap
94 4907 Joshua Chapman 1 04:34:23.462 1 Lap
95 411 Jim Henle 1 04:37:17.342 1 Lap
96 4911 Ron Shafer 1 04:51:47.080 1 Lap
97 4988 Dan Fresh 1 04:58:48.906 1 Lap
98 41 Troy Shipman 1 05:52:19.116 1 Lap
99 4902 Randy Jelleff 1 05:56:41.700 1 Lap
100 88 Mark Welch 1 06:01:18.985 1 Lap
101 1961 Chris Barnett 1 06:10:38.558 1 Lap
102 817 Edward Youskevich 1 06:52:20.867 1 Lap
103 7665 Chris Mcdaniel 1 06:55:26.095 1 Lap
104 49051 Chris Gornell 1 07:01:32.074 1 Lap
105 12 Brock Heger   00:00:00.000 2 Laps
106 43 Jacob Versey   00:00:00.000 2 Laps
107 211 Michael Lee   00:00:00.000 2 Laps
108 5 Shannon Campbell   00:00:00.000 2 Laps
109 22 Cody Currie   00:00:00.000 2 Laps
110 913 Branden Sims   00:00:00.000 2 Laps
111 24 Cole Clark   00:00:00.000 2 Laps
112 31 Brent Zimmerman   00:00:00.000 2 Laps
113 3az Wayland Campbell   00:00:00.000 2 Laps
114 35 Bailey Campbell   00:00:00.000 2 Laps
115 64 Robert VanBeekum   00:00:00.000 2 Laps
116 1966 George Lisenbery   00:00:00.000 2 Laps
117 916 Brian Tilton   00:00:00.000 2 Laps
118 4915 Paul Krout   00:00:00.000 2 Laps
119 812 Matthew Mangin   00:00:00.000 2 Laps
120 182 Heath Taylor   00:00:00.000 2 Laps
121 14 Darren Fretz   00:00:00.000 2 Laps
122 3578 Brett Weiler   00:00:00.000 2 Laps
123 121 Katelynn Hadlock   00:00:00.000 2 Laps
124 9691 Daniel Hurn   00:00:00.000 2 Laps
125 537 Michael Faltz   00:00:00.000 2 Laps
126 18 Terry Madden   00:00:00.000 2 Laps
127 777 Daniel Markley   00:00:00.000 2 Laps
128 122 Johnny Greaves   00:00:00.000 2 Laps
129 1923 Robert Gott   00:00:00.000 2 Laps
DQ 1914 Garison Callaway 2 05:10:17.918 DQ
DQ 615 Hubert Rowland 1 02:55:50.026 DQ

The 2020 King of the Hammers continues with two days of qualifying on Monday and Tuesday before four full days of racing. The 4WP Everyman Challenge headlines Wednesday’s events, with the Toyo Desert Invitational on Thursday, the Nitto King of the Hammers presented by Optima Batteries on Friday, and the return of Progressive King of the Motos to close things out on Saturday.

Chris Leone

A veteran of the motorsports industry (both physical and digital), Chris Leone contributes coverage of race events of all types to Off-Road Racer. Elsewhere, he is the marketing/communications manager at iRacing, media director of Jim Beaver's Down & Dirty Show, and a frequent contributor to UTV Underground.