As one of the largest ultimate off-road race events of the season, the Griffin King of The Hammers week attracts tens-of-thousands of spectators and hundreds of competitors. But if you’re only familiar with the famed Ultra4 race on Friday, you’ve been missing out on a whole lot of fun over the years.

This year was no different as the 2014 KOH week kicked off with the King of the Motos race, pinning extreme motocross riders against some of nature’s most grueling terrain. Things heated up even more as a number of powerful 4400-series vehicles faced down the new-for-2014 Shoot Out at Backdoor on Monday, February 3.

But the Ultra4s weren’t the only ones that put on a show at the famed rock pile, as the friendly rivals from the East, the Rock Bouncers, were also there to stake their claim on the famed KOH Backdoor obstacle. Check out some of the highlights in the King of the Hammers video above.

Let’s start out by saying this: If you haven’t been to a King of the Hammers race yet, you need to go. And if you have gone, you know why you should go again!

While the Ultra4 race is the most popular race of KOH week, this year’s other competitions brought thousands of spectators and hundreds of competitors from around the world as well. Many of these folks kicked off their week with the King Shocks Shoot Out at Backdoor, a new event this year that challenged anyone who wanted to tame Backdoor to a 1-½-minute or less run up the dry waterfall. While several succeeded, twice as many people got hung up, turned over, broke or didn’t make it to the top in time. But no matter, the Shoot Out was a blast for all that were involved.

Although there were plenty of drivers that put on a show for the enormous crowd, one of the standouts was last year’s King of the Hammers winner, Randy Slawson. Though some came close, Slawson was able to scale Backdoor in the quickest time of the night, a whopping 30.522 seconds.

Another standout was Matt Myrick of Busted Knuckle Racing. Unfortunately, Myrick didn’t make it to the top of Backdoor but he did manage to break his rear axle so badly that it completely snapped off his car on the way up the mountain.

Myrick wasn’t phased by this, however, and won the Crowd Favorite award by continuing to maneuver his car to the waterfall’s entrance with only two wheels still intact.

Other notable entrants of the Shoot Out at Backdoor were Ben Napier, who came all the way from Australia to participate in the challenge as well as the Ultra4 race; Randell Key, a competitor with partial paralysis who pilots his rig using hand controls (seen as the last roll-over in the video above); and Laura Dunlap, who was the only female competitor to make it up Backdoor that night.  

The Shoot Out at Backdoor was truly a hit this year, so much so that we’re sure the tradition will continue for years to come!