Leslie Thomason’s Shock Is Proudly Displayed On A Living Room Shelf

What a week at King of the Hammers 2017!  

 

We left Missouri on February 1st and after 31 hours non stop we arrived at the lake bed Thursday morning. Our Iron Rock offroad road Jeep did not get many test runs before the lake bed, the build was 45 days and was still being wrenched on all the way up to when it was being loaded into the trailer. 

 

We missed qualifying Saturday due to a fuel pump problem, but Bob on our crew got it fixed, thanks Bob! I spent the week running back and forth to the vendor tents with Brian (my awesome boyfriend and driver of the #4604) trying to work on the steering issue.

 

I also spent the week doing what I love, taking photographs. I got to have the best seat in the house for all the races and I loved every second of it. So much fun talking with fellow media and a great job once again by Emily Miller in charge of the media. Speaking of media, we were interviewed for the NBC sports King of the Hammers show, not sure we will make the cut, but it was fun. 

 

To say it was surreal to be sitting in the lineup before the race in all my gear is an understatement. I'm so used to being on the other side with my camera, to be in the co drivers seat, I'm not gonna lie, I felt like a badass!!! We got the countdown and green flag and took off...we made it a mile and lost the shocks you see in my photos. We didn't let that stop us. We made it to the first check point, and first pit. Brian gave the Jeep everything he could with the steering issues and made it 15.5 miles before we lost power. The alternator shut down.  We were met by an Ultra4 sweeper team who radioed our team with our location dead in the water. We waited 3 hours but knew our rescue truck was in the pit for teammate/owner Kent Fults who was also racing in the Smittybilt EMC race.  We saw a Jeep coming and stopped them, thanks to Rick Waterbury's crew who jump started our Jeep for us!

It was great meeting other woman drivers and supporters at the King of the Hammers. I appreciated the support and cheers from fellow lady drivers. You all rock!

 

The shock is now proudly displayed on a living room shelf.

 

It was an experience of a lifetime that few get to experience. I'm very grateful.