Pursuit of Speed

For the past four years, Amber Turner has tried to accomplish something so simple -- on the surface -- that some people would question if it's even worth beholding. Motorsport is a complicated world of personal motivations, regardless of how granular the goal may be, and for many endurance races the act of finishing is a victory in its own right... as elusive as it always is. King of the Hammers distills this. The "World's Toughest Off-Road Race" isn't without merit, and three failed attempts at completing the event culminated in a full-effort attack on Johnson Valley in 2023 with a daily-driven Suzuki Samurai that Turner had totally redeveloped between shifts at Bomber Fabrication, an off-road speed shop ran by a three-time winner of King of the Hammers. Success has its foundations in other people: mentors, role models, and teams... but, it's ultimately defined by the person chasing it, and simply put, that success can only be earned by that individual too. And, it finally was.

By the age of 21, Andy Kingsley had lost both of his parents to cancer. His mother passed early in his teenage years, steeling him against loss at the time, but the passing of his family's last keystone, his father, collapsed what stability was left. From rock bottom, in his own words, Andy was able to find a new meaning in the family unit while falling into the sport of rally racing. Through the shared experiences and struggles, this idea of a racing family comes to mind, ultimately pulling Andy through to the other side in the quest to fulfill a childhood dream of becoming a hill climb racer.

Dan Parker is one of the most resilient human beings I've come across, having taking an impossible challenge and turning it into a 10-year recovery which brought him to two land speed records, including the Guinness World Record for the Fastest Blind (folded) driver. These goals gave him purpose in the darkest moments, and has allowed him to not only return to motorsports, but also bring up others around him through the National Federation of the Blind. -Phillip

Why are we here, again? Oh, yeh, because race cars. -Phillip