Interview with Jason Scherer: The Reigning King of the Hammers Story by Kurt Schneider Photos by Shana Whitford

Jason Scherer is the 2009 "King of the Hammers". But he is more than just that. Like many other people involved in Rocksports, he is truly a "good" person. We see him in coverage on Pirate4x4, we occasionally see him post in the forums, you can see video clips of him on YouTube, and he is in the KOH DVD. But what is Jason REALLY like? I had the chance to meet with Jason Scherer and really learn about the man behind the wheel. The following interview hopes to give you a glimpse into the life of the King.

Pirate4x4.com: Jason, while we all want to hear about your win at the 2009 King of the Hammers, before we delve into that, we would like to get to know a little bit about you personally. We want to find out who Jason Scherer really is. Let's start out with the basics like what's your hometown, how old are you, what do you do for a living, family, etc.

Jason:  I live in Alamo, CA, in the SF Bay area and grew-up just a few miles down the road in the small town of Diablo, but I spend all my free time up in the mountains near Lake Tahoe.  I have a cabin a few miles from the Donner Ski Ranch event site and can be found about 40 weekends per year either snowmobiling, motorcycle riding or Jeeping. Work wise, I'm a gamer... Seriously! I grew-up with my Dad in the video game business.  He worked for a company for 20+ years in vending machines and video games/jukeboxes/pool tables and when I was about 17 he started his own business.  After a year of college I got the call from my dad that he needed me back at the ranch to help him so I came back and we grew the business together.  We started off heavily into pay telephones and then worked on national vending and amusement chains as well as digital jukeboxes.  We now manage over 35,000 pieces of equipment and are growing by leaps and bounds every day.  

My wife, Dana, is a saint.  Somehow she puts up with me and my constant need for adventure and adrenaline.  I'm like an addict and have to scare myself with something crazy about once a week or I would go crazy.  We had a little girl last July and she is already climbing up things and jumping off ...I know where she gets it but it's the first time I've thought...Oh boy, this is one trait I wished I hadn't given to my child!

Pirate4x4.com: When did you first get into four wheeling, and what was your very first rig?

Jason still has his first wheeler

Jason:  I had a friend growing up that had parents who loved to Jeep, and we would dirt bike ride along the trail with them.  My love of wheeling really started at about 12 years old when they took us on the Barrett Lake Jeep Trail. We rode XR 100's and they took the camping gear.  Once we turned 16 we were on the Rubicon Trail every weekend.  Without a second thought, I had to have a Jeep the day I got my license.  In fact I still have the CJ-5 from High School and still wheel it!

Pirate4x4.com: How often are you able to get up on the trail and do recreational wheeling?

Jason:  As much as possible.  I probably get about 20 days of trail wheeling per year, 40 days of dirt bike riding and almost 30 days of Snowmobiling per year. That's all sprinkled in with mountain biking to stay in shape and boating to stay married. (wife's hobby is boating) 

Think Jason is a wildman behind the wheel? You should see him on a snowmobile!

Pirate4x4.com: What would you consider your favorite trail and why?

Jason:  That's a tough call...for the last 4 years, Fordyce has been my back yard and I just love the whole area and trail.  But the Rubicon was where I cut my teeth and really learned how the wheel amongst other things.  Heck, I even got married on the Rubicon.  It all started on Barrett so that has a special place too.   One thing is for sure, after this year's KOH, it certainly isn't Sledge Hammer!!!

Pirate4x4.com: Do you take your comp rig on the trail, or do you run something else?

Jason: I have been wheeling the comp buggy on the trail the last few summers.  It's really is comfortable and easy to drive but the exhaust is so loud you have to wear headsets to talk to the co-dog.  I'm also really into the technical "perfect line" so the comp buggy isn't a real challenge.  My little CJ-5 with a dana 30 in the front is much more of an adventure and a real "back to the roots" rig.  I'll rebuild the transmission and get that thing back on the trail before the snow comes.

Pirate4x4.com: When you are wheeling recreationally on a trail with your family, Is it actually about wheeling for you or something else?

Jason:  Camping is so much fun to me that I usually just like to get there and set-up everything when we are trail wheeling.  I think the number of evenings around the campfire you spend with your family has a direct correlation to the quality of the relationship so it's a really important part of my life.

Pirate4x4.com: Dennis Mayer from the Rubicon Trail Foundation passed away last year. He posed a question to me once, that I would like to ask you. If you were to describe what the Rubicon trail meant to you in one word, what would it be and why?

Jason:  Adventure.  It was such an adventure to me when I was 16 that it felt a thousand miles long.  I remember when you would wheel "all the way to Spider" the first day.  When you would actually get lost in the slab or go the wrong way in a few places.  I don't like the road reflectors to guide the way they have now but understand the fight we have to keep the trail open.  That sense of adventure and the accompanying sense of accomplishment from completing the journey shaped my life.

Pirate4x4.com: Many people consider four wheeling and what we do as a hobby, or a sport.  I know for me, it's more of a lifestyle. Not a day goes by without me doing something that involves four wheeling, or working somehow to save our access. Just how important is four wheeling it to you? Would you consider it a lifestyle for you?

Jason:  For sure.  I love it.  And my feelings haven't changed much since I was 16, its been all about off-road for me too.  I could do it every day if the opportunity arose.  Hopefully someday I can be like Walker Evens and tour the country with my Jeep and not be tied to the office.

Pirate4x4.com: OK, you knew I was going to ask a land-use question since I am obsessed with it. You have worked on several land-use projects in the past with me too. What do you think the average off road enthusiast should do in order to keep our access to public lands?

Jason:  Man, just plan a weekend wheeling trip that overlaps with a work weekend from a local club.  Spend half of your Saturday working on the trail.  It's like yard-work, nobody really wants to do it but the difference you make in a few hours is always amazing.  If everybody gave half a day per year our trails would look and function great.  Also, if you see a can, bottle, broken tail light or any other debris on the trial, stop and pick it up!  I can say that our trails are cleaner than when I started wheeling but that doesn't make them perfect.   If you have no time, then don't forget that these folks who are working on the land-use issues need funding to be able to effectively interact and follow through with the solutions.  Donate a few bucks.

Pirate4x4.com: I was very impressed and absolutely delighted when you did a push on Pirate for people to send letters to fight for The Upper Tellico OHV area in North Carolina.  Have you ever even wheeled those trails, and how important is it for leaders in the sport such as you to be active in land-use issues? Do you think you will set a precedent for future winners of KOH?

Jason:  I always wanted to go to Upper Tellico which is probably worse than having been wheeling there and then have it closed.  Now I may never have the opportunity.   I hope the competition community and more importantly the sponsors become very active.  BFGoodrich has donated over $70,000 and nominated 19 trails as part of their Outstanding Trials Program.  Why isn't every off-road company doing something?  Do you all not realize that if the trails get closed you won't be in business?  Pick a trail or a club and send them $1,000 a year.  In 10 years you will look back and be proud and have done something that made a difference. 

Pirate4x4.com:  Rock Crawling has grown by leaps and bounds over the past few years. Our rigs have gotten more capable and obstacles that were unobtainable 4 to 5 years ago are now commonplace in competition. However, our trails can't grow like our vehicles have, and many trails (with maybe the exception of the Hammers) are now a walk in the park for many decently set up rigs. How do you think this will effect recreational four wheeling? Are private parks with man-made obstacles the future of the sport, or is trail riding something different?

Jason:  This is probably one of the biggest losses of logical thought processes I've seen.  All forms of OHV recreation are at an all time high with no downturn expected, closing trails is going to congest and abuse the shrunken system.  Wouldn't common sense tell us to build more?   We need more trails period. We need to find way to do this soon.

Harder trails would be really cool in the Sierra area.  I'd like to see the guys that think going back and forth through Little Sluice is cool have a real challenge. There needs to be an initiative to add a few really tough trails every year or we are going to burn-out our resources.  Mountain Bikers are adding trails to their systems, heck, they didn't even have mountain bikes 20 years ago and now they are all over the place.  Why aren't we doing the same?  I remember when my local OHV area was basically cut into about 1/3 of its previous area.  Back then the area you could see from the highway had a few tracks where people would hill climb but for the most part people wanted to go ride the trail system.  Now, there are 20 times the number of people and 1/3 the amount of land.  The part you can see from the road has almost no vegetation left.  It's ugly!  But what did you expect to happen?  I would like to see California use some of the green sticker funds to purchase new lands for OHV use instead of seeing the surplus money being "borrowed" by the state. But that's probably a whole another interview in its own. haha

Part two of my thought process is the hunting license theory.  It was a great and educational process to go through my hunter's safety course.  I learned the right and wrong way to handle a gun, laws around migratory issues and understood the system after a couple of Saturdays.  Every year I have to go back and renew my license and get a tag for each of my desired hunting targets.  If we had a good way to educate the public vs. going out and learning on the trail from trial and error, we might be ahead of the game.  Hunting tags is not a bureaucracy that cost the country money, the tags and licenses pay for the enforcement. And believe me, the game warden is a powerful man vs. a forest service employee but we could change that!   I hate "more government" but this idea is more of an educational and commitment step that would help our trails by preventing abuse from ignorance.  It prevents the "bad apples" and truthfully, until I got more involved in land use issues I wouldn't have even known all the things we need to do to protect the trails and I practically grew-up on them!

Pirate4x4.com: What other hobbies or interests do you have outside the sport?

Jason:  I think dirt bike riding is probably my favorite hobby period.  I've really always loved the tight technical single track and the skill set it takes to ride it fast.  It's the ultimate cross training for me to drive the buggy fast on tight trails and technical desert sections and combined with some snowmobiling and you have a well rounded off season training regime.  Riding with guys like Jason Berger, my co-dog for KOH, as well as my family makes it a great hobby.  I also love hunting upland game with my family.  I enjoy the hobby and it's tasty!

Pirate4x4.com: I know that every time I try to call you or e-mail you, you are flying all over the place working the day job. How much time to you spend working on your rig and preparing for comps? Do you do all the work yourself?

Jason's first taste of victory was at CalRocs Donner in his CJ5

Jason:  A few years ago I had 180 hotel room nights...half the year...and was just married, not a good combo.  Life has actually become a lot easier from a travel perspective as my company has grown but of course new responsibilities to employees have consumed my time.  I really love being involved in a new aspect of our sport.  Rock Crawling in 2000-2005 was so crazy because every comp had a new rig and each new season opener had 10 new rigs.  The technology and learning curve was steep and I just loved the innovation.  I had no background in the engineering side, nor the set-up side of racing.  I think it sparked my interest as much as the driving side.  Somehow I wanted to work on my car but with my work schedule and limited knowledge and tools, I didn't have the ability to build my own car.  Plus, there were people that did that and did it well!  The Campbells built my new car in April of 2008 and Shaffer's Off-Road made some "desert racing" changes to it in September that transformed it into a contender.  I've been lucky to have two Shaffer rigs, a Campbell rig and "Tiny" after competing in my CJ-5.  Each one has taught me about fabrication and added new driving skills.   After that, it was all me on tuning and prep.  I had a pretty damaging parts failure prior to last year's race and it took me about 45 nights in the garage after work to get it ready for the race.  It was 100% prepped and every detail was handled before we loaded it on trailer to go to JV.  Then, on our first drive to break in some new gears and heat cycle them, we noticed the rear driveshaft was bent, stuff we didn't notice from the crash the month before.  Jess from Hi-Angle overnighted a driveshaft to my friend Ben Ratto who drove it from his house in the SF Bay Area to Johnson Valley (8 hours away).  If we didn't have a crew and sponsors like that, I couldn't get the car ready to race.

Pirate4x4.com: How did you get involved in competition and how long have you been doing that?

Jason:  I started off spotting for a good friend of mine, Bob Rice.  We went to the Warn event in Las Cruces and after that I was hooked.  I drove my little CJ-5 in the Cal Rocs Series the next year.  After ditching the AMC 304 in favor of a fuel injected motor and adding an Atlas, I won the Donner event in my rookie year.  Since then I've won 20 events including half of the UROC events in 2006 and back to back Pro-Rock Championships.   Having a great group of friends like Aaron Goodrich and Lance Clifford to spot for me has really made it a life that I will look back on and have "good old days" that are actually cool because we did something.  Racing is a lifestyle I always wanted to do and however unobtainable, I found a way to do something I dreamed of. Without sounding like an obituary, I'm sure glad I accomplished my dream.

Pirate4x4.com: Before a comp, how do you prepare? Do you have any superstitions, lucky charms or a certain routine to get ready to compete? Do you have a Shannon Campbell voodoo doll?

Jason: That's pretty funny! Lance and I actually had some "rules" that included listening to old school gangster rap at 2AM and singing the lyrics at the top of our lungs to get ready for the event.  We skipped this a few times and found that we made stupid mistakes the next day.  It's not a tough ritual to maintain either, it's pretty normal day-to-day stuff around here.  For KOH last year I lost about 20 lbs and spent a ton of time working on core exercises.  When I was out pre-running my belly would get sore from bouncing around so I figured it was about time to get rid of it.  Of course it went back on in about 2 weeks after the race.  I'm already getting in shape for next year's race.  I believe in the old T-Shirt that said "somewhere, someone is training harder than you are right now, and when you meet them, they are going to kick your ass!" I'm not letting that happen this year.

Pirate4x4.com: OK, let's talk KOH. Exactly what did that win mean to you personally? I am not talking sponsorship-wise, but personally? 

Jason: Achieving your goals is one of those things in life that really makes you feel accomplished.  I had a lucky shot just getting to do KOH in 2008.  If Jeff Mello hadn't offered me a co-dog position I wouldn't have known how incredible the race was in the first place.  I bought a seat in Pistol Pete's Trophy truck and was able to go 700 miles at the 40th Baja 1000.  That was November.  Come February I'm riding along in Mello's non tuned air shocks getting hammered and realized, this race was even better than Baja!  I don't know exactly how I was so lucky that Dave and Jeff decided to build a race around the things I love, but I was in the right place at the right time.  A race involving going fast and going rock crawling in the same event.  What I needed to learn was how to drive in the desert.  I had been a co-dog, but learning to actually be the one in control was a lot different.  I spent my time getting the feel and progressively got the speed to a level I thought would be competitive.  I think that is the place I can still make the most improvement.  I hope to spend a lot of time practicing from about Mid September until race-day.

Pirate4x4.com: For you, what is the hardest part of KOH? The go-fast sections? The bomb crater whoops? The rocks? The mental game? 

Jason: It's all hard!  I think the mental part was the most surprising part for me.  I knew what each of the sections had, but the ups and downs of emotions was weird.  I felt like a chick, "we are in the lead, our transmission is slipping, we are in the lead, here comes car 554, we are in the lead, oh crap, I flipped!"  I hope experience and some even more physical training so I don't get as tired during the race will help.  At the end of the day, I loved it but it is a real battle.

Pirate4x4.com: In KOH, what do you think matters the most - driver ability, the rig, the support crew or just plain luck? What does it take to win? 

Jason: It's all driver!  No, seriously, it's a combination of all three, crew, car and commitment.  You can't do it without any one element.  Luck is always nice, but in a way you do make most of your luck by making the correct decisions along the way.  If your wife doesn't support it, or guys like Ben Ratto and Dave Lesico don't show up at 11PM when you need help, you can't win this race.  Having a co-driver that helps you with everything down to making sure you eat right in the days before the race isn't too bad either. Can you believe Shannon doesn't have a co-driver?  Who does he talk to for 7 hours?

Pirate4x4.com: You are at the starting line at KOH, and the flag is ready to drop. What is going through your head? What does it feel like? 

Jason: Well, it's probably not what you would expect from someone who trained so hard, spent so much time prepping and tuning and so much money on the car, but it's to have fun.  After all this work, when the flag drops, the race is the reward.  I won't change that element no matter who my sponsor or what the stakes, you have to enjoy the race.  Enjoy the pass through the dust, enjoy the beating of the whoops when you have to remind yourself to breathe, enjoy the sound of the race radio and the story your co-dog tells you about "this one time" over the intercom.  That's the payback and the fun of this race.

Pirate4x4.com: Dave Cole and Jeff Knoll have done an awesome job with KOH. When I was down there for this year's race, I was just stunned at the amount of people that were there and the energy that surrounds the entire place. I mean, I knew it was going to be big, but good lord! What do you think the future holds for the King of the Hammers?

Jason:  I don't know what exactly will happen but I was as blown away about the growth as anyone.  I pulled on to the lakebed about a week before the race and by race day there was more people on the lake bed than in the surrounding towns for 30 miles. J&D are real racers and I'm sure that even if they make some mistakes along the way, they will fix them.  It's refreshing to have a change of pace with promoters that have been around racing from another side of the fence.  I'll support their new concepts as they try to make the sport grow.   As far as I'm concerned, I'm going to retain the scepter and that's all that really matters to me!

Pirate4x4.com: Let's talk about your current comp rig. I heard you got quite a mill in that thing. What are you running in it, and what would you consider your favorite part of the rig? I guess what I am asking is, what sets your rig apart from others?

Jason: I've got to say the motor is amazing, it's probably more than you can really ever use, but it's so much fun to play with I just can't get enough of the sound when you are on the pipe.  The downside is it runs pretty hot, eats fuel and has to have a remote dry-sump tank for the oil which is a packaging problem for these cars.  My passenger has very little leg-room because of the dry-sump coupled with being 6'4".  My favorite part of the rig is being in the driver's seat, I just want to go fast!  I'm really curious how the new IFS cars will end-up working.  I saw video in the rocks, the place I didn't expect them to be better, and they are really faster than solid axle cars.  I expect them to take over once the technology catches up with the concept, but in the meantime, I'll keep the proven parts and the scepter!

Pirate4x4.com: Thank you Jason for your time!

The Rig

Chassis: Campbell Ent and Shaffer's Off-Road Pro-Mod KOH
Motor: Tweaked 2008 Corvette LS7
Transmission: Turbo 400
Transfer Case: Atlas 3.0
Front Axle: Spider 9 with True-Hi 9, spool and CTM shafts and U-Joints
Rear Axle: Spider 9 with True-Hi 9, ARB with Spidertrax shafts
Front Suspension: Shaffer's Off-Road designed with 2.0 Fox Coil-Overs and 3.0 Bypass shocks
Rear Suspension: Campbell Enterprise Pan Hard with 2.5" Fox Coil-Overs and 2" Bumps
Steering: Sucks
Wheels/Tires: OMF Bead-locked Alcoa's and Custom Race Line wheels. 39" BF Goodrich KRT-B's and 42" BF Goodrich KM2's
Seats: Beard Seats custom made for my extra tall co-driver Jason Berger
Winch: Warn RC 9000
Extras: Cryo Dean's Kick Ass Off-Road Sway bar
Lights: Lightforce
Oil: Red Line
Wheelbase: 111"
Overall Width: 79"
Weight: 3,600 lbs.