G’dale friends compete in California offroad race

Published 8:00 am Friday, January 21, 2011

Two Gardendale friends are embarking on a potentially perilous race in California.

Jamie Marsh and Matt Overton will be competing in the 2011 King of the Hammers offroad race in Johnson Valley, California on Feb. 11.

“It’s the Daytona 500 of offroad racing,” said Marsh.

The King of Hammers is a race between teams who drive “rock crawlers,” a buggy-like vehicle that is designed to go over extremely rough terrain very quickly. Marsh and Overton have completely disassembled and rebuilt their rock crawler in an effort to get it in shape for the race. “It can handle anything, from a 110 mph flat desert race to level five obstacles,” said Marsh. Obstacles are rated on a scale from one to five, with five being the hardest.

Marsh and Overton met in 2004, and became fast friends through a mutual interest in offroad racing.

“We are just two small-town guys,” said Marsh. “And our crew’s all local guys, too.”

Marsh developed bad knees and other joints in his earlier years as an offroad racer, which led him to building and maintaining offroad vehicles. The duo’s buggy belongs to Overton, who will be driving, while Marsh takes on copilot duties, such as navigation, maintenance and even driving duties should Matt become incapacitated.

“There’s going to be some expensive cars in the race. Some of them are going to have $100,000 spent on them, and we’ll have a fraction of that,” said Overton. “I think one of the reasons we want to do this is to prove it can be done without spending a fortune.”

Marsh and Overton started a new racing club in Gardendale called Hardline Crawlers.