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Falken Tires Prepares For 2021 Off-Road Racing Season With Aggressive Complement Of Teams

RANCHO CUCAMONGA, CA – Coming off a strong 2020 off-road season that saw Falken Tires and its drivers earn significant victories and national championships, the tire brand is further ramping up its driver ranks for 2021 in its goal to aggressively compete in Ultra4 Racing and its impending King of the Hammers week-long calendar of events.
 
Falken Tires’ new Supervisor of Light Truck and Off-Road Events Doug Fletcher expressed his excitement about Falken’s race program for this year: “We’ve got a great mix of Falken and off-road veterans as well as several new drivers who will join our team this year, starting with Josh Atteberry, who will compete in both the 4600 Class and Class 11.”

Atteberry, who has won back-to-back titles in the Ultra4 4600 National championships, will carry Falken colors on his vehicles. He claimed third place in the Every Man Challenge at King of the Hammers (KOH) in 2020 as well as first place in the Ultra4 Moab event and another win at the Ultra4 National race in Oklahoma.

“We’ll also have additional drivers competing in the 4600 Class, including returning Falken drivers Brian McNamara, who finished in fourth in the Every Man Challenge last year, as well as Jon Schaefer, who set the pole position at the Every Man Challenge at King of the Hammers. Jon finished second at KOH in 2020, and was able to grab second place at Ultra4 National race in Oklahoma,” Fletcher added. “All of these vehicles will run on street-legal WILDPEAK M/T tires.”

Joining Falken Tires this season is Amber Turner, who also will compete in the 4600 Class of the Every Man Challenge at KOH. Turner also will be sponsored by The Jessi Combs Foundation in partnership with Ultra4 Racing. Turner took first in the stock class at the Delta Classic in 2019 and in the Team Series rock crawl in 2018. Amber indicated that Jessi Combs was always an inspiration to her and enabled her to chase her own dreams “as fearlessly as Jessi did.”

“We’re delighted to have Amber as part of Team Falken as well as Justin Hall, who will run the Falken livery on his Class 4500 competition vehicle,” Fletcher continued. “Hall is a two-time W.E. Rock National Champion, the 2019 Northern California Rock Race champion and took third in the Every Man Challenge in 2019 and fourth in the same event in 2020. He’s going to be a great addition.”

Making sure it has another solid competitor in the 4500 Class, Falken Tires will also have Jesse Oliver back, who had many strong finishes in 2020. He placed second in the Teardown in Tennessee, fifth in the Beatdown in Moab, and fourth in last year’s Ultra4 Nationals.

The 14th running of the King of the Hammers week will attract more than 30,000 spectators and participants with multiple races held throughout the week including Can AM UTV, the Every Man Challenge, Desert Invitational truck race and King of the Hammers. For more information, please visit www.ultra4racing.com.

The full week of off-road events, beginning January 30 through February 6th, is highlighted by the Friday running of the Every Man Challenge (on the 5th) and the Saturday King of the Hammers race, considered by many to be one of the toughest one-day off-road races in the world. All events take place on Means Dry Lake in Johnson Valley, CA, and attendees and fans occupy a dedicated area called “Hammertown.”
 
“As always, we look forward to the start of the off-road season, and we’re very excited to be partnering with these great drivers and teams,” stated Falken’s Jonathon Bradford, Manager, Motorsports and Events. “With Wildpeak tires supporting all our race vehicles, we have the experience and the confidence to come away with the wins and championships we seek in 2021.”