Maile Hale Pro Eagle Race Report

King of the Hammers 2025—Yamaha Rmax2 1000 4900 Stock Sportsman UTVClass

Having competed in martial arts for years at the world championship level, I was used to competition and pressure. I could handle it. However, KOH was a different beast entirely.
After almost a year of prepping, pre-running, and doing everything we could to get to the start line, I began my first race ever on February 6, 2025 at King of The Hammers.
The Jessi Combs Foundation (JCF), in partnership with Dave Cole and Bailey Cole of King of the Hammers sponsored me as their first ever JCF Trailblazer rookie racer, to be a part of the KOH Rookie Program. Their support came at a crucial time for me when I needed to commit to the race, and I am beyond honored to represent JCF.
Between qualifying and race day, I spent most of my time going over the car and getting myself mentally ready for a brutal race. But one very important tool was missing: a jack.
This was the one tool that I neglected to secure before the race for reasons that don’t really matter now. We were ready to pull the stock jack out of my dad’s truck and figure out how to mount that to the Rmax.

Pro Eagle to the Rescue

The generosity of Pro Eagle is amazing, and it’s a testament to the mark Jessi Combs left on the world around her. After getting to know Chuck and the Pro Eagle team since the 2025 KOH race, I found out that Chuck was close to Jessi and learned a little more about him and his family. Now, more than ever I appreciate what Pro Eagle did for me.

It wasn’t a chance they took on me as a rookie racer. It was a symbol of their relationship to Jessi Combs and in a way, contributing to those of us trying to walk in her footsteps.
With the Pro Eagle jack mounted to our B-pillar, we were finally ready to race. The only thing left was to take the green flag and perform. Much of the race went as expected.
The two desert laps took a toll on our suspension and power steering and we knew toward the end of the second lap that our tires were overinflated. Running up Emerson Ridge, by now a treacherous climb through sharp angular cobbles, we got our first flat.

We had to continue up the ridge and drive another mile or so to find a spot suitable for changing the tire without getting nerfed by the pro UTV class. At this point, my dad knew his job and set to work. We unfortunately parked on desert pavement, making a somewhat difficult chore of digging a bit to mount the jack under the right area of the A-Arm to achieve adequate lift.
Not having a shovel, we used the flat reinforced base of the jack to dig 8 inches into the desert pavement. That process accounted for most of the time spent changing the tire. Once in place, the Pro Eagle jack lifted the wheel off the ground in less than a second! Changing wheels took less than 3 minutes and before we knew it, we were rolling into remote pit where the JCF girls got us fueled up and fixed the flat with a Glue Tread plug.
The rest of the day brought some successes and car failures. The Rmax shined in the rock courses, and having done the race just 5 days prior in under 3.5 hours, we were confident. But the desert loops took their toll and our power steering started locking. Going down Chocolate Thunder, it locked to the passenger side, sending us up the cliff face and flopping us onto the driver’s side. My dad’s winch skills impressed the peanut gallery, thanks to the Warn class.

The flop was frustrating. Steering was nearly impossible, and recovery was slow. The flop pinched the sidewall of the passenger front tire, giving us a second flat. We rolled the front end on a rock to change it since finding a stable jack spot in the sand was impossible.

After changing the tire, I decided to climb Idle Issues without winching to see if the steering would return. It didn’t, and after a few tries, we bypassed. At Bender Alley, we struggled badly, hitting rocks to turn. My dad winched twice. In Jack North, the engine went in and out of limp mode. We made it to the Mailbox and reassessed.

Not much of the race remained, but with the car stalling, stuck in limp mode, and steering locked, I decided to stop and head for Hammertown. After resting 10 minutes, I accepted the decision. As a lifelong competitor, quitting hurt, but the car couldn’t perform — the desert laps overwhelmed the stock suspension and power steering.I forced the RMAX out of the canyon, took a shortcut down the cliff, and slowly made my way back to main pit, sometimes with both of us steering. We still finished top 10.

When I got back to main pit, Dana Wilke from JCF and the JCF girls were there to greet me. After hearing what happened, Dana told me that Jessi Combs broke a steering tie-rod in her 2014 KOH debut and, wanting to make it back under her own power, left the race. This one hit me differently. I suddenly identified with someone I never met but looked up to. I knew why Jessi ended her race. Just like me, she wasn’t defeated and
making it back on her own was a message to the world that she’s not done. In fact she wasn’t done. She won the 4600 every man challenge in the stock modified class at KOH in 2016.
I’m not done either. Just six months after my KOH debut, I was codriver for Jason Loch in his 4600 class Jeep when we won Best in the Desert Las Vegas to Reno race, and placed third in the Ultra4 class. I’m registered to race KOH for the 20th anniversary in 2026 in the Rmax, now updated with Fox 2.5 shocks and custom power steering from Weller Racing.
We wouldn't have been able to make it as far as we did in the race without support from the JCF and Pro Eagle. KOH 2025 taught me many lessons but one of the most important was that relationships matter. Jessi mattered to Chuck and Pro Eagle so much that they helped me carry on her legacy. As the inaugural JCF racer, I am spearheading the creation of the JCF Race Team that will identify other girls to start contributing to the off-road racing world and I will bring Pro Eagle along with me on that journey. I can’t wait to get back out there racing with Pro Eagle again!