See this 7-minute highlights video of the 2018 Kenda Tennessee Knockout Extreme Enduro (now more often called Hard Enduro around the world), presented by Moose Racing, SRT-Offroad and AOMC:
Despite attracting many of the world’s top Hard Enduro Racers over the past several years, American Cody Webb managed to win his sixth straight TKO in 2018. The FMF KTM rider also managed to achieve this despite breaking his foot and injuring his knee at the Erzberg Rodeo in June. Germany’s Manuel Lettenbichler finished second on his KTM and Spain’s Mario Roman rounded out the podium on his Sherco.
Wade Young, the South African that won the 2018 Red Bull Romaniacs, battled for a podium position early in the main event but dropped back to finish fourth. And American Colton Haaker rounded out the top five on his Rockstar Husqvarna.
Over 250 amateur riders signed up for the Saturday racing. Hawaii’s Kekoa Estrella took the Amateur win to earn the AMA Amateur Extreme Enduro Grand National Championship and move forward to Sunday along with 29 other riders.
2018 Kenda Tennessee, Knockout Main Event Results:
FMF KTM Factory Racing-backed Cody Webb (@codywebb2) won his sixth straight Kenda Tennessee Knockout despite a recent injury and stacked field of talented riders from around the world. After four rounds of racing that added up to nearly three hours, Germany’s Manuel “Manni” Lettenbichler (@m_letti304) finished second on a KTM and Spain’s Mario Roman (@marioroman74) rounded out the podium on his Sherco.
Webb (center), Lettenbichler (right) and Roman earned the top three postions at the 2018 Kenda Tennessee Knockout. Photo: Darrin Chapman
The multi-round Tennessee Knockout started with 262 Amateur entries competing on Saturday in a two-race format that allowed the top thirty riders to move forward to compete in the four round Sunday competition that included thirty-one pre-qualified pro riders. That pre-qualified list included the top North American and International Extreme Enduro racers. Hawaii’s Kekoa Estrella took the Amateur win to earn the AMA Amateur Extreme Enduro Grand National Championship and move forward to Sunday.
The Sunday morning program started with a Hot Lap on a mile long “short course” and Webb started the day off with a 4:33 lap to earn the first starting position for the next Knockout round. Wade Young, the 2018 Red Bull Romaniacs winner, set the second fastest time at 4:43. Lettenbichler got off to a good start with the third fastest time at 5:12. Roman had the fourth fastest time at 5:26. Husqvarna’s Colton Haaker was rounded the time five with a 6:06 lap.
The second round sent the riders out on a fourteen-mile loop in thirty second intervals, based on the hot lap times. Young and Lettenbichler erased their gaps to Webb and the three riders battled closely for several miles before Young finally opened the gap in the last few miles. Young set the fastest time at 1:08:54. Lettenbichler was second fastest at 1:09:30 and Webb was third at 1:10:20. Roman set the fourth fastest time at 1:15:47 and Austria’s Lars Enockl was fifth at 1:19:57. Only the fastest twenty-six riders moved on to round three and the remaining riders were knocked out of the competition.
Round three switched from the riders racing the track against the clock to a multi-rider head-to-head format. The fastest twenty-five riders were split into five groups of five and a 26th rider was added to group six as the LCQ alternate. The straight-line LCQ competition was not held due to race one taking longer than expected due to the difficult course. Haaker, Lettenbichler, Webb, Roman and Enockl won their respective groups to earn front row starting positions. The second and third place finishers in each group also moved on to the fifteen-rider main event.
The main event moved back to the short course and would be a 30-minute plus one lap battle, which ended up taking 41 minutes and 31 seconds for Webb to complete. Haaker jumped into the lead off the start and led the field into the woods and held that spot until he struggled to make it up a tough climb exiting the water fall that would prove to be one of the most challenging obstacles for all the riders. Webb capitalized on Haaker’s mistake to take the lead and quickly opened a small gap on the field. Roman and Young were not far behind as they completed the first lap while Haaker and Lettenbichler were another 20 plus seconds back in fourth and fifth. On lap two, Young and Haaker struggled again on the same hill allowing Lettenbichler to pass both of them and Young also passed Haaker in the melee.
The top five remained the same for several laps with Roman closing in on Webb. At the halfway point, Roman began to fall back from Webb and Lettenbichler ended up passing him for second on lap five of seven. This ended up setting the final top five results, with Webb finishing 1:28 ahead of Lettenbichler. Roman was 2:15 behind the leader and Young ended up finishing fourth, 5:17 back. Haaker went a lap down on the final lap but held fifth.
Webb broke his foot at Erzberg in June, so he had limited preparation for this event. “I was definitely worried, especially with all the competition coming over from Europe,” Webb said. “Some of Hard Enduro’s biggest hitters came over here and I had eight weeks of couch surfing and only eight days on the bike since my injury so I was happy to get another win. I kind of conserved some energy in those early races and I think that helped me for the main, but I still felt like I was going to die out there.”
Cody Webb has been unstoppable at the Kenda Tennessee Knockout for the past six years now. Photo: Darrin Chapman
Lettenbichler, the twenty-year-old German who has had great season, including podium finishes at Erzberg and Romaniacs was impressive in his first TKO visit. “It was a nice event, I really enjoyed it, the main event was super gnarly with the slippery rocks and humidity, it is not like this in Germany,” Lettenbichler said. “I am super proud of second place and I passed Mario a few laps from the end, so I am stoked about that.”
Germany’s Manni Lettenbichler was impressive in his first Tennessee Knockout appearance. Photo: Darrin Chapman.
Roman finished third at the TKO for the second consecutive year. “I came here with more preparation because last year I suffered a lot, so I prepared more for the short, sprint main event,” Roman said. “I have to thank Sherco USA and the friends I met last year for helping me for this event.”
Mario Roman finished third at the TKO for the second consecutive year. Photo: Darrin Chapman
Team SRT-Husqvarna backed Trystan Hart had a pretty quiet day to finish sixth in his first ever TKO. Enockl finished seventh on his GasGas. Tennessee’s Jordan Ashburn finished eighth on his Beta. Ben Kelley took ninth on his Trail Jesters KTM and Chris Satterfield rounded out the top ten on his KTM.
Benjamin Herrera Ried, from Chile finished eleventh on a Beta. Casey Satterfield (Chris’s brother), finished twelfth on a KTM. Quinn Wentzel rode a Husqvarna to finish thirteenth. Grayson Gonsalves rode another Husqvarna to fourteenth and Chuck DeLullo, a former GNCC ATV Champion rounded out the top fifteen.
Beta’s Rachel Gutish (@rachel_gutfish) took the Saturday Women’s class win ahead of Nikki Russell and Allie Dorsey. The women put on an exciting race for the fans as the technical obstacles challenged the riders, but they proved to be incredibly resilient.
Rachel Gutish earned the top spot in the Women’s class. Photo: Darrin ChapmanGutish (center), Nikki Russell (right) and Allie Dorsey put on a great show on the tough track to take the top three spots in the women’s class. Photo: Darrin Chapman
2018 Kenda Tennessee Knockout Main Event Results:
Cody Webb, KTM
Manuel Lettenbichler, KTM
Mario Roman, Sherco
Wade Young, Sherco
Colton Haaker, Husqvarna
Trystan Hart, Husqvarna
Lars Enockl, GasGas
Jordan Ashburn, Beta
Ben Kelley, KTM
Chris Satterfield, KTM
Benjamin Herrera Ried, Beta
Casey Satterfield, Husqvarna
Quinn Wentzel, Husqvarna
Grayson Gonsalves, Husqvarna
Chuck DeLullo, Husqvarna
Keep an eye here on the TKO blog for a video recap within a few days.
Quinn Wentzel (@quinn_wentzel), a multi-time Kenda Tennessee Knockout top ten finisher, has confirmed that he will be competing again at the 2018 TKO. The Husqvarna backed Hard Enduro, EnduroCross and Pro Trials competitor from Ohio has finished at the front of several Hard Enduro events in 2018, including a win at the Groundhog, 3rd at the Bad Medicine at Fallen Timbers, 5th at the Mad Moose and 9th at the King of the Motos. Wentzel also won the Battle of the Goats in 2017. Wentzel finished 9th at the 2017 TKO and will be aiming to improve on that this coming weekend.
Quinn Wentzel has raced most of the previous seven Kenda Tennessee Knockout events and earned multiple top ten finishes. He will be back looking for more in 2018
Wentzel will join a long list of top North American and International riders that includes Cody Webb, Colton Haaker, Josh Toth, Ben Kelley, Trystan Hart, Wally Palmer and Jordan Ashburn that will face off against Spain’s Mario Roman, South Africa’s Wade Young and Germany’s Manuel Lettenbichler.
As announced here on the TKO blog back in May, Kenda Tires has extended its title sponsorship of the TKO for another three years. So it’s no surprise that Kenda has chosen this weekend’s event to showcase its new Ibex front tire.
