Category Archives: Pro riders

Hart tops Lettenbichler at Red Bull Tennessee Knockout; Mario Roman rounds out the podium

Trystan Hart (center), Manuel Lettenbichler (left) and Mario Roman finished first through third at the 2022 Red Bull Tennessee Knockout. Photo: Future7Media.

FMF KTM Factory Racing-backed Trystan Hart topped the 2022 Red Bull Tennessee Knockout. The Canadian dominated the day by setting the fastest times in all four rounds of racing that totaled nearly three hours on the rocky and challenging terrain. Red Bull KTM’s Manuel Lettenbichler finished second. The German was one minute and nineteen seconds behind Hart in the main event. Sherco Racing-backed Mario Roman finished third at the TKO to maintain a one point lead over Lettenbichler in the championship. The event served as round six of the FIM Hard Enduro World Championship (HEWC) and also served as the AMA Grand Championship for Extreme Off-Road racing so world championship points were earned and an AMA number one plate.

In addition to the pro racing, the Red Bull Tennessee Knockout crowned amateur champions. Saturday included two rounds of amateur racing with race two serving as the championship-deciding race. During that second race, Tennessee’s Drew Kirby earned the number one spot with a winning time of fifty-eight minutes and five seconds on his KTM. Rodrigo Lopes finished 4 minutes and six seconds behind and Tyler Soriano rounded out the top three. Sixteen-year-old Chase Landers won the morning race and finished fourth in the race two. The top thirty riders also earned the opportunity to compete with the thirty-two pre-qualified pro riders that included ten of the HEWC riders.

Also on Saturday, Sam Bird raced an Electric Motion to beat JoJo Toole to win the inaugural ECR eMoto electric motorcycle class. Toole was riding a prototype XE4 conversion that utilized a Yamaha YZ250F motocross chassis. Jason Smith rounded out the podium on another Electric Motion. A total of twenty-four riders competed with seventeen completing the full loop. .

Other Saturday class winners among nearly 500 participants included Riley Bender in Amateur B, Nicholas Trailer in Amateur C, Stephen Thaxton in 45+ Vet and Seth Steiner in Youth Lites 12-15.

Sunday’s format consisted of four rounds of racing for the sixty-one riders that earned a spot and it started with the hot lap on a 1.6 mile “short course”. Hart set the fastest time of 7:41.30 seconds. Lettenbichler was second with a time of 7:45.47 and Roman rounded out the top three with a time of 7:49.04. Poland’s Taddy Blazusiak was fourth with a 7:52.00 on the Factory GasGas and American Ryder LeBlond put in the fifth fastest time at 7:55.02.

Round two included all sixty-one riders competing on an eleven mile “long-course” in the order of the hot-lap results and only the top twenty-five riders earn a spot in the next round. Hart again set the standard with a 56:03.61 time. Blazusiak was next with a 57:07.33 lap. Bulgarian Teodor Kabakchiev made his mark with the third fastest time of 57:20.13. Lettenbichler was fourth with a time of 58:35.84. Spain’s Alfredo Gomez was fifth with a time of 1:00:06.55.

There was a last-chance qualification race among the four riders that just missed the cut and Arizona’s James Flynn took that spot to be the last rider to make it to the second round for the second year in a row.

That second round places the riders into five groups (four groups of five and one group of six that included the LCQ winner Flynn). Those groups would be racing another loop on the “long-course” with some additional difficult sections added. The riders are just competing with the riders in their respective groups to take the top four spots to make up the twenty riders that make it to the main event. Hart won group one ahead of Hard Enduro GOAT Graham Jarvis, LeBlond and Israel’s Suff Salla. Roman won group two ahead of American Jordan Ashburn, Blasuzisak and multi-time Trials champion Pat Smage. Group three was won by Kabakchiev followed by FactoryOne Sherco’s Cody Webb, Poland’s Dominik Olszowy, and Germany’s Tim Apolle. Lettenbichler took the win in group four with Czechoslovakia’s David Cyprian second, American Keith Curtis third and Canada’s Cory Graffunder fourth. In the fifth group, South Africa’s Wade Young finished first on a Sherco. Spain’s Alfredo Gomez was second, American Logan Bolopue was third and Mexican David Garza was fourth. The five group winners earn front row starting positions and the second-place finishers start on row two and so on.

The main event was back on the short course with a 30-minute plus one lap race, which ended up taking thirty-seven minutes and forty-one seconds to complete. Hart took the early lead and opened a small gap on Lettenbichler who kept it close for the entire race but was never able to get close enough to make any pass attempts. But with the difficult hill climbs, rocks and roots, it was always close enough to keep things interesting. In the end, Hart finished 1:19.58 ahead of his fellow KTM rider.

Roman had to make a couple of first lap passes to get up to third place but he too was never able to get close enough to Lettenbichler to make any pass attempts. Young put in a good ride on his Sherco to finish in fourth position 5:13.46 behind Hart. Kabakchiev started the race in third position and dropped back to fifth, 7:46.71 behind the winner.

Gomez had to pass a few riders and ultimately finished sixth, just ten seconds ahead of LeBlond, who was the top American on his Dellullo Racing Husqvarna in seventh position. LeBlond was the last rider on the lead lap and finished the main event in 46:12.34.

Jarvis, the winner of the 2022 Red Bull Romanics event two weeks before the TKO, finished eighth. Webb was ninth on his Sherco and Cyprian rounded out the top ten on a KTM.

“It feels amazing to be standing on the top of the podium,” said Hart. “I am stoked to get the win here in North America, these boys have been kicking my butt the last couple of weekends (Erzberg and Romaniacs).” The Canadian will now be looking for a second in his home country at the Outliers Hard Enduro on August 27-28 in Calgary.

“Pretty stoked to be back racing in the US,” said Lettenbichler. “I had a pretty hard day, I hurt my heel in Nashville at the straight rhythm which was a little frustrating but I fought through it. Congrats to Mario who was riding good today and also to first place Trystan Hart because he dominated today.”

“Thank you very much to the crowd who was yelling Mario all day,” said Roman. “I had a fantastic day and a good battle with the boys. Knockout one, I was riding too relaxed but Knockout two, I rode better and got a first row start. In the main event, Teo made an aggressive pass in the first turn and I almost crashed and had to overtake some riders and do a good job for the Sherco racing team.”

The Women’s pro class competed along with the top amateurs on the more difficult race two and FactoryOne Sherco rider Louise Forsley took the win ahead of Beta USA’s Morgan Tanke. Nikki Russell rounded out the podium on a Husqvarna. Forsley took the AMA Grand Championship number one plate and impressively finished thirty-second overall among all the amateur riders.

2022 Red Bull Tennessee, Knockout Main Event Results

    1. Trystan Hart, KTM, Canada
    2. Manuel Lettenbichler, KTM, Germany
    3. Mario Roman, Sherco, Spain
    4. Wade Young, Sherco, South Africa
    5. Todor Kabakchiev, KTM, Bulgaria
    6. Alfredo Gomez, GasGas, Spain
    7. Ryder LeBlond, Husqvarna, USA
    8. Graham Jarvis, Husqvarna, Great Britain
    9. Cody Webb, Sherco, USA
    10. David Cyprian, KTM, Czechoslovakia
    11. Taddy Blazusiak, GasGas, Poland
    12. Dominik Olszowy, GasGas, Poland
    13. Patrick Smage, Sherco, USA
    14. Suff Sella, KTM, Israel
    15. Keith Curtis, Sherco, USA
    16. Logan Bolopue, Sherco, USA
    17. Cory Graffunder, Husqvarna, Canada
    18. Tim Apolle, Beta, Germany
    19. David Garza, Beta, Mexico
    20. Jordan Ashburn, Husqvarna, USA

Detailed results can be found here.

Keep an eye on Red Bull TV for several videos featuring the 2022 Red Bull Tennessee Knockout.

Trystan Hart dominated the 2022 TKO to take his first ever FIM Hard Enduro World Championship race win. Photo: Future7Media.
Manuel Lettenbichler finished second at the TKO to close to within one point of the FIM Hard Enduro Championship lead. Photo: Future7Media.
Mario Roman tamed the Tennessee rocks to finish third at the TKO. Photo: Future7Media.
Ryder LeBlond was the top American finisher in seventh. Photo: Future7Media.
FactoryOne Sherco rider Louise Forsley won the women’s class. Photo: Andrew Nguyen

 

2022 Red Bull Tennessee Knockout Preview; The world’s best taking on the Tennessee Hard Enduro

The 2022 Red Bull Tennessee Knockout will host most of the best Hard Enduro Riders in the world this week at the Trials Training Center, in Sequatchie, Tennessee.

The event is round six of the FIM Hard Enduro World Championship and the AMA Grand Championship for amateur Extreme Enduro. Manni Lettenbichler, Graham Jarvis, Mario Roman, and Wade Young will be among the international riders facing off against some of the best North American riders including Trystan Hart, Cody Webb, Ryder LeBlond, and Jordan Ashburn.

Many of those top riders will kick the weekend off at the Red Bull Straight Rhythm Enduro Prologue on Thursday evening on Broadway Street in downtown Nashville. The course will include urban-inspired obstacles on the iconic street. Sixteen male and four female riders will race in an exciting bracket elimination format in head-to-head pairs. This will be free to the public and run from 7:00 to 10:00 PM CST.  

The riders and fans then reconvene at the Trials Training Center on Friday, August 12th for the amateur class AOMC Hot-Lap qualifying before two rounds of amateur class racing on Saturday to determine the AMA Grand Championships for Extreme Off-Road racing. The ECR eMoto (Electric Motorcycle) class will be part of the Saturday morning racing. The top 30 riders on Saturday will earn the opportunity to compete with the top pro riders that are pre-qualified directly to the Sunday racing. 

The Pro Women will be competing for an AMA Grand Championship #1 plate on Saturday and a few may qualify for Sunday.

Sunday will begin with sixty-plus riders competing in four rounds of racing. Riders will be eliminated in rounds two and three to narrow the field to the top 20 riders in the main event. The riders, including the women, will be fighting for their share of a $20,000 purse, making it one of the largest payouts for off-road motorcycle racing. 

Prequalified riders:  
Manuel Lettenbichler, Germany
Trystan Hart, Canada
Mario Roman, Spain
Graham Jarvis, United Kingdon
Wade Young, South Africa
Cody Webb, United States
Alfredo Gomez, Spain
Ryder LeBlond, United States
Taddy Blazusiak, Poland
Teodor Kabakchiev, Bulgaria
Jordan Ashburn, United States
Tim Apolle, Germany
Pat Smage, United States
Cory Graffunder, Canada
Keith Curtis, United States
David Cyprian, Czech Republic
Dominik Olszowy, Poland
Nick Fahringer, United States
Logan Bolopue, United States
James Flynn, United States
Norbert Zsigovits, Hungary
Ramon Bregoli Italy
Moret Francesc, Spain
David Garza, Mexico
Branden Petrie, Canada
Suff Sela, Israel
Mitch Carvolth, United States
David Knight, United Kingdon
Quinn Wentzel, United States
Casey Satterfield, United States
Adam Hartnagel, United States
George Kowalski, United States
Chris Satterfield, United States
Marc Fernandez, Spain

Manni Lettenbichler won the 2019 TKO, and will be aiming to close the points gap with Mario Roman in the Hard Enduro World Championship. Photo: Future7Media.
Sherco’s Mario Roman is leading the Hard Enduro World Championship points standings coming into the Red Bull Tennessee Knockout. Photo: Future7Media.
Cody Webb won the TKO six years straight. You can’t count him out for a win despite the fact that he is returning from an injury. Photo: Future7Media.
Canadian Trystan Hart earned a podium at Erzberg and a fourth-place finish at Romaniacs. He took his first major US Hard Enduro win at the 2020 TKO. Photo: Future7Media.
The seemingly ageless Graham Jarvis finished second at his one TKO appearance in 2017. A win at the 2022 Red Bull Romaniacs Hard Enduro proved again that he is always a threat to win, especially in tough conditions. Photo: Future7Media.

Red Bull Tennessee Knockout to Kick Off with Downtown Nashville Straight Rhythm Enduro; FIM Hard Enduro World Championship back in the USA

The best Hard Enduro riders in the world will be back to take on the Red Bull Tennessee Knockout at the Trials Training Center on August 11-14. The TKO is round six of the eight-round FIM Hard Enduro World Championship and the top North American riders will be aiming to mix it up with the HEWC regulars. To add to the excitement, the weekend will kick off with a head-to-head Straight Rhythm challenge in downtown Nashville on Thursday, August 11th

“Last year we got to see an epic battle with Billy Bolt edging out Mani Lettenbichler for the win and Trystan Hart proving that the North American riders can compete on the World stage,” said Eric Peronnard, the TKO co-producer. “It will be great to have all the top riders back at the TKO and the Red Bull Straight Rhythm Enduro event with the top men and women facing off on Broadway Street will be a great way to showcase Hard Enduro to new fans.”  

The Red Bull Straight Rhythm Enduro challenge will take place on Broadway Street in downtown Nashville. Sixteen men and four women riders will race head-to-head in pairs in a best two out of three bracket elimination format. The Straight Rhythm Enduro challenge racing is scheduled from 7:00 pm to 10:00 pm and will be free for spectators.

The TKO will then kick off at the Trials Training Center in Sequatchie, Tennessee with the amateur class prologue qualifying on Friday and two rounds of amateur class racing on Saturday to determine the AMA Grand Championships for Extreme Off-Road racing. The top 30 amateur riders will also earn a chance to compete with the pre-qualified pro riders on Sunday. Sunday will include four rounds of racing for the pro riders. 

There are still entries available for the Saturday amateur classes, including the new ECR eMoto electric motorcycle and Youth Lites 12-15 classes. Click here to enter: https://secure.tracksideprereg.com/tko/index.asp