Tag Archives: Manuel Lettenbichler

Fox Racing Confirms 2023 Red Bull TKO Partnership and Contingency Program; One rider can earn a $500 Fox gift card from Mani Lettenbichler

Fox Racing (@foxracing), the apparel brand used for several years by two-time and defending FIM Hard Enduro World Champion Mani Lettenbichler (@m_letti304), has confirmed a partnership with the 2023 Red Bull Tennessee Knockout Hard Enduro.

Mani Lettenbichler has been racing in Fox gear for several years and he will hand over a Fox gift card to the top Fox outfitted amateur rider at the 2023 Red Bull Tennessee Knockout event. Photo by Future7Media.

In addition to having one of the treacherous course sections named the Fox Den, Fox will provide a $500 gift card to the top finishing Fox outfitted amateur rider in Saturday’s AMA Grand Championship race.

To be eligible for the award, riders will need to wear Fox pants, jersey, gloves, and either Fox boots and/or a Fox helmet. Mani Lettenbichler will hand over the Fox gift card to the top-placed eligible rider.

“We have built such an awesome relationship with Mani as a FOX Athlete over the years, and we’re stoked to have him representing our premium level products, including the V3RS Helmet, Instinct Boots & VUE Goggles, said Austin Hoover, Global Director of Sports Marketing for Fox Racing. “We love seeing Mani and the other top hard enduro riders competing on US soil at the TKO. It’s such a cool event and presents so many challenges for riders throughout the field. We’re looking forward to awarding the top FOX-equipped amateur rider with a $500 gift card.”

Mani just wrapped up his fourth Red Bull Romaniacs win to go along with his Erzbergrodeo and Xross Hard Enduro Rally wins so far this season. Photo by Future7Media.

The 2023 Red Bull Tennessee Knockout will take place at the Trials Training Center on August 18-20, 2023. There are still entries available for the Saturday amateur classes, including the ECR eMoto class. Click here to enter.

A separate link will be sent directly to the pre-qualified Amateur and Pro riders.

KTM’s Hart and Lettenbichler Confirmed for 2023 Red Bull Tennessee Knockout; Defending champion and 2020 winner looking for victory

KTM will have a powerful duo aiming for the top step of the podium at the 2023 Red Bull Tennessee Knockout. Trystan Hart (@trystanhart84), the defending TKO winner, and Mani Lettenbichler (@m_letti304), the 2020 TKO winner, have both confirmed that they will be competing at the thirteenth annual Red Bull Tennessee Knockout at the Trials Training Center on August 19-20.

Hart, who is a member of the US-based FMF KTM Factory Racing team, took his second TKO win in 2022 for his first FIM Hard Enduro World Championship win. The Canadian already won the 2023 AMA Hard Enduro Championship and finished third at the Erzbergrodeo for the second consecutive year.

FMF KTM Factory Racing will have Trystan Hart aiming for his third AMA Grand Championship number one plate at the TKO. Hart has already wrapped up the AMA Hard Enduro Championship and is second to Lettenbichler in the FIM Hard Enduro World Championship. Photo by Future7Media.

Lettenbichler races for Red Bull KTM Factory Racing, and he is the current FIM Hard Enduro champion. The German has had a great 2023 season so far taking wins at the Xross Hard Enduro Rally in Serbia and following that up with his second consecutive Erzbergrodeo win in Austria. Lettenbichler has had great success at the TKO in the past with three second place finishes and a win in 2020.

Mani Lettenbichler is arguably the best Hard Enduro racer in the world over the last couple of years. He won his second FIM Hard Enduro World Championship in 2022 and has won both championship races so far in 2023. He will be aiming for his second TKO win in 2023. Photo by Future7Media.

Hart and Lettenbichler will both be racing on the new 2024 KTM 300 XC-W, which now utilizes TBI Fuel Injection. Both riders have already won races on the new bike and hope to add a TKO win to that list.

The 2023 Red Bull Tennessee Knockout will take place at the Trials Training Center on August 18-20, 2023. There are still entries available for the Saturday amateur classes, including the ECR eMoto class. Click here to enter.

A separate link will be sent directly to the pre-qualified Amateur and Pro riders.

Lettenbichler Takes 2019 Tennessee Knockout; Roman and Young round out international podium

Manuel Lettenbichler (@m_letti304) has had an amazing 2019 season of Extreme Enduro racing. The twenty-one-year-old German dominated the Kenda Tennessee Knockout on his KTM 300 XCW TPI. This was just a few weeks after winning the four-day-long Red Bull Romaniacs, to go along with a runner-up finish at the Erzberg Rodeo. Sherco-backed Mario Roman (@marioroman74), from Spain, put up a good fight but settled for second in his third straight podium finish at the TKO. Fellow Sherco rider, Wade Young (@wadeyoung55), from South Africa, rounded out the podium.

Manuel Lettenbichler (center), won the 2019 Kenda Tennessee Knockout over Mario Roman (left) and Wade Young. Photo: Larry Mayo

The ninth annual Kenda Tennessee Knockout had almost 400 entries that started with a prologue to set the starting positions on Friday, followed by two rounds of racing for Amateur riders on Saturday. The top thirty of those amateur riders earned a spot in Sunday’s racing, which also included twenty-seven pre-qualified pro riders. Nate Smith won the Saturday morning race. Seventeen-year-old Ryder LeBlond took the Amateur win over Smith and Jarrett Mohn to earn the AMA Amateur Extreme Enduro Grand National Championship and move forward to Sunday.

Lettenbichler had a nearly flawless day at the 2019 Kenda Tennessee Knockout. Photo Larry Mayo

Sunday includes four rounds of racing for the fifty-nine riders and starts with a Hot Lap on a mile-long “short course”. Lettenbichler set the fastest time with a 4:26 lap. Roman was second with a 4:32 followed by Rockstar Husqvarna’s Colton Haaker with a 4:43 and Young rounded out the top five with a 4:47 time.

Mario Roman battled with his Sherco teammate to take second at the TKO. Photo: Larry Mayo

Knockout round one takes place on a nineteen-mile long loop with the top twenty-five riders moving on to the next round. The riders take off in thirty-second intervals and race against the clock. Lettenbichler again set the fastest time of 1:01:28. Haaker was second fastest with a time of 1:03:49. Roman was third at 1:04:55. Am-Pro Yamaha’s Ricky Russell showed impressive speed with a fourth-place finish in 1:05:07. Trail Jesters KTM’s Ben Kelley rounded out the top five with a time of 1:05:53.

Wade Young had a solid day to round out the podium at the 2019 Tennessee Knockout. Photo: Larry Mayo

Knockout round two switches from a race against the clock to a head-to-head format with four groups of five riders and one group of six after a twenty-sixth rider earned a spot in the next round after out-dueling three other riders in the last chance qualifier. In this round, those five groups would be competing for the fifteen spots in the final by finishing in the top three in their respective groups. This was back on the nineteen-mile long course with a few more challenging sections added in. Lettenbichler won group one over Trystan Hart and Liam Draper. Haaker won group two over Grant Baylor and Ronnie Commo. Roman won group three over Beta’s Max Gerston and Nick Fahringer. Young won group four over Russell and Quinn Wentzel. Kelley won group five over Nate Smith and Mitch Carvolth. Smith had raced both races on Saturday and still managed to earn one of the coveted spots in the main event. Notably, Young had the fastest time during round two at 1:06:29 to serve notice that he may have the speed to challenge for the win.

The main event moved back to the short course with a 30-minute plus one lap battle, which ended up taking Lettenbichler 37:10 to complete. “Letti” jumped out to the early lead and managed to maintain it for the entire race, which ended up being 8 laps. The battle for second included Young, Haaker, and Roman in the early laps. Roman passed Haaker and then he and Young battled back and forth for a couple of laps before Roman was able to work his way into second. In the end, Roman was unable to make much of an impact on Lettenbichler’s lead and ultimately finished nearly two minutes back. Young dropped back to nearly four minutes behind the winner. Haaker held on for fourth place but went a lap down. Hart recovered from a pretty big crash to round out the top five.

Kelley finished in sixth position on his KTM. Russell finished seventh on a Yamaha YZ250X. Gerston was eighth on a Beta. Baylor finished ninth on a KTM and Commo rounded out the top ten on a KTM.

Lettenbichler had finished a close second to six-time TKO champion Cody Webb at the 2018 event and he used that experience to win in 2019. “It is a completely different kind of format than I normally race. You race four times during the day with high intensity. And the main event is so difficult because the pace is so high. I liked the loops but it is much hotter and more humidity than I am used to from home so it makes it very challenging. I was happy to have a comfy lead at the end of the final race so I could back off a little.”

Roman finished third in the 2017 and 2018 TKO events and improved to second this year. “I think I am getting more experience year by year in this race. This is a special kind of race because you have a couple of hours in the morning just to qualify and then the main one is thirty minutes with high intensity and high humidity. I didn’t have time to prepare much because we just came from Romaniacs. Letti was no mistakes and he was gone after I battle with Colton and Wade in the beginning but I am happy to improve and have a good result with the help of Sherco USA.”

Young had a pretty serious foot injury that forced the defending Romiacs champion to pull out of this year’s event. But he was here in the USA for his third attempt at the TKO. “I didn’t feel so well on the bike this morning since I just got back on the bike when I arrived in the USA. But by the third round, I was starting to feel really good but when the final came around, my fitness was not so good due to my time off the bike. So I was not able to battle for the win but overall, I am happy, I would have liked to battle for first but this was the best I could do with the time off.

The Women’s class had a total of 14 riders that tried to earn a spot in the main event by completing the morning race within the two and a half-hour time limit and ten of those riders moved forward to the main with three of the women finishing within the top forty overall among the 242 riders. Beta’s Rachel Gutish took her third TKO win with a dominant performance. Shelby Turner and Nicole Bradford both had minor mishaps in the first few corners that put them behind but they rebounded to finish second and third respectively.

2019 Kenda Tennessee, Knockout Main Event Results

  1. Manuel Lettenbichler, KTM
  2. Mario Roman, Sherco
  3. Wade Young, Sherco
  4. Colton Haaker, Husqvarna
  5. Trystan Hart, KTM
  6. Ben Kelley, KTM
  7. Ricky Russell, Yamaha
  8. Max Gerston, Beta
  9. Grant Baylor, KTM
  10. Ronnie Commo, KTM
  11. Quinn Wentzel, Husqvarna
  12. Nick Fahringer, Sherco
  13. Mitch Carvolth, Sherco
  14. Liam Draper, KTM
  15. Nate Smith, Husqvarna

Detailed results can be found here.

Keep an eye on this TKO blog for a video recap within a few days.

KTM confirms Kelley and Lettenbichler to Compete in 2019 Kenda Tennessee Knockout; GNCC XC2 champion and Red Bull Romaniacs winner ready to tackle TKO

FMF KTM’s Cody Webb (@codywebb2), the six-time winner of the Kenda Tennessee Knockout, will miss the 2019 TKO while he recovers from a knee injury. But the FMF KTM (@ktmfactoryracing) team will be well-represented with Ben Kelley (@benkelley530) riding his Trail Jesters KTM Racing Team (@trailjesters) mount. The team will also host Manuel Lettenbichler (@m_letti304), the young German rider that finished second at the 2018 TKO. Both riders will be competing on 300 XC-W TPI two-strokes when the ninth annual TKO invades the Trials Training Center on August 16-18.

Ben Kelley has dominated the GNCC XC2 class for the past two seasons but is also strong at Extreme Enduro Events.
Ben Kelley will be aiming for his first TKO podium finish.

Kelley was the surprise of the 2016 TKO when he earned a spot in Sunday’s competition by winning the Saturday amateur race. He then finished a strong fourth in Sunday’s main against a stacked field of better-known riders. He went on to join the Trail Jesters KTM team and won the 2018 GNCC XC2 championship and is currently undefeated in the 2019 title chase. It would not be a surprise to see the youngster from Connecticut win at the 2019 TKO.

Manny Lettenbichler finished second at his first TKO in 2018. He just won the 2019 Red Bull Romaniacs to go along with a win at the Machette Hard Enduro in the Dominican Republic and a runner up finish at the 2019 Erzberg Rodeo.
Manny Lettenbichler finished second at the 2018 TKO.

Manuel Lettenbichler is one of the stars of international Extreme Enduro racing. The twenty-one-year-old German has learned a lot from his father, Andreas, who was one of the pioneers of Extreme Enduro competition. “Manny” has several major wins and podium finishes to his credit, including a win at the 2019 Red Bull Romaniacs to go along with a win at the Machete Hard Enduro in the Dominican Republic and a second-place finish at this year’s Erzberg Rodeo. Lettenbichler finished second to Webb in 2018 so he will be one to watch.