Tag Archives: Wade Young

Pro riders, Rider info

Prequalified pro riders invited for 2024 Red Bull Tennessee Knockout; Lettenbichler, Hart, Roman, Webb, Young, LeBlond and Jarvis top list of riders aiming for 2024 TKO win

The fourteenth annual Red Bull Tennessee Knockout (TKO) will take place at the Trials Training Center on the weekend of August 23-25, 2024. The event will be the only FIM Hard Enduro World Championship race in North America this season and it will also serve as the seventh and final round of the AMA US Hard Enduro Championship.

One of the unique features of the TKO is that the top pro Hard Enduro racers from around the world as well as the top riders in other off-road disciplines earn an invitation that gets a free entry into pro class. The top 35 finishers from the 2023 TKO automatically make that list as well. Past TKO main event qualifiers also earn an invitation. A total of 120 riders have earned a spot on the Sunday prequalified list and 35 of those riders are expected to compete.

The 2024 TKO will attract the top international riders such as Mani Lettenbichler, Mario Roman, Wade Young and Teodor Kabakchiev from the FIM championship who will take on the top North American riders including Trystan Hart, Cody Webb, Ryder LeBlond and Will Riordan.

Mani Lettenbichler just won his fifth Romaniacs Hard Enduro to go along wins at the Erzbergrodeo and Valleys Hard Enduro. The German won the TKO back in 2019 and finished on the podium in 2021, 2022 and 2023. The Red Bull KTM rider will be looking for his second TKO win in 2024. Photography by Future7Media.

Lettenbichler has dominated the FIM Hard Enduro championship for the past two years, but Hart has managed to beat him at the last two TKO events, so we can expect an epic battle for TKO supremacy between those two.

FMF KTM’s Trystan Hart will be aiming for a third consecutive TKO win in 2024. The Canadian will have to beat a strong group of riders to get his fourth career win at the prestigious event. Photography by Sean Finley.

And don’t count out six-time TKO winner Cody Webb for the win. The FactoryONE Sherco rider is having a great season and currently leads the AMA US Hard Enduro Championship series.

Cody Webb won the TKO six times in a row from 2013 through 2018. Injuries and tough competition have kept him off the top step of the podium for a few years, but the Sherco rider is having a strong season in 2024 and leads the AMA US Hard Enduro Championship. Perhaps he can get his seventh TKO win. Photography by Ryan McCasland.

Graham Jarvis has also added his name to the list of pro riders planning to compete at the TKO in 2024.

Graham Jarvis prefers longer races than the sprint format of the TKO but the 49-year-old British rider finished fourth at the Erzbergrodeo in June and plans to be back for another shot at a TKO podium. Photography by Future7Media.

Top 120 2024 Red Bull Tennessee Knockout Prequalified Pro Riders

1. Trystan Hart
2. Manuel Lettenbichler
3. Cody Webb
4. Wade Young
5. Will Riordan
6. Mario Roman
7. Ryder LeBlond
8. Teodor Kabakchiev
9. Colton Haaker
10. Billy Bolt
11. Graham Jarvis
12. James Flynn
13. Alfredo Gomez
14. Mitch Brightmore
15. Jonny Walker
16. Matthew Green
17. Cooper Abbott
18. Logan Bolopue
19. Danny Lewis
20. Quinn Wentzel
21. Branden Petrie
22. Jordan Ashburn
23. Pat Smage
24. Tim Apolle
25. Josh Roper
26. Gauge Logan-Key
27. KAMAKANA WAIWAIOLE-KAHALEPUNA
28. Dominik Olszowy
29. David Cyprian
30. William Hoare
31. Steward Baylor
32. Josh Toth
33. Hayden Mosa
34. Craig DeLong
35. Michael Walkner
36. Liam Draper
37. Grant Baylor
38. Max Gerston
39. Mason George
40. KAWALO HUDDY
41. David Knight
42. Taddy Blazusiak
43. Francesc Moret Clota
44. Spenser Wilton
45. Marc Riba Lazaro
46. Suff Sella
47. CREED KISLING
48. Ryder Guest
49. Ricky Russell
50. Didier Goirand
51. Dan Peace
52. Adam Hartnagel
53. Anthony Johnson
54. Vaclav Nedved
55. Mark Fortner
56. Vaclav Nedved
57. Cody Barnes
58. Nick Fahringer
59. Ben Kelley
60. Jarrett Mohn
61. Ruy Barbosa
62. Jack Price
63. Ryder Lafferty
64. Radford Ghugg
65. Michael Witkowski
66. Cory Graffunder
67. Justin Hoeft
68. Angus Riordan
69. Alexander Myers
70. DYLAN SANTORO
71. Mason Semmens
72. Jackson Davis
73. Dante Oliveira
74. Josh Strang
75. Will Myers
76. Norbert Zsigovits
77. Wanja Morlinghaus
78. Jonathan Johnson
79. JARED LAMBE
80. Thorn Devlin
81. Ryan Surratt
82. Mateo Oliveira
83. Alexander Niederer
84. Varga Zsolt
85. Grant Davis
86. Austin Walton
87. Tyler Lynn
88. Jonathan Girroir
89. Daniel Blanc-Gonnet
90. Casey Satterfield
91. Chris Satterfield
92. Marc Font Torres
93. Milos Novakovic
94. DEVIN STEPHENSON
95. Jesse Ansley
96. Evan Smith
97. Cole Martinez
98. Zach Bell
99. Cole Culins
100. Cody Miller
101. Ashton Brightmore
102. Nathaniel Tasha
103. Ali Ai Hiasat
104. LOGAN CIPALA
105. Mitch Carvolth
106. Tallon LaFountaine
107. Samuel Fastle
108. George Kowalski
109. Kyle Flanigan
110. Noah Kepple
111. Ryan Sipes
112. Daryoush Ghorbani
113. Travis Teasdale
114. Keith Curtis
115. Wally Palmer
116. Chuck DeLullo
117. Alex Bedley
118. Russell Bobbitt
119. Ty Tremaine
120. Mike Brown

In addition to the top pro riders, up to five hundred amateur riders will take on the TKO course aiming for the AMA Grand Championship titles and class wins. The top thirty amateur riders will also earn the opportunity to compete with the world’s best riders during the Sunday pro racing. The ECR eMoto (electric motorcycle) class will also be back for the third year with riders and electric motorcycle manufacturers competing for an AMA Grand Championship title.

The free electric motorcycle demo rides, sponsored by Surron, will be back again in 2024 and open to anybody that wants to give one of the bikes from multiple brands, including Surron and Electric Motion a test ride.

To kick off the weekend, the top sixteen pro riders will compete in a head-to-head prologue on a man-made straight rhythm inspired enduro course in downtown Nashville on Thursday, August 22nd. The 2024 Red Bull Tennessee Knockout will again be a three-day format with a Hot-Lap on Friday to set amateur racer starting positions followed by two rounds of amateur racing on Saturday. The pro riders will kick off their weekend with a Hot-Lap on Saturday afternoon and a three round Knock Out format on Sunday. The multiple rounds of racing and course layout provide a full weekend of exciting, spectator-friendly racing.

Riders can enter the 2024 Red Bull Tennessee Knockout here. (If you are signing up via a smartphone, it will help if you close other tabs that are open in your website browser software.)

Pro riders, Results

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.

Pro riders

Wade Young & Mario Roman confirmed for 2018 TKO; Sherco factory riders are among the world’s best Extreme Enduro racers

Sherco has confirmed that both Wade Young (@wadeyoung55) and Mario Roman (@marioroman74)  will be competing at the 2018 Kenda Tennessee Knockout on August 19th. Both riders are past podium finishers at the TKO and will be a serious threat to take the win.

Wade Young just took the win at the 2018 Red Bull Romaniacs so he has momentum coming into the TKO

Young just won the 2018 Red Bull Romaniacs event, arguably one of the toughest Extreme Enduro events in the world. The South African, who is still just twenty-two years old, has previously won the Hells Gate Enduro in Italy and has won the tough multi-day Roof of Africa in his home country two times. Young finished second to Cody Webb at the 2016 TKO and will be gunning for the top step this time around.

Spain’s Mario Roman made the podium at the 2017 TKO and like Young, he learned a lot about the terrain and format that should help in 2018.

Roman transitioned from traditional Enduro to Extreme Enduro racing a few years ago and already has a few major wins to his credit including Ales’Trem and Hells Gate. The Spanish rider made a last-minute decision to compete at the TKO last year and joined Cody Webb and Graham Jarvis on the podium with a third-place finish. He too will be back looking to apply what he learned last year to earn the win.

Look for more top riders to be confirmed in the coming weeks.

Pro riders

Wade Young back for 2017 TKO; South African Sherco rider is one of the World’s top Extreme Enduro racers

Wade Young (@wadeyoung55) is one of the top Extreme Enduro racers in the world right now. The South African rode his Sherco (@sherco_racing_factory) to an impressive second place at the 2016 Kenda Tennessee Knockout despite having to stop to replace a broken clutch lever during the main event. Young has confirmed that he will be back for the 2017 TKO, taking place at the Trials Training Center on August 12-13, to battle for the win.

Young is one of the few riders that has straight up beat Graham Jarvis, taking the win at the 2016 Hells Gate in Italy. He also won the tough multi-day Roof of Africa in his home country two times in addition to taking a podium finish at the 2016 Red Bull Romaniacs. And he just had another solid ride at the Erzberg Rodeo, taking fourth place. All of this and he is just twenty-one years old.

Young will be facing off against a tough field that already includes Cody Webb, Graham Jarvis and Colton Haaker confirmed but should be up for the challenge.

Look for more top riders to be confirmed in the coming weeks.

Wade Young had an impressive second place finish in his first attempt at the Kenda Tennessee Knockout in 2016. He will be looking to knock off Cody Webb for the 2017 win. Photo: Robert Lynn / Future 7 Media
Pro riders, Results

Cody Webb continues TKO domination: Wade Young and Kyle Redmond outlast the rest to earn podium spots

Cody Webb (@codywebb2) continued his domination of the Kenda Tennessee Knockout by taking his fourth consecutive win. The Red Bull, FMF KTM rider was never challenged during the four-round competition  at the Trials Training Center that culminated with a multi-lap main event in which he lapped the entire field.

TKO 2016 Cody Webb - photo by Larry Mayo

South Africa’s Wade Young (@wadeyoung55), one of stars of the international Extreme Enduro scene, looked to have the pace to challenge Webb in the final but had to stop to repair a broken clutch perch. In spite of the stop, Young stormed back through the field on his Sherco to take second position.

TKO 2016 Wade Young - photo by Larry Mayo

Kyle Redmond (@kyleredmond777) rode his factory backed Beta to the final podium position.

TKO 2016 Kyle Redmond - photo by Larry Mayo

Fourth position was taken by a relatively unknown twenty-year old Ben Kelley. The Connecticut native had to ride the Saturday qualifiers to earn a spot in the Sunday program and continued to impress all day. SRT-backed Cory Graffunder rounded out the top five.

Former National Enduro Enduro Champion Steward Baylor finished sixth on his KTM. Max Gerston rode his Beta to seventh. Noah Kepple recovered from an early crash to finish eighth. Husqvarna’s Mike Brown finished ninth and Quinn Wentzel had another strong TKO finish to round out the top ten.

Cory Buttrick, Nick Klapec and Wally Palmer were the other riders to qualify for the main event and finished eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth respectively.

The World’s top off-road riders are invited directly to the Sunday program for the Kenda Tennessee Knockout (TKO). One hundred and eighty unqualified Expert/Pro and amateur riders raced on Saturday with the top 29 finishers earning the opportunity to move on to the Sunday Expert Knockout rounds. On Sunday, riders compete in a very tough and spectator friendly four-round Knockout racing format.

The Sunday program started with a Hot Lap on a mile long “short course”. Webb set the fastest time of 3:13 over Husqvarna’s Colton Haaker, who clocked a 3:35. Redmond was third at 3:37. Brown fourth at 3:44 and Young started the day off with the fifth best time at 3:45. A total of forty eight riders completed the Hot Lap to move onto the first elimination round.

TKO round one sends the riders out in thirty second intervals against the clock on the thirteen mile “long course”. Only the top twenty five riders would move on to TKO two. Webb continued his dominance with a fast time of 52:28. Haaker again set the second fastest time at 53:06. Kelly shocked the field again by taking third with a time of 53:46. Young was fourth at 53:54 and Brown rounded out the top five with a time of 55:32.

For TKO two, the format changes to head to head racing with five groups of five riders competing on the long course with four additional challenging sections added. Only the top three in each group earn a spot in the fifteen rider main event. Just as the riders started, heavy thunder showers hit and dramatically increased the degree of difficulty. Webb continued to sail through despite the tough conditions to win his group over Redmond and Graffunder. Young served notice that he was learning the Trials Training Center terrain by winning his group and setting the second fastest overall time over Gerston and Buttrick. Kepple put in a great ride to win his group over Wentzel and Kelly. Brown took the win in group five over Baylor and Palmer finished just in time to start the main event. Amazingly, Nick Klapec was the only rider to make it to the finish in group two. Haaker lost a lot of time making repairs and did not finish before the main event started so he was knocked out of the competition.

When the main event started, Webb took the early lead and was followed by Young, Brown and Kepple. Kepple suffered a high speed crash that took him out of contention on the first lap while Webb quickly pulled away from the pack putting over 30 seconds on Young by the end of lap one. Young broke his clutch perch in a small crash on lap three and returned to the pits to repair it, seemingly ruining all chances of a podium finish as he went a lap down on Webb.

Brown, Graffunder and Redmond all held second at various points in the race while Young charged back through the field setting the fastest lap times. At the same time, Webb lapped the rest of the field at least once, rarely looking challenged by the incredibly challenging course made more difficult from the rain earlier in the day.

Brown pulled out of the race due to extreme fatigue just past the halfway point in the main event leaving Redmond and Graffunder to battle for the podium spots and hold off the fast closing Young, who would ultimately ride past both and into second. Redmond held on for third while Graffunder was forced to stop for water, which allowed Kelley to take fourth and bump him back to fifth.

Webb completed eight laps in just under 35 minutes of racing in the main event (in addition to the two hours of racing during the qualifying rounds), which was a lap ahead of Young and two ahead of Redmond.

“The day went great. The bike felt like a Trials bike out there and hooked up everywhere in spite of the tough conditions,” Webb said. “I got a big gap on Wade but then my pit board showed that he was running the same pace as me and I knew I had to keep pushing hard because he is a bulldog so it was unfortunate that he had the mechanical problem as it would have been fun to race with him more.”

“This was my first time in the US and it was good,” said Young, who has raced all of the major international Extreme races over the past few years with great success. “I think in terms of difficulty, this event is right up there. This format was shorter and high intensity with no place to rest on the track so if you made one mistake, it carried through to the next obstacle. It was a tough so intense that it made you almost sick but it was good.”

“The day was pretty tough but I started the day with third place in the hot lap, which got my day off to a good start,” said Redmond. “I had a crash in the beginning and I fell back and did not realize that I had worked up to second but then I just did not have the energy to fight off Wade at the end but I am happy to get a good result and make the podium because it was a tough day.”

TKO 2016 Podium

2016 Kenda Tennessee Knockout results

  1. Cody Webb – KTM
  2. Wade Young – Sherco
  3. Kyle Redmond – Beta
  4. Ben Kelly – KTM
  5. Cory Graffunder – KTM
  6. Steward Baylor – KTM
  7. Max Gerston – Beta
  8. Noah Kepple – KTM
  9. Mike Brown – Husqvarna
  10. Quinn Wentzel – KTM
  11. Cory Buttrick – KTM
  12. Nick Klapec – KTM
  13. Wally Palmer – KTM

Look for a highlight video in the coming days and a full Red Bull TV feature. More information on the air dates will be shared as soon as it is available.

Pro riders

Wade Young confirmed for 2016 Tennessee Knockout (TKO)

South Africa’s Wade Young (@wadeyoung55) has confirmed that he will line up against many of the best off-road motorcycle racers in the world at the 2016 Kenda Tennessee Knockout. The sixth annual event will take place on Sunday, August 21st at the Trials Training Center in Sequatchie, Tennessee:

Wade Young
South Africa’s Wade Young is just 20 years old but has already experienced a a lot of success on the World Extreme Enduro scene. Photo: Future 7 Media.

Young is one of the hottest up and coming Extreme Enduro racers in the world. The Factory Sherco (@sherco_racing_factory) rider won the 2016 Hell’s Gate event in Italy over Graham Jarvis and then recently followed that up with a podium finish at the Red Bull Romaniacs.

Wade Young
Wade Young has had a great 2016 season, taking his Sherco to a win at the Hell’s Gate Extreme Enduro in Italy and rounding out the podium at the Red Bull Romaniacs. Photo: Future 7 Media.

Young is just twenty years old but he is already a two-time winner of the Roof of Africa Enduro, the notoriously tough multi-day event in his home country.

He will face stiff completion as Cody Webb, Taylor Robert, Colton Haaker, Mike Brown, Kyle Redmond, Max Gerston, Ty Tremaine, Cory Graffunder and a host of other top off-road racers will be hungry to take the top step on the podium for themselves.

Look for more top riders to be confirmed in the coming week.