The hard enduro scene has been rapidly growing here in the States over the last few years and this past weekend’s opening round of the AMA Extreme Championship was further proof of the insurgence of riders becoming interested in the discipline of racing. With a field of over 180 riders to kick off the season, there was sure to be some great action throughout the 16-mile, four hour long hare-scramble-styled event.
During the four hours of racing, the riders were to complete as many laps as possible. For the top five pros, that ended up being four complete laps, taking just under an hour per lap (with pit stops and lappers, the lap times came out to be closer to an hour). A few others actually finished their fourth lap as well, but not before the cutoff time of thirty minutes after the leader came in. Instead of going back to how the riders came through after their third lap, the course had a couple of checks scattered around it, not only to keep track of racers throughout the race, but also to compensate for the racers who didn’t make it to the finish line on time.
After getting a good start and running up front early on in the race, Taylor Robert came around the first lap with the lead just ahead of Cody Webb, Trystan Hart and Colton Haaker. Out on the second loop, though, Webb and Hart made the move on Robert, which would set the top four for the rest of the race.
Other than the course itself, riders faced further challenges from the beatings their bikes were taking during the race. It wasn’t strange at all to see someone come by missing one or both handguards, shifters, brake levers or even their seat! Due to the rocky nature of the terrain in Page, tires were getting chewed up fast, as was evident by Webb having to swap wheels part way through the race. On a side note: riders were not allowed outside assistance at the Grinding Stone race, except for their pit crew being allowed to pour their fuel for them. So, if they needed to swap out a busted part or change a wheel or anything, they couldn’t just sit back and take a breather while it was taken care of for them. They had to come in and do whatever maintenance they needed themselves (again, other than fueling their bikes).
After getting around Robert on lap two, Hart still lost quite a bit of time to Webb at the same time. For the next two laps though, he made up incredible time lap after lap, coming from five and a half minutes back to within forty seconds of the leader by the end of the race. In the last year especially, we have seen some spectacular progression out of the Canadian and he has become more than a formidable player at the front of the field at these hard enduros.
Except for at the start, Cooper Abbott was just kind of by himself for the rest of the day back in an impressive fifth overall. Although he did still have some crashes of his own (on the same rock face as his teammate Will Riordan experienced), he managed to stay just out of reach of catching up to the lead pack, but also safely in front of sixth and seventh behind him. Coop also was the final rider to complete the full four laps as the leader did, and with only 25 seconds to spare!
When all was said and done, Cody Webb had sealed the deal on taking the opening round win of the AMA Extreme Championship, but had plenty of pressure in doing so after coming through the pack early on and having Hart only 39 seconds back at the checkered flag. The two of them ended up gapping Robert a good bit by the end of the race, and even more so over Haaker who experienced some problems of his own. Full Results are below:
Pro
- Cody Webb
- Trystan Hart
- Taylor Robert
- Colton Haaker
- Cooper Abbott
- Ryder Leblond
- Will Riordan
- Max Gerston
- David Garza
- Noah Kepple
- Nick Fahringer
- Brandon Petrie
- Mitch Carvolth
- James Flynn
- Keith Sweeten
- Rich Larsen
- Quinn Wentzel
- Josh Staley
- Anthony Johnson
- dustin McCarthy
- Rodrigo Lopes
- Nick McGowen
- Agustin Pascal
- Daniel Lewis
- Wayne Dickert
Women Pro
- Louise Forsley
- Kylee Sweeten
- Dayne Toney
- Kalyn Benaroya
- Hallie Marks
