Story: Noel Flatters - Editor - The Enduro Bureau
August 26, 2024

The 2024 Red Bull Tennesse Knockout took place over the weekend in Sequatchie, TN, and it was Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Manuel Lettenbichler taking home a hard fought win over defending TKO champ Trystan Hart (FMF KTM Factory Racing). As Round 5 of the FIM Hard Enduro World Championship and the finale of the AMA US Hard Enduro Series TKO was a busy race with implications across both series, and even though Hart was likely disappointed with his P2 finish behind Lettenbichler, he did secure his incredible FOURTH consecutive USHE overall championship. Coming into the weekend we were looking at three main storylines: the Hart vs. Lettenbichler battle; the FIM HEWC overall; and the battle for the final overall podium in the USHE championship. Let’s dive in and see how these all played it out in Tennessee!

Storyline 1: Hart vs. Lettenbichler

As we noted in our race preview last week, Trystan Hart had made no secret that his main focus at TKO was beating German HEWC series leader (and 2x defending HEWC overall champion) Lettenbichler. When we reached out to The Robot after his big win at the USHE Donner race two weeks ago, we noted that his 10-point lead in the series overall was looking very good in terms of securing the overall championship for a third consecutive year. His reply was “I don’t care about the points, I just want to win TKO and beat Mani on home soil.” Pretty hard to see any ambiguity in that statement.

At the start of the day, though, it was Lettenbichler who landed the first punch by taking the win in race #1 ahead of Sherco Factory Racing’s Teodor Kabakchiev in P2, with Hart coming in P3 . With the field knocked down to the fastest 30 riders from race #1, race #2 saw another impressive ride from Kabakchiev who took P1 ahead of a highly motivated Ryder LeBlond (Rockstar Energy Husqvarna Factory Racing) and Lettenbichler in P3.

With only 20 riders making it through the second knockout round to the final 35 minute +1 lap race of the day (and the only one that counted for the standings), it was going to be a maximum effort dogfight to see who was going to walk away with the win. Hart took the holeshot and led the first lap and part of the second until Lettenbichler was able to make a pass on a climb to take over the lead. Lettenbichler stayed in front until two laps to go, when a mistake allowed Hart through and resulted in a bar-to-bar battle to the end of the race.

Unfortunately for The Robot, it didn’t end up shaking out the way he wanted. Hart said after the race that to beat Mani he needed to be on point, but while he did a lot of the little things right in the final race of the day he was a little bit off on the hills and that he was the one who made the last mistake. After that he simply didn’t have the energy to get past Lettenbichler again, finishing 5.13 seconds back of the German.

Red Bull Leader Tread’s Wade Young had another strong HEWC outing at TKO finishing up 3rd overall, which put him in P2 for the HEWC in Tennessee ahead of Kabakchiev and young British rider Ashton Brightmore (TTR Squadra Corse) and Alfredo Gomez (Rieju Factory Racing).

Manuel Lettenbichler: “It’s been an incredible battle here at Red Bull TKO. Trystan has been riding so well and he really pushed me today. I haven’t been feeling too good here – I got a little bit sick last week and I’ve been struggling to find my speed, especially in such an intense race and in the heat here in Tennessee. I had some good lines, and I was able to pass Trystan on the hill, so that set me up well. Other than that, I just tried to save some energy, but at the end, I was exhausted. I’m stoked to take another TKO win and happy that we have a reasonably chilled September now. My plan is to get a little rest before starting to get some training in for Sea to Sky.”

Trystan Hart: “It was never going to be easy, but the race win was my goal here today, so I’m a little disappointed to come so close. Mani is such a good rider and to beat him, you’ve got to be on point. I was just a little bit off all day – I didn’t win the first race, and every year I’ve won here, I’ve won that first race. In the main event, I did almost everything perfect – I got the holeshot, held the lead, got it back when Mani passed me. We both made mistakes on the hills, they were really tricky, but I was the last one to make a mistake there and Mani got passed me. I tried everything but by that point, I had zero energy. I’m happy to finish second, of course, and I know I gave it my all, it’s just tough to miss out by such a small margin. I’ll be back next year to take that top step again.”

Storyline 2: FIM Hard Enduro World Championship Overall

Lettenbichler came into TKO as the points leader of the HEWC, with a 5-point advantage over Wade Young (Red Bull Leader Tread) and Mario Roman (Sherco Factory Racing), and an 8-point lead over Roman’s teammate Teodor Kabakchiev.

Mani made the most of the opportunity in Tennessee, scoring the maximum 20 points, with an additional 3 points in the Nashville street rhythm race. With USHE riders not impacting FIM points, Wade Young’s P3 finish still secured him the 17 points awarded to second place in the HEWC, plus 2 points for steet rhythm), and Teodor Kabakchiev grabbing 15 points for his P3 FIM finish.

The odd man out this weekend was Roman, who was only able to muster a P8 finish that gave him 11 points (plus 1 for street rhythm). This now leaves Roman 7 points behind Young in overall, and just 2 points ahead of Kabakchiev. With just two rounds left to go in the HEWC Lettenbichler’s 9-point lead over Young is starting to look tough to overcome, and we would be shocked to see anyone but the German wind up as the overall champion. The battle for the last two overall podium spots is wide open, though, and it’s going to be very interesting to see how things play out at Sea-to-Sky (Turkey) in September and Hixpania (Spain) in October.

Storyline 3: AMA US Hard Enduro Series Overall

Hart came into the final round of the USHE series with a 10-point lead over Sherco Factory1’s Cody Webb, and with a 5-point differential between P1 and P2 race finishes we had said in our TKO preview that “The Robot has, barring exceptional circumstances, effectively clinched the series (overall).” Webb would have needed to beat Hart and then get help in the form of at least two other riders finishing between him and Hart, to somehow take the overall. Although Webb looked strong at times over the race weekend (especially in winning the street rhythm in Nashville), he was only able to muster a P10 finish in the main race on Sunday.

This is Hart’s fourth consecutive AMA US Hard Enduro overall championship, and it leaves no question as to who the dominant North American hard enduro rider is. Although this season wasn’t the clean sweep that we’ve seen the past two years, Hart never finished lower than P2 in the three races he didn’t win, and was able to respond as needed when it looked like Webb might have had him on the ropes in the early rounds of the series.

In retrospect, The Robot’s decision to pass up on the FIM HEWC this season seems like a good one (except, perhaps, for his fans). Hart remained fresh by avoiding the massive trans-Atlantic schedule he endured last year competing in both series, and this could pay extra dividends when he kicks off the defence of his AMA Endurocross championship on October 12th in Colorado.

The biggest battle in the USHE series at TKO was between Ryder LeBlond (Rockstar Energy Husqvarna Factory Racing) and Will Riordan (GasGas Factory Racing) for the final overall podium spot. Similarily to the Hart/Webb scenario, LeBlond came into TKO with a 5-point lead on Riordan and only needed to finish in front of the young Australian to secure P3 overall. Riordan would need to beat LeBlond by at least two positions to leapfrog him in the standings. LeBlond got the job done with a P9 finish ahead of Riordan’s P11. Colton Haaker (Rockstar Energy Husqvarna Factory Racing) made the most of his P7 TKO finish to leapfrog James Flynn (IRC Moto / Beta USA) and finish fifth overall in the series.