2025 King of the Motos Race Preview
The 2025 AMA US Hard Enduro Championship kicks off this weekend in the California desert at King of the Motos, which is a unique round in the series as the only navigation-based race. Last year’s King of the Motos provided fireworks as we saw Cody Webb take the win over defending series champ Trystan Hart (FMF KTM Factory Racing), snapping The Robot’s incredible multi-season series winning streak in the process. Let’s take a look at last year’s race and identify some key storylines for this year.
Key Points
Cody Webb won the event last year, snapping Trystan Hart’s consecutive USHE win streak, but has now moved from Sherco FactoryOne to his own Yamaha program. His bike is rebuilt from the ground up to make it hard enduro ready, so it will be interesting to see how it handles elite competition demands.
Trystan Hart enters the season as the 4x consecutive defending series champion and will no doubt be looking to assert dominance in the first round after losing rounds 1 and 2 to Webb last year.
Ryder LeBlond (Husqvarna Factory Racing) will be pushing to improve on his 2024 P2 KoM finish, and to close point and time gaps to Hart and Webb in the overall.
2024 KoM Quick Recap
Looking back at 2024, there were 3 key factors that went into Webb’s victory:
Fuel Strategy
In the Sunday main race Webb was able to get through the pits at the end of Lap 2 without stopping to fuel, one of a few Sherco riders to do so with slightly larger fuel tanks and their SmartCarbs. This gave him an immediate 1-minute lead and it was effectively game over from there as he maintained a steady 1 to 2-minute gap over Hart and Husqvarna Factory Racing’s Ryder LeBlond.Navigation
Webb’s ability to leverage superior management of navigation and navigation technology gave him a clear advantage in Saturday’s qualifier and in the main race. In the 2-lap qualifier he was able to get through Lap 1 essentially mistake-free while Hart said after the race that “I was sub-par at navigating. A bunch of us (…) all led on Lap 1 a little bit, but leading was a disadvantage as navigating was so tricky. So I settled in 2nd behind Cody for most of (the lap), but he has a little trick with his GPS where he isn’t downloading the second lap track (…) so he got like a minute gap (through the pits) while the other 3 of us were downloading our tracks. That, ultimately, was the reason he won that race.”Hart’s Fitness
The Robot came in to King of the Motos after his longest time ever off of the bike as a pro, following what had been exceptionally demanding 2023 season. He had raced both the USHE and the FIM Hard Enduro World Championship (where he finished 3rd overall), along with the Endurocross series(that he won). He finished the season in late November pretty much entirely burnt out from racing across 2 continents over 10 months, and he spent his off-season travelling and spending time off of the bike. The compromise from that, though, was that he felt he was coming into the season above his normal racing weight and a little bit out of shape.
#99 Branden Petrie found a fast line up Chocolate Thunder off the start of the 2024 King of the Motos, allowing him to bypass a major bottleneck that caught up everyone else except for Webb | Noel Flatters - The Enduro Bureau.
Sunday’s main started at the base of the legendary Chocolate Thunder climb. After some steady rain overnight the dirt conditions were mint, with pretty much optimal traction throughout the course. The Pro Men’s start turned out to be eventful, but in the end didn’t impact the outcome of the race. Coming off the line it was Cody Webb taking the holeshot and leading the way up and over Chocolate Thunder. Canadian Branden Petrie (Sherco Endurance Racing) was the only racer to take a high left line up the climb and it paid off as he emerged in P2 behind Webb, avoiding a bottleneck that caught out several favourites including Hart, LeBlond and GasGas Factory Racing’s Will Riordan. LeBlond was the last pro up the climb after the chaos of the bottleneck but, along with Hart and Riordan, was able to chase back to the front in fairly short order. Petrie’s great start unfortunately went to waste later in lap 1 when his throttle cable snapped, costing him a 45 minute stop while he worked on a field expedient repair. He was able to finish in a fairly remarkable P11 when it was all done and dusted.
Cody Webb leads Hart, LeBlond and Riordan down into the finish of lap 1 at the 2024 King of the Motos | Noel Flatters - The Enduro Bureau
Through lap 1 it was effectively a repeat of Saturday’s race, with a lead group consisting of Webb, Hart, LeBlond, and Riordan establishing themselves and swapping out the lead and navigation responsibility. The group came back into the start finish together and continued to hang together for most of the second lap. Colton Haaker finished lap 1 just about two minutes back of the lead group, followed by Cooper Abbott another 2 minutes later. Quinn Wentzel (Rieju USA), Kwaelo Huddy (Kauai Racing Development), James Flynn (IRC Moto), and Gauge Key rounded out the top 10 on the lap.
Lap 2 saw Riordan drop back out of the lead group by about two minutes between checkpoints 4 and 5, leaving Webb, Hart and LeBlond in the lead group. The big moment of the race came at the end of lap 2 when Webb was able to get through the pits without stopping to fuel. This move allowed him to pull out a minute lead over Hart and LeBlond, and from that point it was effectively game over. Webb went up Chocolate Thunder for the final time shoulder checking to see if either Hart or LeBlond gambled on coming with him. From there Webb maintained a steady 1-2 minute gap over Hart, while Hart managed to pull out a similar 1 minute gap over LeBlond, which is how things remained to the finish.
Cody Webb heads up Chocolate Thunder after making his fuel strategy call to not pit after lap 2, giving himself a 1-minute lead that he never gave up | Noel Flatters - The Enduro Bureau.
2025 Storylines
One of the main storylines going into the weekend is Webb’s switch from Sherco FactoryOne to Yamaha for the 2025 season. Moving to a brand that doesn’t have much hard enduro notoriety, it’s going to be interesting to see how Webb fares through the first few rounds of the season. If you’ve watched his YouTube channel you’ll know that he’s put a TON of work into the new bikes to make them race ready. Will they be able to hold up to the challenge of elite hard enduro racing? Will he lose that fuel range advantage?
Trystan Hart will be 100% locked in for the 2025 King of the Motos as he starts chasing his 5th consecutive USHE championship | Noel Flatters - The Enduro Bureau.
For 2025 it’s fair to say that Hart will be in much better shape coming into the race after a less hectic 2024 season that saw him race only once in Europe at Red Bull Erzbergrodeo (where he finished 2nd behind Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Manuel Lettenbichler). He’s also likely to be highly motivated to beat Webb in Round 1 to reassert dominance after Webb won the first 2 rounds last season before Hart came back to win Round 3 at Battle of the Goats. Webb and Hart then exchanged wins in Rounds 4 and 5 at the Keystone Challenge before Webb’s season was effectively ended with a crash and knee injury in Erzbergrodeo’s Iron Road prologue. If Webb had stayed healthy it would have been a very interesting rest of the season. Hart will 100% want to take the early lead in the overall to put the pressure back on Webb through the start of this year’s championship. It’s also fair to say that The Robot will most likely be much more on top of his navigation technology management this time around to eliminate that variable.
Ryder LeBlond on the throttle in the 2024 King of the Motos qualifier | Noel Flatters - The Enduro Bureau.
We’re also interested to see what Husqvarna Factory Racing’s Ryder LeBlond has for the start of the season after finishing 3rd overall last year, and 3rd at King of the Motos. After last year’s race he spoke about being too cautious with energy expenditure through the initial phases of the race, saying after the finish that “I feel really good! Maybe too good, maybe left a little too much out there on the table in the beginning. There was one last hard section that I struggled with on the last lap, but honestly I’m not even tired right now and should’ve pushed a little harder I think.”
LeBlond will be looking to push up higher on the podium this season and to close up the time gaps to Webb and Hart. There’s no question, though, that he’s one of the top young talents in North American hard enduro.
A few more things we’re going to be keeping an eye out for this weekend:
One of the most exciting storylines of the 2024 season was the emergence of Hawaiian hard enduro talent in the championship. Kauai Racing Development’s Kawelo Huddy, Kamakana (Kana Boy) Waiwaiole-Kahalepuna, and Ryder Guest all impressed with multiple top-10 and a couple of top-5 finishes, plus a P3 for Kana Boy at SilverKing ahead of Alfredo Gomez. The Hawaiian round is a Premier race this year, and after watching how hard Cody Webb struggled there last year, it’s going to be very interesting to see what this tight community team can get done on their home turf.
Canada’s Branden Petrie finished 8th overall in 2024 as a privateer with Sherco Enduro Racing team (since folded). He’s been picked up by IRC Beta for the 2025 season, though, and we’re interested to see if he can make a push towards the top-5 overall with this increased team support. To get there, he’ll need to find somewhere between 35 to 45 more points than last year, but if he eliminates the DNF he had in Round 3 and his DNS at TKO he’ll be much further along the path. We also expect Petrie’s teammate James Flynn to keep progressing and be another challenger for a top-5 overall after his 6th overall in 2024.
Young guns Braxton Hintze and Rylie Bender are going to be ones to watch again this year. Hintze won the A-class overall last year ahead of Bender, who had been battling a shoulder injury that saw him unable to finish the season. Both of these riders have the makings of future elite hard enduro talent, and should likely be pushing towards the top-10 overall.
Riley Bender (Sherco FactoryOne) goes dynamic at the 2024 USHE Grinding Stone Hard Enduro | Noel Flatters - The Enduro Bureau.
