FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Story: Noel Flatters - Editor - The Enduro Bureau
May 21, 2024

The Robot Lights up Sprint Enduro in the Rockies

Round 2 of the 2024 SOR Enduro Series went off this weekend at the foot of the Canadian Rockies, and it was Hard Enduro superstar Trystan Hart (FMF KTM Factory Racing) and Canadian Off-Road queen Shelby Turner (Enduro Engineering / GasGas / FXR Moto) who took the wins on a day that featured wild weather extremes at what is arguably one of the most beautiful sprint enduro venues in the world.

Key Points

1. Hart took the win out over a tough Pro Men field that included P2 finisher and current Canadian ISDE World Trophy Team member Owen McKill (GasGas Canada / Riders Edge / TLD Canada), along with previous ISDE World Trophy members Phillipe Chainé (KTM Canada / Fly Racing Canada) in P3 and Jared Stock (KTM Canada / Leatt / SOR Enduro) in P4. Kale Cuthbertson (BFD Moto / Husqvarna Canada / Rad2.0) rounded out the top 5. Chainé retains the overall series lead ahead of Stock and Cuthbertson.

2. Canadian World Trophy Team rider Shelby Turner made the trip back to Alberta during a break in her GNCC campaign to take her second win in two starts over her ISDE teammate Lexi Pechout (BFD Moto / Husqvarna Canada / Fox Racing Canada) and Destiny Slingerland (HC Forest Products / EnduroTek / Team Mountains Edge). Former ISDE team member Kristen Broderick (Cycle Works Calgary / KTM Canada / Fox Racing Canada) and Harley Lawson (BFRMotoCrew / Fox Racing Canada) rounded out the top 5 in P4 and P5, respectively.

3. Series standings for Pro Men (top 5): (1) Phillip Chainé - 45; (2) Jared Stock - 40; (3) Kale Cuthbertson - 36; (4) Shane Cuthbertson (Rad2.0 / GasGas Canada / BFD Moto); (5) Ty Cartwright (BFRMotoCrew / KTM Canada) - 30.

4. Series Standings for Pro Women: (1) Shelby Turner - 50; (2) Lexi Pechout - 44; (3) Destiny Slingerland - 40; (4) Kristen Broderick - 36; (5) Harley Lawson - 31.

5. Just like Round 1 in Brooks, the weather was a bit extreme for Round 2. Approximately 5 inches of snow fell on the course Friday night, and then another snowfall on Sunday morning led to an approximately two hour delay to allow the weather system to pass through. This turned out to be a great call by the organisers, as by the time the rider meeting took place the sun was out and the course was drying rapidly, eventually turning into absolutely mint dirt by the end of Test 2.

6. Round 3 of the series is coming up in mid-June. Chainé will be back out West to defend his series lead, this time with some FMSQ racing behind him help build speed and race fitness. It’s up in the air if Turner will be back next round as she preps for the iconic Snowshoe GNCC round that takes place the week after. Pechout will be back, though, this time with two rounds of the Canadian Triple Crown MX series in her pocket to keep building on her speed and fitness. And who knows what other top-end Canadian off-road pros may show up?
   

Pro Men - Trystan Hart Shows Why He’s the Boss

There’s no question that Trystan Hart is one of the most complete off-road riders in the world. If you need any proof just take a look at his 2023 season - US Hard Enduro Series champion (undefeated, third consecutive championship), Endurocross Series champion, third overall in the FIM Hard Enduro World Championship with a P2 finish at Romaniacs and P3 finishes at Erzberg Rodeo and Outliers. Oh, and he got that FIM P3 overall without racing the season finale at Getzen Rodeo due to Endurocross. Heck, I saw him race some motocross in Calgary last fall and he did really well against some great Canadian MX talent. So, ya, he’s pretty ok’ish at this whole dirtbike thing.

Hart showed up to race with some time in his schedule just before he entered one of his key blocks of the season, with US Hard Enduro’s Tough Like RORR double-header the following weekend in Pennsylvania and then Erzberg Rodeo (his stated biggest goal of the season) the next week. As he put it, it was a good opportunity to get some speed work in ahead of these big races. Well, speed work was definitely put in! Hart lost only one out of ten tests on the day (to Chainé in Enduro Test #1) against some of the best test racing specialists in the country. It was an impressive display. One part of the day that stood out was on the Cross Test, where Hart was the only rider in the field to double a steep downhill set of widely spaced logs. The only time he didn’t was on the final test when snow, rain, and wind started blowing off the mountains to make things a little bit sketchier.

At the end of the day Hart took the win by 38.37 seconds over McKill, at 53m 04s 557 to 53m 42s 927. The battle for the two remaining podium positions was tight, with only 41 seconds separating McKill, Chainé, and Stock. This equates to only a 1.3% time difference spread between them - very tight racing indeed, and it shows how competitive the top end of Canadian sprint enduro, and this series, is. It also highlights the need for the SOR Enduro championship to grow into a truly national series in order to develop Canadian off-road speed talent and ISDE team competitiveness. It would be incredible to the SOR field filled out with the likes of Tyler Medaglia (Honda Canada / GDR / Fox Racing), Alexandre Gougeon (Husqvarna Canada / MVM Motosport) and others.

An interesting twist on the day was Spenser Wilton (INDE Racing) managing to ride despite a recent broken ankle. Spenser was racing the Stark Varg, and was very competitive on it running in P6 for much of the day. Unfortunately, the Stark ran out of power on the 8th of 10 tests. While some may choose to see this as a knock on the Stark, considering the very low temperatures, combined with high altitude and steep terrain, this was a very impressive showing for both Wilton and the bike. Wilton didn’t have a high-performance charger available, and with short test times he couldn’t quite keep on top of the power requirements. If he had access to the high-performance charger I think that there’s no doubt he would have made it to the end. I was really excited to see this bike in action, and it looked very much at home in an elite Pro field. Wilton was able to run the last two tests of the day on Hart’s spare bike, but was disqualified as a result of the bike change. I hope we see Wilton and the Stark in the gates for Round 3.

QUOTES

Trystan Hart: “I decided to come out and, change it up, you know, have some fun. this type of racing is always exciting. You're always on the, you know, the edge of crashing because you're pushing so hard for five minutes, so decided to come out and, I was super close, racing like, we're all within a couple of seconds each test. So pretty nervous, honestly, and I think a lot of people didn't think I was going to do well. And they were like, there was some rumours going around, but I showed up and got the job done. Got the win, so it was pretty sick.”

Owen McKill: “It was a good day. Chased Trystan all day and, Phil for a couple of tests as well. Really cool in the pro class today. Everyone was quite close, but, you know, Trystan pulled away from us all. I think the first few enduro tests, I struggled a bit, you know, just before lines got developed. I know Jared and Phil, those guys are really good on the flat, slippery stuff. So, as soon as a line kind of got carved in, I felt a lot more comfortable out there. I think I made some some great progressions. And then, same thing on the cross. The first my first cross was, you know, no crashes, but just slow. Right. Didn't feel like I had the aggression. I made some bike adjustments that helped out a little bit, and then I started to find my pace on the rest of the cross tests.”

Phil Chainé: “Had a good first test morning, so I was happy. And, I wanted to keep it like that, but Trystan, won the 9 other tests. He rode fast and he didn’t make any mistakes, so it was difficult to follow him all day and Owen was riding very good. He beat me by 22 seconds or something on the on the day. Me and Jared, we are, like, very close again. I think I beat him by 4 or 5 seconds for third place so I'm happy with the podium. So it was very, very fun. I can't wait to come back next year for sure!”

Jared Stock: “The day wasn't too bad. Good competition, which was the main thing. I thought it was really cool to have Trystan here, and he won, and Phil and the rest of the crew in that pro class, and Spenser was out even on the Stark, so that was cool. Today was a perfect day for racing, so there was no dust. It dried up enough throughout the day that I was just perfect. And yeah, I wasn't quick enough. Phil and I , I think we're six seconds apart at the end of the Enduro tests, so I thought I had it to get it in that cross test, but I just made a few too many errors and it was close and it was good racing, so I'm happy. I mean, this morning was pretty special with all that snow coming down.”

Pro Women - The Shelby Turner & Lexi Pechout Show (Redux!)

Round 2 was a near repeat of Round 1 for the Pro Women, with ISDE World Trophy teammates Shelby Turner and Lexi Pechout showing impressive speed finishing P1/P2 in class, and P8/P13 overall on the day. This round, however, Turner was able increase her winning margin out to 2 minutes from her 1 minute winning margin in Round 1. This track featured more elevation and was arguably slightly more technical than in the first round, and Turner’s experience racing the variable conditions of the 2024 GNCC season likely helped her out here. It’s good news for Canada, though, to see these World Trophy Team riders racing each other so closely. I expect the margins between them to shrink over the summer as Pechout gets more riding and racing time after a very late start to the season in Alberta.

Destiny Slingerland continued to impress with her second consecutive P3 finish and a gap of only 3’32 to Pechout for this very solid MX and Off-Road racer. She continued to finish just over 5% of Pechout’s winning times in the series, a pretty impressive stat against such an experienced rider.

Kristen Broderick and Harley Lawson went back and forth on test finishes all day, with Broderick building a small gap to take P4 in class. Courtney Schmale (KTM Canada / Leatt / SOR Enduro) was knocking on the door all day, too, finishing in P6.

QUOTES

Shelby Turner: “Just an awesome day. Awesome event there. They had some good jumps in there, which is awesome to see. A lot of times we get routed around the jump, so it's kind of fun to go over some today. And the grass track this morning and the enduro section was was really good. It was slippery. And you know, they had a lot of roots and a lot of tree sections. All in all it was just a smooth day and just awesome to be out here. My GasGas is working awesome and I had a lot of fun.”

Lexi Pechout: “We had a great day. I couldn't get Shelby. She's ripping out there. but it was it was a lot of fun. Still stayed in the top 15 in the overall, too, which is a lot of fun. Riding with some of those faster guysis great because you can you can start seeing where people are taking different lines and where they're shaving off some of that speed. It was definitely a little greasy this morning. When everyone was out on the practice track I was a bit nervous to see how the day was going to shake out. I had one tip over that it was, like, just lost the front, but kept it clean other than that.”

Round 3 of the SOR Enduro Series takes place on the weekend of June 15th at Xtreme Raceways in Alix, Alberta.

race results

Note: Full results available here.