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

It was a relatively quiet week in off-road racing but there was still action to found, including Trystan Hart (FMF KTM Factory Racing) and Shelby Turner (Enduro Engineering / GasGas / FXR Moto) taking wins at Round 2 of the SOR Enduro Championship in Canada, Josep Garcia winning Trèfle Lozérein AMV in France, and some bad news for Kevin Benavides (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing).

SOR Enduro Championship Round 2 - Alberta, Canada

One of the main storylines of the SOR round was the weather. Organisers and athletes had to cope with some fairly serious snow in the mornings, but a decision to push back racing on Sunday allowed the snowstorm to roll through leaving behind a mint track after the first Test or two.

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.

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.

Off-Road Ontario Gopher Dunes XC

Over in Eastern Canada the Off-Road Ontario series was rolling with two days of Hare Scramble action at the famous Gopher Dunes facility, home track of Tyler Medaglia and his Honda Canada / GDR Racing / Fox Racing team. Medaglia is currently Canada’s #1 World Trophy Team rider and a multi-time Canadian Triple Crown MX series champ. What I’m saying here is that he’s quick. Really quick. And he proved his off-road chops again by winning both days with very healthy margins. I spoke with Medaglia today and he spoke about how fun, but difficult, the tracks were. They also had the opposite problem from Alberta, with the heat kicking in like it was deep summer in Ontario.

Medaglia’s has been primarily focused on MX with the Triple Crown series kicking off in Calgary in just two weeks. He’s only been riding cross-country on recovery days and said that we was really feeling the lack of long distance fitness. Unfortunately we won’t see Medaglia at Round 1 of the FMSQ series this coming weekend as he needs to be ready for Calgary. He told me that he raced (and won) the first FMSQ round last year the weekend before the Triple Crown started, and that "It totally kicked the sh*t outta me!”

Loic Leonard (EVO Suspension) took P2 on both days, with Carl Naumann (Yamaha Canada / St-Onge Bike Shop) taking P3 on day 1 and defending FMSQ series champion Alexandre Gougeon (Husqvarna Canada / MVM Motosport) in P3 on Sunday. Gougeon, World Trophy teammate with Medaglia, had a rough day 1 with a torn radiator hose ending his race after just three laps. ISDE World Trophy Team member Ryder Heacock (Beta Racing Canada) was in action, too, but a blown clutch on day 1 pretty much sealed the deal on his weekend.

Trèfle Lozérien

Over in France it was Josep Garcia (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) taking the win at this iconic three-day event, over EnduroGP and ISDE rival Andrea Verona (GasGas Factory Racing) and French favourite Jérémy Tarroux (Honda RedMoto France / Kenny Racing). On the final day Verona made a charge to try and regain his lead from day 1, and was able to win two of the five tests, but it wasn’t enough to get past Garcia. This was Garcia’s third win at the race.

Kevin Benavides Injury

Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Kevin Benavides is recovering following a training incident at the Mantillo MX Park near his home in Salta, Argentina on Saturday, May 11.

The 2023 Dakar Champion was taken to hospital with a fracture to his left arm and head injuries. The accident rules Benavides out of his upcoming home race, the Desafio Ruta 40, which is scheduled to be held in Argentina from June 1-7. We wish him a speedy recovery!

Andreas Hölzl – Rally Team Manager: “Obviously, this is a massive setback for Kevin, made even worse by the fact it comes right before his home race in Argentina. Training for the upcoming Desafio Ruta 40 had been going really well, with the whole team working hard on the run up to the event. Thankfully, his injuries are not too serious and although he is still being monitored closely, he’s improving day by day. It’s not clear how long Kevin will be out of action for, but all at Red Bull KTM are behind him and wish to see him back with the team soon.”

Coming Up

Things kick into high gear again this coming weekend. In North America we’ll see the first round of Canada’s biggest off-road series, the venerable FMSQ Cross-Country Championship. Sticking to Canada, we’ll also see Round 1 of the Western Off-Road Championship in Southern Alberta - hopefully the snow will stay away from this one!

In the US we have the Premier Round Tough Like RORR doubleheader in Pennsylvania. Trystan Hart took the last Premier round of the series ahead of Rounds 1 & 2 winner Cody Webb (FactoryOne Sherco), and will be looking to continue building momentum heading into Red Bull Erzbergrodeo the following week. The US Sprint Enduro Series also continues, also in Pennsylvania. Over in California the NGPC series continues with Round 6.

Finally, we’ll be keeping an eye down unda’ as the Australian GNCC season kicks off in Moulamein, New South Wales.