Welcome to the Weekly Dirt, the place to go each week to get your off-road fix. This week, we touch down in Romania, Wyoming and SoCal.
Photo by Chris Denison
This week, the Dirt Rider crew had the opportunity to spend even more time aboard Honda’s all-new 2013 CRF450R. As you know, this bike is completely revised and features some incredible new changes and revisions. There are only three of these machines in the U.S. at the moment, but we were able to compare the bike back-to-back with a stock 2012 CRF450R. The result was pretty interesting, and can be seen in our video breakdown here: http://goo.gl/0QqMt
Over the weekend, we had some fun out at the Prairie Dogs MC’s Last Dog Standing event, which took place at Glen Helen raceway and saw just five finishers out of 150 entries. Check out the full story at http://goo.gl/DPXB5, and be on the lookout for more exclusive content from this event including a race diary from 5th place finisher Michael Allen, as well as some eye-opening GoPro footage from the race.
Also, be sure to check out the freshly redesigned August issue of Dirt Rider, which hits newsstands this week. You’ll notice some pretty massive changes in the magazine, as well as a fun surprise on the cover. As always, we’d love to hear your feedback about the new style; tell us what you think at drmail@sorc.com. —Chris Denison
Graham Jarvis won Red Bull Romaniacs for the third time.
Kendall Norman, the lone American in the Pro class, finished 19th on a KTM 300.
Brit Jonny Walker was third.
Former world-class trials rider Graham “The Silent Assassin” Jarvis reinforced the notion that he’s the best extreme off-road racer in the world by adding this year’s Red Bull Romaniacs title to his impressive list of extreme off-road victories.
Romaniacs, which is held in Subiu, Romania, is considered one of the toughest off-road races in the world, and this year’s event featured some of the most insane sections designed to push the riders to their limits.
Despite crashing in a river and drowning out his bike on the last day of competition, the factory Husaberg rider took the win quite easily over German Andreas Lettenbichler (Hsq) and Brit Jonny Walker (KTM), who finished the event in second and third.
The win marked the third time Jarvis has won the heralded event and next year he hopes to surpass Cyril Despres, who has four Romaniacs titles.
“The first three days of the race went just perfect for me,” said Jarvis. “I was able to pull a good gap on my competitors and had some great rides. Today I crashed and drowned my bike, which lost me some time so I decided to take it easy into the finish. I’m really happy about my third victory; it’s just great to be on the top of the podium again!”
Kendall Norman, the lone American in the Pro class, finished 19th on a KTM 300, while American Devin Ferguson finished 32nd in the Hobby Singles class.
2012 Red Bull Romaniacs Overall Results:
1. Graham Jarvis (Husaberg) 19:03:47
2. Andreas Lettenbichler (Husqvarna) 19:47:43
3. Jonny Walker (KTM) 20:12:08
4. Chris Birch (KTM) 20:25:19
5. Xavier Galindo (Husaberg) 20:48:55
6. Melcior Faja (KTM) 21:29:35
7. Erwin Kovacs (KTM) 21:57:25
8. Altus de Wet (KTM) 23:10:21
9. Darryl Curtis (KTM) 24:00:50
10. Rienk Tuinstra (Husaberg) 24:06:29
11. Philipp Scholz (KTM) 24:18:15
12. Scott Bouverie (KTM) 24:25:33
13. Paul Fratila (KTM) 25:24:02
14. Riaan van Niekerk (KTM) 25:41:15
15. Kevin Wilson Archer (KTM) 25:51:07
Michael Lafferty claimed his 70th national enduro at this weekend’s Inyan Kara National Enduro
Russell Bobbitt matched his best finish of the year with a second.
Nick Fahringer grabbed his first podium of the year with a third.
Michael Lafferty claimed his 70th national enduro win in dominating fashion at this weekend’s Inyan Kara National Enduro in Upton, Wyoming. The 36-year-old Husaberg rider got off to a great start in the fast but challenging high desert terrain by winning the first three tests of the six-test race and opening up a small lead over fellow Husaberg rider Shane Hufford and Red Bull KTM’s Bobbitt.
Hufford continued to ride strong and surprised many by winning the fourth test of the day, however, Bobbitt and Husaberg’s Nick Fahringer picked up the pace in the final three tests and dropped Hufford to fourth overall after Fahringer won the fifth test and Bobbitt won test six.
In the end, Bobbitt managed to edge Fahringer for second place in the day, finishing 15 seconds ahead of the Ohio rider, however, neither rider could match Lafferty’s pace, and the New Jersey rider ended up topping Bobbitt by 15 seconds for the win.
Series points leader Stu Baylor managed a fifth place finish, despite recently having surgery to pin his right hand, which the RidePG KTM rider broke just a few weeks before.
Colorado KTM rider Ian Blythe made a rare appearance in the series to finish sixth, beating out FAR Husqvarna’s Andrew DeLong for the spot.
Starting the second half of the series, Baylor holds an 18-point advantage over Lafferty, 161 to 143, with four rounds remaining. Bobbitt is third in the standings at 118, while Cory Buttrick (91) and Fahringer (85) round out the top five.
The Rekluse AMA National Enduro series resumes on July 29th in Cross Fork, Pennsylvania with round seven of the series. – Shan Moore
If you are into watching the goings on of Extreme Enduro there is a place to capture most of the info in one place. www.kingsofextremeenduro.com is a site run by DR contributor Carsten Steffan and rankes the riders in what Carsten sees as the seven toughest races in the world. There are great links, like to this video:
Heading into the Sacramento round of the GEICO AMA EnduroCross Championship, there were eight open spots for riders to earn an invitation to X Games 18 Enduro X. For both the male and female riders, the top two non-qualified finishers would earn an invitation. In addition, the top two riders in the point standings in each class would also earn an invite.
The X Games competition staff also extends “Wild Card” invites to top racers from around the world and New Zealand’s Rory Mead has earned an invite. Mead is a proven Extreme Enduro specialist that demonstrated his versatility by winning a round of the US Grand National Cross Country Championship earlier this year.
The riders below are the final group to earn invitations and will join a field that now represents thirteen nations and includes riders as young as sixteen that will face off against some veteran off-road racers.
Men’s Enduro X
Top two finishing riders that were not already qualified
• Bobby Garrison USA
• Ben Rego CAN
Top two in point standings that were not already qualified
• Ryan Rodgers USA
• Bryan Roper USA
Wild Card Invite
• Rory Mead NZL
Women’s Enduro X
Top two finishing riders that were not already qualified
• Lexi Pechout CAN
• Nicole Madsen USA
Top two in point standings that were not already qualified
• Rachel Gutish USA
• Nicole Bradford USA
“The opportunity to compete in the X Games provided extra incentive for riders to push themselves for a top finish at these first two rounds of the GEICO EnduroCross series” stated Eric Peronnard, the creator of EnduroCross and X Games Enduro X Sports Organizer. “I am really proud of the depth of talent that we have assembled for this second year of Enduro X”, he continued.
X Games Enduro X Invited Riders, Men:
Taddy Blazusiak Poland
Colton Haaker USA
Taylor Robert USA
Kevin Rookstool USA
Cory Graffunder Canada
Graham Jarvis England
Jonny Walker England
Andreas Lettenbichler Germany
Rory Mead New Zealand
Mike Brown USA
Justin Soule USA
Geoff Aaron USA
Cody Webb USA
Bobby Prochnau Canada
Gary Sutherlin USA
Steward Baylor USA
Taichi Tanaka Japan
Alfredo Gomez Spain
Kyle Redmond USA
Ivan Ramirez Mexico
Chris Bruand France
Alex Salvini Italy
Max Gerston USA
Destry Abbott USA
Kendall Norman USA
Fred Crosset Belgium
Bobby Garisson USA
Ben Rego Canada
Ryan Rodgers USA
Brian Roper USA
X Games Enduro X Invited Riders, Women:
Louise Forsley USA
Maria Forsberg USA
Chantelle Bykerk Canada
Kacy Martinez USA
Rachel Gutish USA
Steffi Laier (WC) Germany
Tarah Gieger Puerto Rico
Nicole Bradford USA
Nicole Madsen USA
Lexi Pechout Canada
The X Games Enduro X will be held on Sunday, July 1st inside the Staples Center, in Los Angeles.
The X Games event will air live on ESPN networks and the remaining GEICO AMA EnduroCross events will be aired on the Lucas Motorsports Hour on the NBC Sports Network. Check your local listings or www.motorsportshour.com. – Jimmy Lewis
That’s all for this week, tune in next time for more off-road news!
