PRESS PASS

KING OF THE MOTOS

What A Difference A Year Makes

With a $15,000 purse on the line and nearly a year of no racing for most of the 90+ “gnarly good” riders, the start to the King Of The Motos was even more electrifying than usual… and the shocking results stunned some, too as Trystan Hart beat defending champ and 5X winner Cody Webb and 2X winner Colton Haaker, as well as a full field of the best desert racers in the world. Photos by Mark Kariya

“I’m not sure if it should be considered a changing of the guard, but Trystan Hart put it to the rest of the field with some great riding and being in the right place at the right time,” said veteran moto-photographer Mark Kariya. Kato has logged more miles covering desert races than anyone… certainly more than young gun winner Hart has raced his entire life, so we will take his word for it, along with the photos to prove it. “Hart started the hard enduro season off on the right foot with a well-deserved win over two-time King of the Motos victor Colton Haaker and five-time winner Cody Webb.”

After finishing in second last year, Hart was definitely dialed in this year, completing two laps on the brutal course before 60% of the field even made it to the third checkpoint of their first lap. “What makes this race special is not just the purse, but the live coverage with helicopters following us,” said Hart at the finish line at the base of the infamous Chocolate Thunder, just outside “Hammer Town” in Johnson Valley, California. “It is like a city in the middle of the desert out here, and it is really cool.”

How did Hart pull off the win over Webb and Haaker? “I guess I am older now. I have matured. I was only like 19 when I first raced here.” For the record, by “older” he means 24! “The difference between the top four or five guys and the others was significant, and I know that anyone who lines up for races like this has to be gnarly good,” notes Kato. “It’s just that the cream of the KoM crop must be considered equal to the best anywhere else in the world. It made for a good show, though most of the crowd that moves into Hammer Town are there for the four-wheeled shows.”

Some sideshow! Nearly 100 “gnarly good” racers took the start at 9:00 a.m. and by 3:30 p.m.roughly 60% still had not made it around the 2021 All Balls Racing Group King of the Motos course even once. The day started with a short six-mile prologue beginning and ending near Chocolate Thunder. Don’t let the length fool you into thinking that this was an easy course, though.

It went up Jackhammer, down Jack North and up Wrecking Ball, the same boulder strewn canyons used for the unlimited car race at the end of the week. Worse, Justin Leineweber’s afternoon course was unmarked and required each rider to follow the 14mile route on their GPS. Increasing the importance of navigation may have been what it took to topple 2015 & 2017 title holder Haaker. “I’m terrible at the navigation,” he readily confessed. Haaker had been hanging back as Hart and Taylor Robert led much of the race… until Robert went down and relinquished a couple positions late in the race.

“I mean I literally just keyed off of them all the time… I hardly even looked at my GPS,” Haaker admitted. “I didn’t want to lead. To be honest with you, it wasn’t going to be good if I was to lead… I knew I was going to go the wrong way and then I’d have to catch back up anyway. So, I just kind of sat back.”

Meanwhile Webb may have been undone by a pit stop. The 5X winner was the only one to stop for fuel during the race, a decision that ultimately cost him time to Hart and Haaker. “I kind of hung back expecting we would get a show stopper and everyone would be hung up but there was nothing like that. So, I put myself too far back at the beginning and sprinted to catch up and I am not happy with what I did on the course, but happy to get third.”

However, there was no denying that Hart put it to everyone and was clearly the class of the field. “Trystan has proven he belongs up there,” said Webb. In years past it’s kind of been me winning a lot of these races and a couple of other guys here and there but right now I think today there could have been four guys who could have won so I think the talent is getting deeper and it’s really good for this sport.”

Kudos to Justin Leineweber and his crew! Despite finding out the race was back on only a couple of weeks beforehand, Justin laid out miles of virgin course, plotted all the GPS points, hustled up volunteers to work the checkpoints and literally (okay figuratively) moved mountains to make sure King Of The Motos came off without a hitch. As Paul Golde said, “Jimmy Lewis only cruised around the course twice, just did it 6 times in the last 6 days! He worked his arse off laying the course out and running the show.”

Changing of the guard? Trystan Hart is the new King Of The Motos!

2021 King Of The Motos Top Ten

1) Trystan Hart 6) Will Riordan 2) Colton Haaker 7) Max Gerston 3) Cody Webb 8) Cooper Abbott 4) Taylor Robert 9) Keith Sweeten 5) Cory Graffunder 10) Dustin McCarthy

Justin Leineweber tells defending champ Cody Webb he has to surrender his #1 plate (below).