Cycle News Staff | April 25, 2016
After a six-week break in racing action, the Kenda Full Gas Sprint Enduro Series, presented by Moose Racing, an AMA Championship, headed north from the sands of Florida to the hills and rocks of West Virginia, April 23-24, for its third round of the series, presented by Ride on Moto. The event also served as the East Coast AMA ISDE Qualifier for riders looking to compete on club teams at this year’s ISDE in Spain.
Layne Michael came away with the overall win at the Kenda Full Gas Spring Enduro in West Virginia. Photography by Jason Hooper
Two ISDE-style special tests laid out on the grounds of the 600-acre Boyer Farm property; the first, a 2.5-mile flowing grass track cross test that was called very “European” in style by many racers. The second test was a 4.5-mile enduro test that traversed up and down the many hills on the property with plenty of rocks to keep the riders on their toes.
Series points leader and winner of the first two rounds of the series Daniel Milner was the first pro rider to hit the cross test and put down a blistering 5:26.952 on the fresh grass. It looked as though Milner would get the first test win, as rivals Thad DuVall and Layne Michael finished with a 5:37.321 and 5:28.321, respectively, but Ryan Sipes, who started 11th, would come through and best Milner’s time by .610 and take the first test win. Former pro motocross racer Broc Hepler rounded out the top five and was the fastest LOI (Letter of Intent riders attempting to qualify for ISDE) on his Gas Gas.
The second test of the day was the enduro test, with Milner starting first and Michael taking off 15 seconds behind him. The Coastal Racing Husqvarna of Michael’s was ultra fast and took the win by 5.792 seconds over Milner with a 9:54.793. DuVall was third with a 10:01. Evan Smith finished the test fourth, and Josh Toth was fifth and first in LOI.
Sipes showed great grass-track prowess with a second win on the Cross test with an advantage of 3.25 over Milner, with DuVall another five seconds back in third. Sam Evans put his Yamaha into fourth place, his best test finish of the weekend with Michael rounding out the top five with a 5:34.44, 11-seconds back of Sipes and eight seconds behind Milner. Unfortunately, Sipes suffered a hand injury in the final enduro test and was not able to compete in the second day of racing.
The time gaps between Milner and Michael’s cross test and enduro test results set up the showdown for the rest of the weekend as Milner went on to win the one remaining cross test on day one as well as sweeping all three cross tests on day two.
Trail Jester’s team member and LOI leader Josh Toth took the second enduro test win of the weekend ahead of DuVall and Michael. Milner, dropped 15-seconds to Michael on that test, and then another 29 seconds on the final attempt at the enduro test for the first day of racing, ultimately giving Michael a 31-second advantage heading into the second day.
With trail conditions becoming increasingly gnarly with more and more rocks becoming exposed, a few small trail changes were made for the second day of racing to try and slow down some of the faster sections of the course. The changes, however, did not yeild much difference in the results as overall leader Michael won two of the three enduro tests with DuVall, who started the day in third place overall, taking the other test win.
After two days and 12 special tests, Michael took his first-ever Full Gas Sprint Enduro win with a total time of 1:33:17.838 ahead of Milner with a 1:34:01.806, DuVall rounded out the podium 20-seconds behind Milner. Toth finished the weekend fourth overall and the first LOI rider, SRT Off-Road’s Cory Buttrick rounded out the top-five.
“Congrats to Layne on the win,” said Milner. “I had nothing for him in the enduro test, that’s for sure.”
“I knew Milner was going to be good in the cross test and I felt really comfortable in the enduro test,” Michael said. “You don’t have a lot of weekends like that.”
Hepler again won his class and officially qualified to represent the U.S. in this year’s ISDE in Spain.
In the Women’s Pro class the storyline for the win was very similar to that of the men’s pro race with BONZI/MPS Yamaha’s Brooke Cosner taking all of the enduro test wins and RPM KTM’s Rachel Gutish winning all of the weekend’s cross tests. Thanks to the enduro test’s longer times, it was Cosner who would eventually take the overall win, even with Gutish winning the overall for the second day.
Shawn Davidson rounded out the podium ahead of Mandi Mastin and Nicole Bradford.
Billy Schlag took the Open A win by just six seconds over Argentinian Luciano Benavides to claim the top amateur spot with an impressive 11th overall.
Peyton Whipkey dominated the Youth race to take both the youth overall as well as the 85cc 12-15 class win.
