2024 U.S. Sprint Enduro Round 5 Results

Shan Moore | May 29, 2024

Johnny Girroir has won eight straight U.S. Sprint Enduro days, accounting for four overall victories—some of them dominating and some of them nail-biters. On Saturday at High Voltage Raceway, round five of the U.S. Sprint Enduro Series was of the nail-biter variety, thanks to Am Pro Yamaha’s Liam Draper. However, Sunday’s more technical event saw Girroir hammer the competition to amass his fifth overall victory of the series easily.

Johnny Girroir at High Voltage Sprint Enduro — **Jonathan Girroir continued his winning ways in the U.S. Sprint Enduro Championship.**

Photos by Shan Moore

On Saturday, Girroir squeezed by Draper with a win by three-tenths of a second; Draper landed three wins, while Girroir took five. Needless to say, nerves were high going into Sunday’s event.

“There was nothing really on the track to separate the riders on Saturday, so Liam and I had a pretty good battle, and he won a few tests,” said Girroir. “It went back and forth, and finally came down to the last test.”

An overnight rain caused chaos, forcing the enduro course to be rerouted in places, which caused a delay. It all played into Girroir’s hands, however.

“Sunday was a whole new racetrack,” said Girroir. “Me and Liam were both on the ground in the first test, but after that I found my flow and rode much better than Saturday. I thrive in the technical stuff.”

Draper is getting better with each race and nearly won Saturday’s event, but in the end, he settled for second for the day and second overall. Sunday was a lockout by Girroir, with the KTM rider winning all six tests.

“I started off a little slow, and Johnny had a good cross test, but then I gained it back in the enduro test,” said Draper. “The last cross test on Saturday, I crashed, and you can’t crash when you are splitting hairs with Johnny. I won a few tests, and I felt like I rode well, it’s just that you can’t crash at this level and expect to do well. On Sunday, Johnny just had too much for us. He was so good on that slippery track.”

Angus Riordan at High Voltage Sprint Enduro — **Angus Riordan was the top Pro 2 rider.**

Phoenix Honda’s Cody Barnes claimed his best finish to date as a Pro with a third overall. On Sunday, Barnes battled with a rejuvenated Craig DeLong, with Barnes beating the Rockstar Energy Husqvarna rider by one second for third on the day and third overall.

“Things went pretty well for me,” said Barnes. “I rode well in the cross test, but I was a little behind in the enduro test, although I was able to pick up a few lines out there. After it rained, the track was challenging. I had a good first test but then my second test was not good at all, so me and DeLong kind of yo-yoed back and forth. Fortunately, I was able to get him by a second.”

Rockstar Energy Husqvarna’s Craig DeLong was certainly not happy with his riding on Saturday, but came back a little stronger on Sunday to finish for another fourth overall.

“Saturday was pretty piss poor, honestly, I was just slow,” said DeLong. “I got to get out of my head and stop being scared to hit the ground or crash. I just got to pick it up and get some nerve. I had a couple of good times here and there, but I’m just timid; I’m not riding like myself. I think the short races and the time in between, I’m still getting used to, but it will come around. On Sunday, the track was a little more technical and I was in the game. I just missed the podium by one second.” DeLong missed out on beating Barnes for third again by just under a second on Sunday.

Liam Draper at High Voltage Sprint Enduro — **Liam Draper gave Girroir a battle en route to second place.**

FMF KTM Factory Racing Team Landers’ Angus Riordan came out on top of a close battle, topping the Pro 2 class on both days after mixing it up with Precision Off-Road’s Dominick Morse all weekend and finishing fifth overall.

“It was pretty tight all weekend,” said Riordan. “On Saturday, it was a little closer than my liking, but I think everyone was stressed out. I got Dominick by three-tenths at the end of Saturday, so it was very close. On Sunday, I kind of put myself on the backburner, going down twice. The boys picked up 10 seconds on me, but I just put my head down and got with it. I think I gave my mechanic a few grey hairs.”

Morse was sixth overall and second Pro 2 rider, and he gave Riordan all he could handle during the weekend, coming up just three-tenths of a second short on Saturday.

“I got second in the cross test and then I think I won three or four in a row, so it was a good battle between me and Riordan,” said Morse. “Unfortunately, on Saturday, I crashed three or four times which put me behind, but I was able to battle back and just missed beating Riordan by 0.3. Going into the last woods test, I had him by about three seconds and he got me by 3.3, so it was a fun day.”

Edging Babbitt’s Online/ Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Lyndon Snodgrass for seventh overall was Husqvarna’s Jason Tino, who had an up-and-down weekend.

Brandy Richards at High Voltage Sprint Enduro — **Brandy Richards topped both days of the Women’s Pro class.**

Ninth overall and first in the Pro-Am class went to FMF KTM Factory Racing Team Landers’ Cooper Jones, while Coastal GasGas Factory Racing’s Cole Whitmer rounded out the overall top 10 and was second Pro-Am rider.

In the Pro Women’s division, FMF KTM Factory Racing Team Landers’ Brandy Richards took the win both days and the overall win over Rockstar Energy Husqvarna’s Kori Steede. However, Steede made Richards’ final day tough, finishing just two seconds behind the KTM rider.

“The weekend definitely started off really good; I loved the grass track,” said Richards. “It was a little slick and pretty fast, while the enduro test was super-hard-packed with no ruts and pretty slick. I was a little more patient on that test. We got a pretty good rain on Saturday night, and that made part of the course pretty tricky. That last test was icy and slick, but, overall, it was a good weekend.”

Second in the Pro Women’s went to Steede. “It started off pretty slow in that second enduro test, I had a pretty good get-off and hit my head,” said Steede. “It slowed me down a bit, but my times slowly got better, but I’m not feeling so good. After the rain, the enduro test got pretty slick, but overall, the track was pretty fun. On Sunday, the track was pretty gnarly and I think I rode as well as I ever have at one of these sprints.”

Third went to first-time sprint racer Olivia Judy on a KTM.