Shan Moore | October 16, 2024
If the opening round of the Slavens Racing AMA EnduroCross Series presented by Progressive Insurance is any indication, then the 2024 season will be a good one. Perhaps even as exciting as last year’s championship, where Red Bull FMF/KTM Factory Racing’s Trystan Hart came into the series finale trailing Brit Jonny Walker by seven points and needing help from other riders to take the championship but still managed to find a way to leave town with the title.
The 2024 AMA EnduroCross Championship got underway in Colorado and saw three different winners.
Photos by Jack Jackson
Three different riders won the three finals at the Broadmoor World Arena in Colorado Springs, demonstrating the competitiveness of the series. However, at the end of the day, Hart took a giant step towards defending his 2023 title by claiming the overall win after posting a 1-2-2 performance.
“Winning last year’s championship was probably one of the best feelings I’ve ever had,” Hart said after the race. “It was one of the things I needed to tick off my bucket list. It had eluded me since 2020, and I was thinking it was starting to get worse and worse every year. I’m like, ‘Oh God, if it doesn’t happen this year, it might not happen next year either,’ so to get that out of the way, I feel a big weight off my chest, and I’m going to breathe better and sleep better so I’m not feeling too much pressure to defend the number-one plate this year. The big weight was winning the championship the first time and I got that one off my chest.”
Defending champ Trystan Hart took the overall win but had to fight for it.
Walker, having just signed with Triumph a little more than a month ago and still getting used to the new bike, was second overall with a 7-1-3 race tally.
FactoryOne Sherco’s Cooper Abbott was third overall with 13 points after logging 4-3-6 results, while Rockstar Husqvarna Factory’s Ryder LeBlond won the final race, but could only muster an eighth and a 13th in the other two races for eighth overall after struggling early in the evening.
To kick off the show, Rieju Factory Team’s Dominik Olszowy of Poland posted the fastest time during the Hot Lap qualifying on his factory Rieju with a time of 32.782 seconds to set the starting order for the first of three motos. Five-time EnduroCross Champion and Husqvarna Factory Racing’s Colton Haaker followed with a 32.783, while Hart was third-fastest with a time of 32.863. Abbott was fourth (34.017 seconds), with Walker fifth (34.187).
Jonny Walker gave Triumph the second-moto win in Colorado and finished out the night second overall.
Hart posted a runaway victory in the first race, squeezing by Olszowy in the first turn to take a lead he would never relinquish, lapping his way up past fifth place by the finish. Olszowy kept Hart honest by sticking to the KTM rider’s rear wheel until the halfway mark of the race, eventually finishing second, with Haaker rounding out the top three. Abbott was fourth, with Factory Beta rider Max Gerston in fifth.
The second moto inverts the 16 riders’ finish positions from race one to establish gate picks, meaning the top eight riders from race one start on the second row.
Sherco’s Cooper Abbott got off to a strong start to the championship, getting on the box in third overall with 4-3-6 results.
Starting from the back, Abbott moved quickly up into fourth, followed by Walker, who took the lead from Abbott a lap later, wanting to make amends for his seventh-place finish in the first race. Haaker went down on lap two, dropping out of the top five, while Hart was stuck struggling at midpack trying to get around slower riders.
By lap four, Hart had moved his way up into third and set his sights on Olszowy and Abbott. On the final lap, Hart made an inside move on Abbott to secure the runner-up slot, with Walker taking the win at the checkers, followed by Hart, Abbott, GasGas’ Will Riordan and Gerston.
“I really struggled with the track,” said Walker, who, in addition to switching teams, also went from a two-stroke to a four-stroke. “As far as the suspension, the bike feels like it is handling [okay], but we’ve obviously done nothing with the engine. It’s basically stock. We’re at high altitude, so that’s working against me, but the bike’s good for a full standard model, and I certainly didn’t think I’d be going away with a race win tonight, but we did.”
GasGas rider Will Riordan was fourth overall. The top seven overall places were filled by seven different brands of motorcycles.
Walker wasted no time taking the lead in the third and final race, grabbing a clean holeshot and leading the pack into the opening lap, followed by Rockstar Husqvarna Factory’s Ryder LeBlond and Hart. Halfway into the race, LeBlond put a pass on Walker when the Triumph rider lost traction. LeBlond rode a smooth and steady race for the final few laps to win, followed by Hart in second and Walker in third. Riordan was fourth, with Gerston in fifth.
After one round, Hart leads the series standings with 30 points, followed by Walker with 25 and Abbott with 21.
“To come in here and take the overall is pretty nice,” said Hart. “I’ve never won the opener and that’s special. I’ve had some pretty crappy openers, so to start on top is pretty sweet. I almost threw it away in the first race, and I went into protection mode. I had such a big lead, and Dominik was riding aggressively behind me, so I just got super tight and didn’t ride well. In the last race, I got second, but man, I was on the edge of crashing everywhere, and I had that big one on lap one in the rocks. It was looking all good, and then it wasn’t looking good, and then it was looking good, and we got it done, which feels pretty good.”
Walker was disappointed with his seventh in race one but redeemed himself in the final two races.
“It was a wild night, but to come away with second, for us and for Triumph, I’m happy with that,” said Walker. “We can only go up from now.”
Abbott put himself in the mix for the title going into his home race next week in Prescott, Arizona.
“For the first round, the goal coming in was to get a decent start to the season and to not put ourselves too far behind,” said Abbott. “Honestly, I wasn’t happy with that last race. It was just way too chaotic for me, and my riding wasn’t the best, so I’ve got to fix that. I’m excited for the second round, and it’s only an hour and a half from home, so I’m excited to throw it down there.”
Poland’s Dominik Olszowy, aboard the Rieju, showed plenty of speed. He started off strong with a second in race one.
GasGas rider Will Riordan went 6-4-4 to claim fourth overall, one point ahead of Factory Beta’s Max Gerston’s 5-5-5.
Haaker, who rode well but found himself on the ground a lot, went 3-6-8 for sixth overall, ahead of seventh-placed Olszowy’s 2-10-7.
Former champion FactoryOne Sherco’s Cody Webb, who was just released to ride again after recovering from a wrist injury, was missing from the race. The former EnduroCross Champion chose to skip the opener and will wait until he feels ready to compete again. CN
OVERALL
- Trystan Hart (KTM) 1-2-2
- Jonny Walker (Tri) 7-1-3
- Cooper Abbott (She) 4-3-6
- Will Riordan (GG) 6-4-4
- Max Gerston (Bet) 5-5-5
- Colton Haaker (Hus) 3-6-8
- Dominik Olszowy (Rie) 2-10-7
- Ryder LeBlond (Hus) 8-13-1
- Tim Apolle (Hus) 12-8-9
- Anthony Johnson (KTM) 14-7-10
