Trail Rider Magazine

10 Trail Rider www.TrailRider.com Kenda Tires Tennessee Knockout Extreme Enduro 2017 By Bill Pa erson Contribu ng Author Extraordinaire The South is gonna do it again………and they did! The Trial Training Center (TTC) in Se- quatchie, Tennessee hosted the Kenda Tires Tennessee Knockout (TKO) again this year. The TKO was ac on-packed and loaded with carnage. Pro riders from around the world, as well as a host of amateurs, were featured in the event. It is part of the RedBull Enduro series. So how did the event stack up in diffi culty? Well, according to the likes of the pros, it was right up there. That would be right up there with the likes of Hell's Gate and Erzberg. Cody Webb returned to dominate in Pros and win it again. He had quite an impressive performance on his KTM 300. Cody is no stranger to the TTC though. His talent, com- bined with familiarity of the course, clearly contributed to his strong showing. South Austria's Wade Young managed to place second on his Sherco. Wade's run was extremely impressive. Tenacity does not begin to describe his eff orts. He had to pit twice and STILL returned to place second overall. Anyone familiar with the course will tell you that is a huge deal. Kyle Redmond placed third in his Beta. Those who know the event will also tell you that to even make it to the fi nal Knockout is a monumental feat. Number 13 Wally Palmer literally fi nished the third round, fueled up and started the fi nal Knockout. This was a er a whole host of Pros posted a DNF on the third round. The Pro por on of the TKO consisted of four events. The fi rst was a "hot lap" qualifi er of the Enduro Cross course with a short kicker. Round 2 was a longer course including the Enduro Cross sec on. This took between 52:28 to 2:09 to complete. Round 3 was the most brutal. Insane is more likely describes this round. Rounds 2 and 3 were between 13-15 miles. Round 3 also included the dreaded "waterfall" sec on, as well as the En- duro Cross. The fi nal Knockout was a 30-minute race of the hot lap sec on. The goal was to see how many laps one could complete. Lap mes were north of 5 minutes. To complicate ma ers even more, the skies opened up early Sunday morning and then again right at the beginning of Round 3. As a result, many or the riders switched to the so compound Kenda Ibex res. In talking with Sean Finley, President of the Motorcycle Group at Digital Thro le, they wanted to have a tough event that made the riders work for it. They certainly accomplished that goal. Several pros posted a DNF and numerous amateurs simply cried "Uncle" before the fi nish line.

• Cover