This weekend saw the Sherco FactoryOne team head to California for the Donner Hard Enduro, which was the final leg of this year’s AMA Extreme Off-Road West championship.
Although Louise Forsley had already wrapped up the West title before heading to Donner, she was determined to continue her run of good form, especially after winning the Tough Like RORR last week in Pennsylvania. Meanwhile teammate Cody Webb, now a back-to-back Tough Like RORR winner, had some work to do to secure the Men’s Pro title.
Saturday would have the Pro Men and Women lining up in rows of five to determine Sunday’s starting order. Conditions were challenging to say the least with plenty of deep silty sand, granite and temperatures in the upper 90’s. This meant a top five result was crucial to minimise the riders time in the dusty conditions the next day. Cody Webb would lead early, but the fast and relatively easy course isn’t one of his favourites and he would ultimately finish in P3, good enough for a row one start. Teammate Keith Curtis finished in 11th, which meant he’d be fighting through rows of dust the next day. Louise Forsley set the time standard for the women.
Sunday’s race would be a four-hour marathon, which Cody Webb simply described it as “terrible” and “not fun” for him personally after a second placed finish. This was simply due to the conditions over the four hours and the level of sustained intensity which doesn’t necessarily suit his style. For Louise it was another solid display and race win, which means that mathematically she is also now unbeatable in the race to be the overall AMA Extreme Women’s Pro champion.
An elated Louise commented:
“Today really pushed me both mentally and physically. In enjoyed the course a great deal. It was hard, but manageable at the same time, which was appealing to me. Racing for four and a half hours in the heat and elevation was a mental battle. My first lap was rough. I had bent my rotor and thus, Kylee passed me about half way so I was behind her for awhile. I heard I was down more than 6 minutes at a checkpoint. I was able to fix my rotor and then was able to find my flow on lap two. Somewhere in there I managed to make up that time and then put a gap on her. When I went out for my 3rd lap, I wasn’t quite sure how far I could make it under the time limit. I just kept pushing and was able to complete a 3rd.”
Meanwhile the men’s championship will come down to the last two races of the year where Cody Webb will need to finish ahead of Trystan Hart in both races to win the overall championship as riders get scored on their best nine of ten races. The final two rounds are Bad Medicine at Fallen Timbers in Ohio, which is this coming weekend. The Battle of the Goats in North Carolina is on 7th – 8th August. Cody will be flying to Romania to compete in Romaniacs between those two races, so he will be extremely busy before he then takes on the stand-alone Tennessee Knock Out, which now forms part of the World Hard Enduro series.
After the race a frustrated Cody Webb said:
“That was miserable. It completely beat me down. Not because it was so technical, but because it felt like I was sprinting in a four plus hour marathon.”
Speaking of winning the AMA Western #1 Plate:
“Honestly it doesn’t mean much to me. That was never the goal. The goal has always been the overall and I am in a dogfight right now. I have two races left to obtain that goal. I am going to give it everything I have.”
Check out the Kenda enduro range used by Cody and Louise here.