British Invasion Begins Strong
in Arizona Trials
U
.S. Montesa Honda-backed
Toby Martyn made an im-
pressive statement at the open-
ing rounds of the 2024 AMA/
NATC MotoTrials USA National
Championship Series, presented
by Trial Store USA, returning to
the Hualapai Mountain Resort in
Kingman, Arizona, April 13-14.
Beautiful but chilly weather
welcomed everyone back to the
competition season. Riders were
shaking off the first-round jitters
after eight months since the last
National round, but those were
short-lived as the competition
started bright and early at 6500
feet. As an attempt to help with
potential bottlenecks, the start
order was completely reversed,
with the Pro class heading out
first. It was tight competition,
with both Toby and FactoryOne
Sherco's Pat Smage taking a
completely clean day and forcing
a post-event ride-off.
A fresh section was made in
one of the creek sections that
had previously been used in the
2017 TrialGP World Round, with
both Martyn and Smage taking
three attempts. Despite cleaning
the section on his final attempt,
an unfortunate five-point ride on
his second attempt cost Smage
the round's win.
A new day brings a new round,
and new sections. Trials Master
Todd Roper and his team ad
-
justed several of the sections for
round two based on results from
the previous day. The focus of the
section design was more on the
technical aspect of the sport, with
a few big hits thrown in for good
measure. A handful of single
dabs put Smage in second place
right out of the gate, and he was
unable to recover the points gap,
so Martyn finished with only a
single point on the day.
WIND
IN THE
P66
Recently signed U.S.
Montesa Honda Team rider
Toby Martyn topped both
days at the AMA/NATC
MotoTrials Championship
opener in Arizona.
PHOTOS: STEPH VETTERLY
