Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/1542841
King Of The Motos; Electric Start to 2026 T he AMA National Hard En- duro Championship kicked off its 2026 season with the Mo- torcycles and Coffee King Of The Motos in Johnson Valley ORVA. Rocky canyons, loamy sand sections and extreme downhill runs tested the racecraft of Pros and the endurance of Amateurs. Race Director Justin Leineweber designed parts of the course in reverse of the 2025 event, creat- ing new features from familiar obstacles, including the rock gardens of the Outer Limits to the harrowing downhill of Drop of Jack. The weather was brisk but dry on Saturday. Racing started early, with the Pro Women and Amateur classes storming up Chocolate Thunder. Louise Forsley led the pack up the mountain as chaos formed behind her. "I'm usually ahead of the girls, and so I set my sights on class A [men's] riders," she said. The IRC Tire Beta rider wasn't far from her goal, with only four A-class riders remaining ahead of her. The first to reach the checkers was A-class rider Makana Barger. After holeshot- ting the second row, he battled fellow Hawaiian Boogie Rivera all the way to the finish, edg- ing him out by merely three seconds. Boogie, excited for Sunday, said, "The lap was just WIND IN THE P38 straight grind, no rest, just wide open, sketchy, and yeah, just try- ing to keep it on two wheels." The Pros had a different challenge. Instead of a loop on the main route, a trial of quick reflexes and stacked obstacles awaited them at Super Fun Can - yon. PCI Race Radios put $1000 on the line and a single few-min- ute run doesn't forgive mistakes. Cody Webb came up short by eight-tenths of a second. The winner, 2025 Champion Trystan Hart, said, "I think I wanted the $1000 more because I walked the whole track, and he walked half of it. He was faster, but I had a couple of sneaky lines on the part he didn't walk, and that made the difference." By the time the gate dropped on Sunday, the sun had melted the morning chill. The smaller FMF Factory KTM's Trystan Hart got the 2026 AMA National Hard Enduro Championship going with the overall win at the King of the Motos race. PHOTOS: RYAN MCCASLAND