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Hart Tops Moab Hard Enduro R ound four of the AMA Na- tional Hard Enduro Champi- onship, presented by IRC Tire, returned to Moab, Utah, on April 18-19. This was the third year USHE Pro athletes, Mesa Lange and Joe Nemeth, hosted Moab Hard Enduro at Area BFE, a private 320-acre property not far from downtown Moab. The desert terrain from round three at the Grinding Stone is quite different from this High Desert terrain at the Moab Hard Enduro, which consists of steep rocky canyons, technical trails and endless boulder gardens. Rocky Mountain ATV Yama - ha's Cody Webb won this race the past two years, which made him the favorite for year three. Following a trend with the previ - ous U.S. Hard Enduro races this year, the Moab Hard Enduro sold out and was at capacity with nearly 300 entries! This is a posi- tive trend for this growing AMA Hard Enduro Championship as new amateur racers are trying the sport out while promoters are building more skill-specific courses for all levels. On Saturday morning, all the racers competed in a one-lap Prologue, which set the start positions for Sunday's race. Win - ning the Prologue in 21 minutes was Braxton Hintze, who is the newest member of the Champion Brick Racing team. He finished two seconds ahead of FMF KTM Factory Racing's Trystan Hart, with Webb finishing 20 seconds behind for the third position. This was a great warmup for the Pro and top Amateur classes, but also a challenging first race for many of the Amateurs, who took up to two hours to finish. In the afternoon, the Shootout took the top 20 overall finish - ers from the Prologue, and sent them into a spectator-friendly short course, where they battled for final start position and a cash purse. After a hot lap and some intense battles, Trystan Hart came out on top, with Webb and Hintze rounding out the podium. After the Shootout, the Moab Hard Enduro hosted a Stacyc race, where the next gen - eration of 3-8-year-olds raced around a fun off-road course for the enthusiastic crowd. Sunday's main race kicked off with rows of five, based on the Shootout and Prologue results. Rockstar Husqvarna's Ryder LeBlond was in the lead early on for the first two checkpoints, but Hart and Webb passed him by the end of lap one. This battle between Hart and Webb would last the remainder of the race, with the gap shifting from 30 seconds to a few minutes between the two. A battle for the final podium position was heating up, as IRC Beta's Branden Petrie began closing in on LeBlond. The most popular and difficult section of the course, "Black Flag," is widely regarded as one of the most difficult 4x4 trails in the United States. The A Class racers went up halfway and hit a split to go around the side wall of the can - yon, while the Pro racers went up the middle split, which was a very technical section with five-foot- tall splatters sections and boul - ders the size of pickup trucks. WIND IN THE P50 KTM's Trystan Hart (1) battled with Cody Webb (2) but held on for his third win of the season at the Moab Hard Enduro. PHOTO: CALAFIA CONCEPTS