Cycle News

Cycle News 2015 Issue 05 February 3

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/456427

Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 32 of 123

IN THE WIND P32 HAAKER CROWNED KING OF THE MOTOS R ockstar Lucas Oil Husqvarna racer Colton Haaker topped the King of the Motos at the 2015 extreme off-road event, besting SRT/KTM's Cory Graffunder and factory Beta rider Max Gerston, February 1. Haaker piloted his TE 300 two-stroke to the overall win in the three-hour race that saw top riders completing three laps on a daunting 12-mile course laid out in "The Hammers" area of Johnson Valley, California. King of the Motos, which is a fairly recent addition to the week- long King of the Hammers event put on by Ultra 4 Racing, is as- piring to becoming a world-class race. The event is on its way, as the 2015 edition was described as "twice as hard and twice as long" by those who raced it last year. King of the Motos is unique in the scope of other extreme races in that the riders must navigate their way around the unmarked course. This element added another level of difficulty, espe- cially for Haaker, who admittedly doesn't have much experience in that area. "It was all new, unridden trail," Haaker said. "Like two tire tracks had been through it two weeks ago. We were all trying to figure out which way to go. Cory and I kind of gapped everyone else on the first lap and it was a game of cat and mouse. I kept getting in the lead and then I'd just get lost. I just felt stupid because I would look back at him, and we'd wan- der around and then he'd find the right way to go. He was lead- ing me on the first lap a lot. He could read the GPS better. He's more experienced at this stuff." Haaker settled in behind Graf- funder on the first lap, but ac- cording to both of them, the rac- ing really started on the second lap. "At that point we knew where we were going," Graffunder said. "That's when all the racing hap- pened, for me, was laps two and three." "The second lap I got in the lead and I started putting the hammer down," Haaker said. "I knew if I could get a gap that it would be very hard to make that up in the second or third lap. That was my race strategy and I executed it." Haaker did exactly that, with Graffunder trying his best to keep him within sight. Behind them, Gerston wasn't far off, and Noah Kepple trailed in a close fourth. The lead four riders quickly began to pull away from the field, but the lead four soon turned into the lead three due to a misunderstanding by Kepple. "The top 20 guys ended up missing the first virtual and physical checkpoint," Kepple ex- plained. "It was unmanned so it wasn't super obvious. It was kind of hidden; it was a little dogleg that went down. After I finished my first lap, I started my second and I was like, 'Woah, I don't re- member riding this.' Then I start- ed thinking, 'Well, Jimmy [Lewis, Rockstar Lucas Oil Husqvarna's Colton Haaker descends the final hill into "Hammer- town" where the checkered flag awaited.

Articles in this issue

Archives of this issue

view archives of Cycle News - Cycle News 2015 Issue 05 February 3