On Saturday morning, the SRT King of the Motos challenge brought the 15-day King of the Hammers event in Johnson Valley, Calif., to an official start.
A record 175 riders entered the two-day, off-road motorcycle event, which has not been held at the California lakebed since 2021. The riders took on a challenging 40-mile course that weaved through desert, mountainous and boulder-plagued terrain.
RPM KTM Racing Team’s Will Riordan, who earned the pole following the one-lap Prologue that determined starting positions, led the field to the start of race one on Saturday. However, it was FMF KTM Factory Racing’s Trystan Hart who quickly gained ground and overtook Riordan.
Hart was chasing a second King of the Motos victory, which backed up his 2021 victory. For a majority of the race, he had another past champion hot on his tail — FactoryONE Sherco’s Cody Webb. Hart maintained a three-minute lead over the five-time King, safely granting Hart first place in race one, but Riordan passed Webb to take second by the end of the day.
— King of the Hammers (@KingoftheHammer) January 28, 2023
On Sunday, the field lined up at the bottom of Chocolate Thunder — a steep hill littered with rock gardens. Rockstar Energy Husqvarna’s Colton Haaker adeptly made it through the boulders, but Hart and Webb were back up front by the 10-minute mark.
At one point in the race, it looked as if Webb might catch Hart, but a GPS error from Webb solidified Hart’s route to a second consecutive victory.
“You’ve just got to be willing to send it, because at the end of the day, that’s what it comes down to — just sending it across the desert bed or across the rocks,” Hart said in a video feature on his Instagram page.
Webb recovered to finish second, with Ryder LeBlond third.
Fifty-nine riders completed both laps of race two within the six-hour time limit on Sunday.