Every year, the TTC is host to two events (4 days of competition) for the Southeastern Trials Riders Association (STRA) championship series. We call the spring event the Spring Splash and the fall event The 58k. For these events, spectators are welcome and admission is free. Helmets are required for anyone on a motorcycle. AMA and STRA membership is required to compete (membership applications are available on site). Riders are welcome to come early or stay after for practice or training classes on our 670 acres of mountain terrain. See our Directions page for how to get here, our Accommodations page on where to stay, and our Contact Us pageif you need more info.
The 2011 Fall 58K
For 2011, the Fall 58K (STRA Rounds 9 and 10) will be held on Oct. 29 and 30.
Cost : $30.00/ each day; $10.00 age 18 & under
Start times : 12:00 noon on Sat.; 10:00 A.M. on Sunday
Youth Trials at 4:30 PM on Sat.; 9AM on Sunday for $5.00 per day
The TTC is featured in the Nov. 2011 issue of Dirt Rider, in an article by Chris Green (photos by Shan Moore) titled Trials Training Center: Learning by Trial and Error.
The boss of this operation goes by the name of Charlie Roberts, and he serves as the resident instructor. Charlie knows a thing or two about the sport of trials, and having hosted the World Trials Championships a few times at his venue, he has seen the best get it done the right way. You’re getting some of the best terrain there is when you visit the TTC, not to mention the beautiful scenery and the old-school log cabins in the middle of the woods that give you the true feeling of an off-the-grid motorcycle camping trip.
The land at the Training Center offers a wide variety of terrain with a ton of exciting natural obstacles such as logs both huge and tiny and rocks of intimidating sizes as well as the easier ones, which I spent most of my time on.
Dry creek beds with scattered rocks wind through the area like the freeways in Los Angeles. There is even a cool flowing creek that runs through the property with fallen trees laying across it that are possible to be ridden by the daring. The bottom line is you won’t get bored here, just bring your imagination and throw together some creative lines.
Last week’s Cycle News (Sept. 7 issue) featured the Tennessee Knockout Extreme Enduro (TKO) in a 6-page feature titled TKO for Brown (pages 102-107) with many photos. An excerpt:
Brown led every lap of the final. He blasted to the front right off the start and opened up a small lead. Knowing any small mistake could mean disaster Brown rode conservatively and chose his lines carefully every lap.
Webb, however, had nothing to lose and went after Brown. The Beta rider had fallen in the first turn and was hammering it around the course. His aggressive riding style carried him right up to Brown late in the race. But when he was within striking distance on the last lap, Webb tipped over, which was just enough to give Brown some breathing room and eventual win.
After nearly 40 minutes of racing, Brown was happy to see the checkered flag. “Was tougher than anything I have ever done,” Brown said. “At the halfway mark, I thought I would not be able to finish, but I was leading so I kept pushing.”
We here at the TTC would also like to send out a HUGE thank you to all who helped us put on the First Annual Tennessee Knock Out Extreme Enduro.
We know it was a lot of hard work and we sure appreciate everyone’s special effort to make it happen. This event was a great success and we could not have done it without these people:
Greg and Wendy Clark, Wendy Roberts, Sadie Thompson
O.B.
Gary Smith, Jamie Gourley
Road Guards
Paul and Aaron Thistle, Cathy Priest, Barbara Ganley, Darrell Davis, Troy Roberts, Ian (Fro Man), Burke Breneman, Becky Melton, Alex Bedley, Austin Brown, Marisa Sinz, Papa Joe Terry, John Sipos, and Fast Eddie Faulkner.
Course Marshalls
Steve Glinski, Tim Cash
Layout
Becky Melton, Doug Caldwell, Kim Murrell, Mike Hathaway, Burke Breneman
First Responders
Griff and Alan Shirley
Scoring
Nathan Glinski
Shop
Angela Brown, Crystal Kee
And a very special thanks to Sean Finley, Digital Throttle, and Eric Peronnard, EPCN, for their help with organization, promotion, and all around everything!
From all of us at the TTC:
L to R: Alex Bedley, Charlie Roberts, Ashley Jackson, Catherine Bedley, Sadie Thompson, Dan Brown
The weather was expectedly hot and sticky, and the brutally rocky terrain and dust made for a tricky course in and around the surrounding canyons and hills of the TTC. The format for the race was creative, with both a long loop and a shorter course being utilized to pre-select a field of amateur racers and narrow down the stacked field to 25, and then finally ten, top racers.
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After multiple rounds of qualifiers, the TKO main event took place on the unbelievably difficult short course, which was approximately five minutes in length.
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With ten laps of racing for the victory, the final was extremely hot, brutal and according to Brown “way tougher than an outdoor motocross national.”
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Overall, the first-ever TKO was a huge success, and the buzz has already started about next year’s event
We’re still working on sorting through our large batch of Tennessee Knockout Extreme Enduro photos. In the meantime, here are some photos by Larry Mayo and Amina Moreau that we think you’ll enjoy (click thumbnails for a larger view):
1. Larry Mayo sent us these three photos of TKO winner Mike Brown:
Sequatchie, TN (August 28, 2011) – Tennessee native Mike Brown outlasted a tough field of over fifty riders to win the KENDA Tennessee Knockout, fueled by Monster Energy. The first time “American Extreme Enduro” lived up to its billing as a tough race as Brown noted at the finish that the 40 minute long main event “Was tougher than anything I have ever done. At the halfway mark, I thought I would not be able to finish but I was leading so I kept pushing”.
Cody Webb, the factory Beta rider and 2010 AMA Trials champion that has become a regular podium finisher in EnduroCross events finished second and was within striking distance of Brown on the final lap before stalling his bike. Bobby Prochnau, the super tough Canadian KTM rider finished third.
Taddy Blazusiak, the pre-race favorite was eliminated from the competition during the first Knockout round when a minor crash knocked the fuel injection system loose and forced him to pull out of the event. Blazusiak was a good sport though and stuck around all afternoon to cheer on the other riders.
The four round format started with a single timed lap on a very extreme “short” course that took Cody Webb three minutes and twenty five seconds to complete. Brown was just two seconds behind and GEICO Honda’s Kyle Redmond was another four seconds back. This set the starting order for the 50 riders that would go into Knockout round one with the fastest riders going first and getting the advantage of less dust but also the disadvantage of having to pick the lines for the first time on the ten mile “long” loop.
Brown showed his strength on the long loop with a 39 minute and 7 second time that set the standard. Webb was very close with a 39:25 lap and Prochnau came in with 39:56. Kyle Redmond was fourth at 40:59 and Am-Pro Yamaha’s Jordan Ashburn at 41:41. Paul Whibley was next in line followed by Colton Haaker, Rory Mead, Michael Williams and Dustin Gibson rounded out the top ten riders.
A total of twenty five riders moved forward to Knockout round two, which was a head to head race with five riders each in five groups. The top two riders in each group would move on to the ten rider final. Brown and Whibley qualified from group one. Webb and Haaker qualified out of group two. Prochnau and Mead qualified out of group three. Williams and Redmond qualified out of group four and Ashburn and Palmer qualified out of group five. Husqvarna’s Jamie Lanza and Ryan Sandoval were among the non-qualifiers along with GEICO Honda’s Scott Watkins and Kawasaki rider, Gary Sutherlin.
Brown rocketed to the front of the pack at the start of the ten lap main event while Webb found himself on the ground in the first turn. Prochnau ran second followed by Whibley while Colton Haaker and Rory Mead battled for forth. Webb moved past four other riders on the first lap, which took around four minutes.
Michael Williamson, a relatively unknown Tennessee based rider that turned heads all day with his speed unfortunately crashed after not making it up an extremely difficult alternate line up the side of a cliff and dropped out on the first lap. Brown pulled a few seconds gap and rode conservative lines while several riders battled for second. Webb finally got to second at the halfway point and began to reel Brown in. By then, Haaker had taken a tumble with an aggressive line on a downhill to take him out of contention.
Whibley had a chain derail on his YZ250 2-stroke on lap five and lost a few positions. After nearly 40 minutes of racing, Webb moved to within striking distance of Brown on the final lap but stalled and tipped over to provide the gap that Brown needed to take the victory. Rory Mead had also closed in on Prochnau but slid out in a turn while trying to take the final podium spot. Whibley climbed back up to fifth after battling with an impressive Ashburn. Redmond and Palmer were the final two finishers in seventh and eighth.
PRO CLASS RESULTS: 2011 Kenda Tennessee Knockout, fueled by Monster Energy
1. Mike Brown, KTM, USA
2. Cody Webb, Beta, USA
3. Bobby Prochnau, KTM, Canada
4. Rory Mead, Honda, New Zealand
5. Paul Whibley, Yamaha, New Zealand
6. Jordan Ashburn, Yamaha, USA
7. Kyle Redmond, Honda, USA
8. Wally Palmer, Christini, USA
9. Colton Haaker, KTM, USA
10. Michael Williams, Kawasaki, USA
See this PDF of the final results, including all rounds of the Sunday knockout as well as the Saturday Amateur competition.
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Sequatchie, TN (August 16, 2011) – The GEICO, Honda, JG Offroad team will have five riders taking part in the inaugural Kenda Tennessee Knockout, Fueled by Monster Energy. Kyle Redmond, Scott Watkins, Ryan Rodgers, Matt Crouch and Rory Mead will be flying the team JG Offroad colors. And all of these riders have the credentials to be contenders for podium positions.
Kyle Redmond has had top finishes at extreme events including Erzeberg, EncuroCross and Xtinction.
Scott Watkins has been a consistent front runner in the OMA series and GNCC events.
Ryan Rodgers is a former GNCC A Champion and Amateur EnduroCross champion.
Matt Crouch is a tough young rider from Texas that continues to move up the ranks.
Rory Mead is a New Zealander that surprised a lot of people by running up front at a few GNCC and finished 4th at the extremely tough and prestigious Snowshoe event.
GEICO, Honda, JG Offroad team owner, JT Bennett is enthusiastic about his team’s chances for this first time event that will take place at the Trials Training Center in Sequatchie, Tennessee. “We have a strong group of riders that all have a chance to run up front at this event and I am really excited to do well for KENDA since they are a new team sponsor and the primary backer of this event”. With five strong riders, the numbers are certainly on their side.
The 2011 Kenda Tennessee Knockout event will feature Expert racing on Sunday, August 28th. Amateur riders will get the opportunity to compete on much of the same course on Saturday, August 27th and the top finishers will have the opportunity to advance to the Sunday Expert finals with free entries.
Nathan Glinski rode large portions of the amateur course earlier this week on his Honda CRF230F, with a GoPro video camera attached to his helmet.
We’ve created two videos from his video footage: a 2-minute preview for spectators and an 11-minute preview for riders. Feel free to grab the embed code and post it wherever. You can also view the videos on the TTC Facebook page.
Mike Tosh and Gus Niewenhous at 
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