2025 US Sprint Enduro: Cody Barnes takes maiden overall at King of the Mountain Sprint Enduro
Round six of the 2025 US Sprint Enduro series in West Virginia saw a 1.5 seconds winning margin for Phoenix Honda Racing’s Cody Barnes ahead of Am Pro Yamaha’s Liam Draper – Barnes claims first career overall.
Over the two days of competition at the King of the Mountain Sprint Enduro in Kingwood, West Virginia Phoenix Honda Racing’s Cody Barnes and Am Pro Yamaha’s Liam Draper couldn’t have been more competitive.
The new venue for the US Sprint series sure looked like a sweet one for enduro...
Barnes came out on top of the opening day’s event, while Draper won day two. After tabulations for the two days of racing were made, Barnes took a 0.592-second victory over Draper on Saturday, while Draper came back and won Sunday’s event by 2.5 seconds over Barnes, which gave Barnes his first-ever Pro 1 Overall Sprint Victory by 1.5 seconds over Draper.
On Saturday, Barnes seemed to have the upper hand in the cross test, winning two of three, in addition to one of the enduro tests. Meanwhile, Draper won two tests, one enduro and one cross.
It was enough to give Barnes his first overall win: “It sucked to lose today (Sunday) by just 0.5 seconds, but I was able to get it done with the overall for the weekend which was the goal,” said Barnes. “It came down to some really close racing and it could have gone either way.
“I had a tip-over in the enduro test and that made me ride pretty timid the next time through. They were not bad crashes, it was of kind of just tuck the front and nothing major. I’m just happy to finally get this one in the bag. It was a close one.”
“That was a good one”
Draper took his runner-up finish in stride, having already racked up three overall wins on the season. “That was a good one, huh?” said Draper. “It was a little muddy yesterday and the cross was quite wet but today it dried out a lot in the woods was good. It chewed out quite a lot and there's a lot of trees where it's getting exposed just because it’s a new property.”
P3 overall and Pro 2 win for Davis
FMF KTM Factory Racing Team Lander’s Grant Davis went into Sunday’s event with a two-second lead over Toby Cleveland after taking day one in Pro 2 class. On Sunday, Davis got on the gas and stretched the advantage to eventually win Pro 2, and finish third overall for the weekend.
“I haven't been happy with my past two sprints,” said Davis. “I got the win the past two races, but I still been a little off. I just needed to work on some stuff and get better for the last one.”
Toby Cleveland (Hsq) was second on day one (behind Grant Davis) in the Pro 2 class and fourth on day two, making it a tight race between the top five.
“I was I was riding good the first day and I didn't hit the ground and they did and that was keeping me right there with Grant, but he ended up getting me by 0.4-second,” said Cleveland. “On day two, I hit the ground in tests three and four and I knew the win was out of reach and then I just stayed off the ground for rest of the day to bring home second in class.”
Rockstar Energy Husqvarna’s Craig DeLong was slightly off his game in the new terrain but still managed to round out the top five overall. “I gotta find a place to pick up some speed,” said DeLong. “There were some blown-out berms out there so I knew some of the guys were getting a little sketchy. I can go fast for three hours; I just got to work on my sprints.”
Cooper Jones went 3-3 on the weekend and claimed the final Pro 2 podium position by 0.8 seconds and sixth overall ahead of Gavin Simon seventh, JoJo Cunningham, Cole Whitmer and Colton Shields rounding out the top 10.
Steede to victory in Women’s Pro Class
Rockstar Energy Husqvarna’s Korie Steede won both days of competition to claim the overall win in the in the Women’s Pro class. Phoenix Honda Racing’s Tayla Jones and Danielle McDonald (Yam), riding in her first-ever sprint race, duked it out over the runner-up slot, with McDonald getting the nod after a very close race between the two Australian riders. Rieju USA’s Rachel Gutish finished fourth.
“The cross test was very fast and super wet in some areas,” said Steede. “It's very difficult to be able to read the track and try to determine where you could really push and where you need to be more lenient with your speed. I had to some good crashes; I was super tight this weekend and everybody was going really fast. We were sending it and beating a lot of the guy’s scores. It was a really good race.”
Owen Daniels was also the top Amateur for the weekend with an overall win in the 250 A class.
Overall results:
The US Sprint Enduro Series closes out it’s 2025 series on June 14-15 in Bristol, Virginia, for the Harleywood Sprint Enduro. The series awards banquet and ride expo will be held at Rogers Farm in Ninety Six, South Carolina, on November 8.
Full results and more information via: www.ussprintenduro.com
Words Credit: Shan Moore
Photo Credit: Art Pepin
