ROUND 6 PRO RACE REPORT
2025 US Sprint Enduro Series
King of the Mountain Sprint Enduro
Round 6
May 10-11, 2025
Kingwood, West Virginia
Story by Shan Moore
Photos by Art Pepin
Phoenix Honda Racing’s Cody Barnes and Am Pro Yamaha’s Liam Draper couldn’t
have been more competitive over the two days of competition at this weekend’s King of
the Mountain Sprint Enduro in Kingwood, West Virginia. 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 2.5-second victory over Draper on Saturday, while
Draper came back and won Sunday’s event by 0.592 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 cross tests, in addition to one of the enduro tests. Meanwhile, Draper won two
tests, one enduro and one cross.
Barnes was obviously ecstatic with 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.”
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.”
FMF KTM Factory Racing Team Lander’s Grant Davis went into Sunday’s even with the
lead, as expected. A two-second lead over Toby Cleveland. On Sunday, Davis got on
the gas and began to stretch his lead, eventually winning the Pro 2 class and finishing
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, but it was still a tight race between the top five.
“I was riding good the first day and I didn’t hit the ground and they had some crashes
and that was keeping me right there with Grant, but he ended up getting me by .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.” Cleveland was fourth overall.
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 went 3-3 on the weekend and claimed the final Pro 2 podium position by 0.8
seconds ahead of Gavin Simon (Hsq) and sixth overall.
Simon finished seventh overall, ahead of Phoenix Honda Racing’s JoJo Cunningham.
Meanwhile, Enduro Engineering GasGas’ Cole Whitmer rounded out the top 10.
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
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 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.”
FMF FASTEST TEST TIME AWARDS:
PRO DIVISION
Cody Barnes (Pro 1), Cross Test
Liam Draper (Pro 1), Enduro Test
AMATEUR DIVISION
Olin Daniels (250 A), FMF Fastest Cross Test & Enduro Test Winner
Olin Daniels was also the top Amateur for the weekend with an overall win in the 250 A
class.
The US Sprint Enduro Series closes out its 2025 series on June 14-15 in Bristol,
Virginia, for the Harleywood Sprint Enduro. The series awards banquet and ride / off-road expo
will be held at Rogers Farm in Ninety Six, South Carolina, on November 8. For more
information check out www.ussprintenduro.com.
OVERALL RESULTS
- Cody Barnes (Hon)
- Liam Draper (Yam)
- Grant Davis (KTM)
- Toby Cleveland (Hsq)
- Craig DeLong (Hsq)
- Cooper Jones (KTM)
- Gavis Simon (Hsq)
- JoJo Cunningham (Hon)
- Cole Whitmer (GG)
COMPLETE RESULTS CAN BE FOUND HERE
LINK TO ART PEPIN PHOTOGRAPHY FOUND HERE
