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.
Photos by Art Pepin
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 of a second over Barnes, which gave Barnes his first-ever Pro 1 overall U.S. Sprint Enduro 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 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 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, it 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 Landers’ Grant Davis went into Sunday’s event with the Pro 2 lead. He had 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’ve won the past two races, but I’ve still been a little off. I just needed to work on some stuff and get better for the last one.”
Toby Cleveland (Husqvarna) was second in the Pro 2 class on day one (behind Grant Davis) 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 0.4 seconds,” 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 the 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.
Cooper went 3-3 on the weekend and claimed the final Pro 2 podium position by eight-tenths of a second ahead of Gavin Simon (Husqvarna) and sixth overall.
Simon finished seventh overall, ahead of Phoenix Honda Racing’s JoJo Cunningham. 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 Women’s Pro class. Phoenix Honda Racing’s Tayla Jones and Danielle McDonald (Yamaha), riding in her first-ever U.S. Sprint Enduro 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 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 fast. We were sending it and beating a lot of the guys’ scores. It was a good race.”
Owen Daniels was also the top Amateur for the weekend with an overall win in the 250 A class.
The U.S. Sprint Enduro series closes out its 2025 series on June 14-15 in Bristol, Virginia, for the Harleywood Sprint Enduro.
2025 U.S. Sprint Enduro Round 6 Results
OVERALL (Top 10)
- Cody Barnes (Hon)
- Liam Draper (Yam)
- Grant Davis (KTM)
- Toby Cleveland (Hus)
- Craig DeLong (Hus)
- Cooper Jones (KTM)
- Gavis Simon (Hus)
- JoJo Cunningham (Hon)
- Cole Whitmer (GG)
- Colton Shields (Hus)
Click here for all the latest Off-Road Racing news.
