Cody Webb stops for a moment on the final obstacle to celebrate his second consecutive Last Dog Standing victory and salute the crowd with a little burnout. Photography by Mark Kariya
While the Fifth Annual Prairie Dogs Motorcycle Club’s Last Dog Standing (LDS) extreme race may have been the most difficult edition yet, Maxxis/FMF/RPM Racing KTM’s Cody Webb shrugged it off and made it look like he was out for a trail ride. Winning both segments, he walked away with $1500, marking his second consecutive triumph in this popular and entertaining one-off event that only four officially finished. FMF KTM Factory Off-road Racing Team’s Taylor Robert was second with SRT KTM’s Cory Graffunder third.
“It wasn’t hugely more difficult, but it was definitely more difficult,” Webb observed. “Last year was definitely a tougher race—I had more battles going on. This time I just got out front and did my thing.”
LDS isn’t just for the pros, as there are classes for most adults. Most who are brave enough to show up have simple goals, like completing the one lap of the first heat (LD 1) in order to advance to the second heat (LD 2), also one lap. Those who are more skilled aim to complete LD 2 quickly enough in order to qualify for the final (LD 3). This year, Michael Allen, Kevin Murphy and Dalton Shirey were the only non-pros to qualify for LD 3, though all DNFed.
For the pros, there’s a prologue to set the starting order, but after that, they line up and are sent off two at a time starting with LD2, which counts as their first heat. LD 3 is a two-lap affair.
Webb dominated all day aboard his Bonanza Plumbing/ MotorcycleSuperstore.com-sponsored 300 XC, making a break early each time and controlling the pace.
In LD 3, prologue winner Robert led Webb into the rock garden but got hung up, which is where Webb got past as well as Beta’s Kyle Redmond, winner of the inaugural LDS in 2011. Redmond continued to run a strong second but DNFed, reportedly due to illness.
That moved Robert to second on his Red Bull 300 XC, but Graffunder lurked just behind.
“Cory was right on me the whole first lap; we were battling back and forth,” Robert said. “He got by me here on the [Tower of Tires] then I passed him on a hill climb over there.
“We came in here on the second lap [and] we were side by side again. I think I was able to hit the tires really clean the second time; his back wheel dropped into a hole so he had a little trouble there.”
He added, “Cody was riding really good! He was on another level than all of us today.” Robert now has a pair of runner-up finishes to go with his wins in 2012 and 2013.
Having finished fourth in LD 2 behind Webb, Robert and Redmond, Graffunder knew he needed to step it up in LD 3: “I knew I was going to have to do something real special to get higher than third.
“During the race, Taylor and Kyle were gone. At one of the checks, they said Kyle was five minutes out and I’m like, ‘No way I’m going to catch up!’
“But then something happened to him and sure enough I ended up catching him and going by; it put me into third.”
Officially, Rockstar Energy Lucas Oil Husqvarna’s Colton Haaker earned fourth with his 5-4 and was the final finisher of LD 3. He noted, “There were a few hills out there and if you didn’t clean them first try, you pretty much got hung up for a long time. I tried this one hill about 10 times my first loop. Taylor was there for a little while because I saw him at the top pushing [his bike], Cory was right there, but Cody, [Mike] Brown and Redmond all made it probably first try.”
But the silver lining in this was that it was his first LDS finish after DNFing last year and 2013.
