Keith Curtis showed his dominance in the mountains at the Silver Kings Hard Enduro, which debuted this past weekend at the Silver Mountain Ski Resort in Kellogg, Idaho, June 18-19. This was the sixth round of the AMA IRC U.S. Hard Enduro Series, presented by Inside Enduro, and the final round of the AMA West Region Extreme Off-Road Championship. The hard enduro world might have been focused on the return of the Red Bull Erzbergrodeo, but nearly 400 racers crawled their way through this steep mountain terrain at one of the biggest hard enduro races in North America.
Story and Photos by Matt Musgrove
James Stearns and the Inside Enduro crew took on this extreme event that has been running at Silver Mountain since 2016, putting in hundreds of man hours cutting new trails and constructing an endurocross-style course on top of the mountain. This race consisted of Bronze, Silver and Gold courses, all of which had varying levels of difficulty. Rain throughout the weekend made the Silver Kings course even more slick and the melting snow on the mountain resulted high levels of runoff in the creek sections.
The field shifted this weekend since several top-10 USHE contenders were at Erzberg, including current points leader and AMA West Regional Champion Trystan Hart, Ryder LeBlond, Branden Petrie and Quinn Wentzel. FactoryONE Sherco’s Keith Curtis, a seven-time Snowmobile Hillclimb World Champion, and Rockstar Husqvarna’s Colton Haaker stayed to fight for the $20,000 purse.
The first day consisted of two Prologues for the pro and amateur classes on their selected courses. Curtis ended up winning both Prologues, with Haaker, Beta USA’s Tim Apolle and Beta’s David Garza swapping podium positions on Saturday. The second day was a one-race/one-lap format, with the courses winding around the mountain for about 10-15 miles. Curtis pulled ahead and had a good lead on Haaker, but Haaker pushed hard and shrunk that lead. Curtis finished first in under three hours, with Haaker less than a minute behind him.
“Silver Kings made for an incredible time racing big mountain terrain on Silver Mountain,” said winner Keith Curtis who rode a Sherco SE 300 two-stroke. “The course was super technical, especially at the beginning. I was battling with a group early on in the big hillclimbs. We had to side-hill at times. The scree fields seemed endless and would take everything you had. After checkpoint one, Colton and I began to pull a gap on the field. I know how good of a rider he is, so I just had to keep plugging away as mistake-free as possible. I was stoked to pull it together for the big win!”
Apolle finished third for his first USHE podium of the year, followed by Garza and Danny Lewis.
In the Pro Women’s class, Beta USA’s Morgan Tanke pushed through some very tough sections and finished first in her class, followed by Kalyn Benaroya. Tanke’s win clinched the AMA West Regional Extreme Off-Road Championship title in the Pro Women’s class.
2022 Silver Kings Hard Enduro Results
- Keith Curtis (She)
- Colton Haaker (Hus)
- Tim Apolle (Bet)
- David Garza (Bet)
- Daniel Lewis (Hus)
- Cooper Abbott (She)
- Cory Graffunder (Hus)
- Gary Ausman (KTM)
- Kyle Tapio (Hus)
- James Flynn (GG)
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