| September 17, 2024
IRC Beta’s James Flynn took the checkers at the U.S. Hard Enduro (USHE)’s Lightning Strikes Hard Enduro at Lightning Raceway in Tippecanoe, Ohio, September 14-15.
Beta rider James Flynn was the overall winner at the Lightning Strikes Hard Enduro in Ohio.
Matt Musgrove | Photos: Stephanie Vetterly
After success with the inaugural Lightning Strikes Hard Enduro last fall as part of the USHE’s Fall Series, promoter and hard enduro racer Rieju USA’s Quinn Wentzel wanted to come back and one-up himself. He did just that. This year’s event had a few changes, which had a huge impact on the racer experience. Racing was an eight-mile course, with amateurs racing on Saturday and the Pro classes racing the same course with some challenging sections added in on Sunday, allowing for fewer lappers and fewer bottlenecks each day. With a lack of rain in the area leading up to the race weekend, the track was dry and fast, with rocks having ample traction.
After amateur racing was finished, a Pro Prologue was held on a shortened course to determine start order for Sunday’s Pro race. Six laps were on the agenda, with some nice cash prizes for incentive, and riders could be seen flying through the creeks and the endurocross-style track. James Flynn had a solid start, getting in front of the pack and keeping pace just ahead of Logan Bolopue. Flynn was able to set the fastest lap time at 3:30. Rieju USA’s Hayden Mosa rounded out the Prologue podium, with 3 Seas Recreation’s Mark Fortner and Clinton County Motorsports’ Nick Fahringer closing out the top five.
Sherco pilot Logan Bolopue pressured Flynn early on en route to second overall.
The stage was set for Sunday’s Pro race. Eight miles of track were laid out in the Ohio woods with eight additional Pro splits for added difficulty. Flynn was fastest off the start, taking the holeshot with Bolopue hot on his heels. Bolopue would push Flynn all race, getting within seven seconds of the Beta rider in lap three, but Flynn had found the flow and extended his lead throughout the rest of the six laps, finishing a full 10 minutes in front.
“I got the lead at the beginning and just tried to ride my race the whole time,” said Flynn. “After a couple of laps, I started to figure the course out a little bit more. I kept trying to tell myself that I wasn’t tired and to keep going no matter what. A couple of lap riders were in my way, but it gave me an opportunity to scope out new lines, so I was pretty happy about that.”
“The course was dry and dusty but super fun; perfect mixture of fast stuff and hard stuff,” said Bolopue. “We ended up having some lap traffic and had to take some lines we didn’t take on the first lap. I tried something and didn’t make it, so I lost a little bit of time [on Flynn]. Near the last half of the race, I just started to run out of gas [laughs].”
Nick Fahringer completed the Lightning Strikes podium.
Third place was a battle between Nick Fahringer and Hayden Mosa. Mosa found himself behind a lap rider as he set up for a hillclimb; Fahringer took advantage of the situation and pushed past both riders, muscling his way up the hill and ran away with third place.
Mosa got back on pace but, unfortunately for him, he had made some decisions on his tire setup that didn’t quite work in his favor. Shortly after getting passed by Fahringer, Mosa realized the mousse in his rear tire had completely disintegrated. He was able to keep a hold of fourth place to the checkers.
“I’m not much of a morning person, but once we got past noon, I was ready to roll,” joked Fahringer. “I had a midpack start, then worked my way into second. We got to the bottom of a hillclimb section, and I got too deep into a bad line and lost three spots. A good technical section later, I made two passes, then in one of the new Pro hills, I passed Hayden in a bottleneck. I could tell he was not happy, but I made a clean pass and just rolled with it.”
Rounding out the top five was Champion Brick’s Tobin Miller, whose finish was his career-best in the USHE series.
The USHE East Hard Enduro series will continue October 12 with the Mad Moose Hard Enduro in Marquette, Michigan.
OVERALL (Top 10)
- James Flynn (Bet)
- Logan Bolopue (She)
- Nick Fahringer (She)
- Hayden Mosa (Rei)
- Tobin Miller (KTM)
- Maverik Thaxton (KTM)
- Coran Calvert (She)
- Mark Fortner (Bet)
- Leiber Ponce (KTM)
- Ayden Marinchek (KTM)
