Mani Lettenbichler won the 16th annual Red Bull Tennessee Knockout aboard his Red Bull KTM. This marked his fourth TKO win at the Trials Training Center in Sequatchie, Tennessee, and his third consecutive victory. Trystan Hart of FMF KTM finished second, marking his third straight second-place finish at the TKO along with three wins in previous years. Billy Bolt from the UK completed the podium on his Husqvarna.
A total of 535 entries kicked off three days of racing on Friday, with five Youth and PeeWee classes taking on a special course in the morning. That was followed by the Amateur hot laps, which set the starting order for two rounds of Saturday racing. Four rounds of Pro-class racing then began on Saturday afternoon and concluded on Sunday afternoon.
The Pro-class racing started on Saturday afternoon with the hot laps, and Lettenbichler set the fastest time of 6:10.528. Sweden’s Eddie Karlsson was closest with a 6:42.455 lap on his Stark. Hart was third with a 6:44.756 lap, and Bolt was fourth with a 6:56.682. Husqvarna’s Ryder LeBlond finished fifth in 6:56.719. Toby Martyn, Cody Webb, Jonny Walker, Matthew Green and Kawelo Huddy rounded out the top 10, respectively.
The top 66 riders started the first of three Knockout rounds of racing on Sunday morning on the 14-mile “long course,” and the top 30 earned a trip to TKO Knockout race two. Lettenbichler topped the time sheets again with a time of 1:01:24. Hart was just 34 seconds slower, and Karlsson continued to show good form, finishing just 59 seconds behind Lettenbichler. Walker was impressive on his Triumph 450 four-stroke, clocking a time just 1:33 off the top spot and recording the fourth-fastest time. Bolt was 3:23 behind in fifth. South African Matthew Stevens was sixth, followed by Martyn, Webb, Hawaii’s Kamakana Waiwaiole-Kahalepuna and fellow Hawaiian Kawelo Huddy, who rounded out the top 10.
The next round used a different format: a total of 31 riders (the top 30 plus one rider who earned a spot via an LCQ Straight Rhythm Duel win) are split into four groups of six and one group of seven, which includes the LCQ winner. They ride another lap on the long course with additional hard sections. Only the top four riders in each group qualify for the main event. Lettenbichler won group one, followed by Stevens, Beta-IRC’s Branden Petrie and James Flynn. Hart won group two, followed by Martyn, Braxton Hintze and Riley Bender. Karlsson won group three, followed by Webb, Ryder Guest and Green. Waiwaiole-Kahalepuna won group four, followed by LeBlond, Walker and Makana Barger, who qualified via Saturday’s Amateur racing. Bolt won group five, ahead of Huddy, Niko Piazza and Coran Calvert.
The top 20 riders advanced to the main event on the short course for a multi-lap race of 45 minutes plus one lap. Hart launched into the lead at the start and led the riders into the rocky creek bed, but Lettenbichler quickly took over the top spot, leading into the Red Bull Ravine, which featured a new obstacle called Bad Behavior, followed by a technical downhill, massive boulder sections, and three technical hillclimbs.
Lettenbichler led every lap and finished with a total time of 59:55.957. The battle for second was intense, with Karlsson pressuring Hart early before a chain derailment dropped him outside the top five. Hart took a tumble that let Lettenbichler open a gap, and a crash in Bad Behavior later cost Hart the position to Bolt. Hart fought his way back to second, but Bolt kept the pressure on to the finish. Hart finished nearly three minutes behind Lettenbichler and just six seconds ahead of Bolt, who rounded out the podium.
Karlsson fought back from his derailed chain to take fourth, just over four minutes behind Bolt. Walker crashed on the first straight but managed to work his way back up to fourth before a minor crash on the last lap dropped him back to fifth.
Webb finished sixth on his Yamaha. He held fourth early in the race before Karlsson and Walker passed him. Martyn, the former British and U.S. Trials Champion, finished seventh on a Stark. Nineteen-year-old Stevens finished eighth on a KTM. LeBlond finished ninth on his Husqvarna, and Huddy rounded out the top 10 on a KTM.
Lettenbichler was happy to take his fourth TKO win in tough conditions. “It was a pretty good day, honestly,” he said. “I am quite stoked with my riding. I didn’t push it really hard. I rode to be smooth and not push it and make mistakes. I couldn’t believe I pulled such a gap on the guys. It is pretty damn hard out there.”
Hart seemed satisfied with his ride despite a third consecutive second-place finish. “It is such a tough day here,” he said. “Three hours of racing in this heat is just crazy. I was kind of with Mani for a bit and then I smoked a tree and went over the bars, and that kind of took the wind out of my sails, and then I had a huge mistake in the rocks. I had to drag my bike out of a hole, and that put me into the red zone. So, I pretty much chilled to the finish.”
Bolt took another third-place TKO finish. “Bit of a blitz, this race is brutal,” he said. “You could definitely feel the extra 10 minutes in the main event. I made hard work of it; I crashed in the first corner. I wasn’t at my best today. I don’t think I was the third fastest, but I knew if I could hang in there and be in the front after the first couple of laps, I could survive. I was riding in a nice comfortable third, and then Trystan made a mistake and put me back into a battle and had to dig deep and use some reserves to try to get him.”
The Women’s Pro class competed along with the top Amateurs on Saturday with two rounds of racing. Rachel Gutish took the win on her Rieju and finished 27th overall. Katie Hall-Leah finished second riding a TM. Nikki Russell rounded out the podium on a GasGas.
TKO includes numerous skill and age-based Amateur categories. There were two main Amateur rounds on Saturday and Hawaii’s Boogie Rivera was the overall winner in both, riding a Bullet Proof Designs-backed KTM. Fellow Hawaiian Makana Barger finished second in both races on a KTM and Ayden Marinchek rounded out the top three riding a KTM. All three of those riders were competing in the A class.
On Sunday, Barger made it all the way to the 20-rider main event and finished 18th. The top 30 riders also earned the opportunity to compete alongside the 33 Pro riders, with racing kicking off Saturday afternoon, followed by three rounds on Sunday.
Other Saturday class winners among nearly 500 Amateur participants included Robert Cornwell in A Vet 30+, Drew Kirby in A Senior 40+, Shawn Tescher in A Super Senior 50+, Karsen Fulton in Amateur B, Adam McCluskey in 4-Stroke Sportsman, Phillip Arnold in Schoolboy B 12-17, Benson Hickman in Youth SM-BW 12-15 and Alexis Burback in Women’s Amateur.
In the eMoto Sportsman class, Australian Adam Giles took the win riding an RFN with a total time of 1:17:00. Brett Baldwin finished just six seconds behind riding a Bonell, and Isaac Johnston rounded out the podium on a Zero, just over two minutes behind.CN
2026 Red Bull Tennessee Knockout Results
OVERALL (Top 10)
- Manuel Lettenbichler (KTM)
- Trystan Hart (KTM)
- Billy Bolt (Hus)
- Eddie Karlsson (Sta)
- Jonny Walker (Tri)
- Cody Webb (Yam)
- Toby Martyn (Sta)
- Matthew Stevens (KTM)
- Ryder LeBlond (Hus)
- Kawelo Huddy (KTM)
