Hard Enduro: It’s become A Big Thing in the past few years, with much credit to Red Bull for that. The energy drink company’s sponsorship has finally allowed events like the Erzbergrodeo and Romaniacs to finally gain a worldwide audience. And now, we have the first-ever FIM Hard Enduro World Championship decided, with UK rider Billy Bolt taking the win for Husqvarna.
It was not an easy task! Husqvarna rider Bolt went into the final event of the season, Germany’s GetzenRodeo, with the lead … and then, in the race, Manuel Lettenbichler pulled into the front of the pack. As the race went on, Bolt dropped further back and Lettenbichler looked like he’d grab enough points to take the championship by winning the last race.
However, Bolt was able to claw his way back into second in the race, and that was good enough to leave him tied with Lettenbichler in the overall points race—and since he won three races this season to Lettenbichler’s two wins, Bolt is the 2021 champion.
Exciting stuff, much better than the decided-long-before-season-end racing that we’ve come to see in the FIM-sanctioned Euro roadracing series. Will the series stay this way? Hard to say; this series is roughly analogous to the Austria-organized WESS offroad series, but it seems the new management has bigger plans. There’s a nine-round series planned for 2022, including the Red Bull Outliers event running in Canada sometime in August. Hopefully, as the FIM grows this series, we’ll continue to see hard-fought and exciting championship chases.
2021 FIM Hard Enduro World Championship (Final Standings)
1. Billy Bolt (Husqvarna) 104pts
2. Manuel Lettenbichler 104pts
3. Wade Young (Sherco) 83pts
4. Mario Roman (Sherco) 76pts
5. Jonny Walker (Beta) 66pts
6. Alfredo Gomez (Husqvarna) 63pts
7. Michael Walkner (GASGAS) 46pts
8. Teodor Kabakchiev (Husqvarna) 36pts
9. Taddy Blazusiak (GASGAS) 29pts
10. Dominik Olszowy (KTM) 24pts
