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Watching Coldenhoff for the first hour was a thing of beauty, you could see how gutted he was to finish second. Well done to Billy Bolt and Nathan Watson.
I no longer regret my username.
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Gotta wonder who gives a f*** about the results of that world circus championship with 7 guys doing all the races, all racing for the same brand...
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I was a great race, and i like the concept of the WESS , but not the support it has.
Stupid track that ended up with loads of course cutting,, a beach race doesnt need logs, there have been enough of them in all the other races. If it isnt on the beach before you get there, dont put it in the track.
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Location: State College, PA USA
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Edited Date/Time:
This is year 1, and there are many good points that WESS has brought to the table. I am interested to see what's next.
* There is NO greedy FIM, Series Organizer, WADA involved, I'm glad to see a pirate series lead the way.
* HUGE Amateur entries and HUGE crowds at the events and HUGE online marketing presence and production
* a MAJOR sponsor, Red Bull is willing to get involved under the right circumstances
* MAJOR support from the biggest, wealthiest off road team with the biggest pedigree
* a MAJOR amount spent on creative track designs
* ALL disciplines of riders brought to one series, and some from each able to win rounds
* You actually get to SEE the racing, cameras everywhere, helicopters and drones too
* ALL manufacturers welcome on ALL types of bikes
* ONE class for Pro's
This is good for the sport and I expect it to grow by leaps and bounds. This may be the beginning of the future.
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Location: SWE
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Location: Virginia Beach, VA USA
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Love WESS
I hope to see a US round soon, maybe a return of Last Man Standing? Maybe a round of the Sprint Enduro series could be part of it? TKO?
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Location: BEL
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Location: Davis, CA USA
GODZILLA wrote:Gotta wonder who gives a f*** about the results of that world circus championship with 7 guys doing all the races, all racing ...more
navalseabee wrote:Wow, clueless...
This is why an IQ test should be a prerequisite to joining.
Make Hillclimb Great Again
Ratbeach Racing
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Location: GBR
With a name like Billy Bolt how could he lose. Before he's thrown a leg over the bike he already sounds as fast as fuck. These guys are amazing riders. How come Jarvis wasn't in contention for this?
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I'm not sure the Extreme specialist like Jarvis even lined up today? I think it's really cool that on a given day on different surfaces, a guy that is a God on a dirt bike can finish out of the top 100, and somebody finished 750th.
Everybody did not get a trophy, and the one that Billy got for the title looks like shit. I guess the KTM car made up for it..
https://dirtbikemagazine.com/2018-red-bull-knock-out-results-watson-wins-and-bolt-crowned-wess-champion
https://www.enduro21.com/index.php/40-general/3723-results-feed-red-bull-knock-out-2018-bolt-crowned-wess-champion
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Your Winner today!
Nathan Watson
http://gatedrop.com/results-2018-red-bull-knock-out-watson-wins/
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Edited Date/Time:
Not sure but 1000 entries and fans nut to butt on the beach as spectators tells a lot of fucks are given.
GP740
Since 1987
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Location: State College, PA USA
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I guess I'm not in sync with a fair few people in my not being overly enthusiastic about this 'series'. But, I have watched / followed nearly every event.
The individual events themselves, for the most part, I've followed for years with much enthusiasm. So, don't, for a moment, think I'm not a fan of most of the events - and, more importantly, the riders.
It's a series largely made up of long (some very very long) standing, stand alone events, with, generally, increasingly, the common factor of Red Bull being the major/ name sponsor of the events.
Most of the events didn't need any sort of 'series' to keep growing / being incredibly popular among riders, teams and spectators.
So, Red Bull, with their manufacture partner - KTM / KTHusky - have set up a 'series'. Basically, their 'own' series.
A 'Red Bull Media House' series.
Red Bull / Red Bull Media House is an absolute juggernaut of publicity. The money they have, is enormous. Their Media power is Stupendous. The amount of money they put into Motorcycle Sports / their backing of KTM, for how Huge it is, is but small change (for them) compared to their F1 and other Promotional efforts.
Red Bull has quite a few 'naming rights' series World wide, such as various Rookies Cups etc, but Monster really seems to have a death grip / ownership on the Biggest series there are. So Red Bull trying to fight back, I'd say
It may also be a protest (manufacturers) against how some things are done in EWC. It's got a bit weird in Blanchards(???) series, over the last few years. But, they have seemed to start to wake up to themselves - perhaps not a small part of it is due to the threat of the WESS.
EWC has become somewhat 'exclusive', but, it is the World Championships. But, for the individual event organizers, they - ABC- need to open it up a bit more for the Organizers financial health - or at least get / give the clubs that run them a decent financial return.
There is the European Enduro Championships (which is great) and any number of National series, Regional series, all the way through to local series that thousands upon thousands of Off Road / Enduro enthusiasts participate in. All around the World.
If the WESS is to be a genuine series, it needs to be less of a mishmash of types of events, I feel. Just the Extreme Events, I reckon.
Pretty much the 'other' style of events they had this year, already have series they belong in, other than the Extreme events.
And, as I wrote, and quite a few others have written in the last few years, they, the Extreme races, as individual
events, have been doing very well for many years, as 'events' in and of themselves. Red Bull is just snaffling them up.
As for the rider attendance - well, there is a lot (well, bloody massive) of amateur rider participation in the WESS / Red Bull events. Good on it / them. It's a hell of a money maker for the (original events) organizers - more power to them.
The recent issue 43 - October 30th Cycle News has an article about EWC / WESS. Check it out, if you haven't already seen it.
Finally, Congrats to Billy Bolt. That car is worth ( or sells for) a fair bit. Sell it (or keep it) and put the money into a bank, or some investment.
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Location: Park City, UT USA
Prediction: The WESS series will be a huge catalyst for KTM, Beta, and Sherco to grow their sales by 3-5x in the next few years, particularly Beta and Sherco as they seem to have the funding and resources to grow by leaps.
The reach the series captured in its first year is impressive. The huge numbers of spectators, participants, and YouTube audience is going to drive bike sales esspecially in Europe. The Enduro disipline is much less intimidating than Moto and regular Joe's will be drawn to the appeal of what what the series represents.
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Joined: 4/1/2008
Location: MX Town, ZAF
Never heard of this WESS serie before even though I did race the Knock Out last year.
But seeing the winner getting a KTM Crossbow worth more than 100.000 dollar makes interesting for more riders I guess.
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Location: NLD
CalimeroFan wrote:Never heard of this WESS serie before even though I did race the Knock Out last year.
But seeing the winner getting a KTM ...more
Last Year?
I think you mean 2016, it's organized every other year, next time 2020.
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Location: GBR
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Location: State College, PA USA
It’s life. Red Bull has the money to pour into these events. It’s only common sense to understand they’re going to promote their product/riders/teams whilst doing so. I for one am happy they’re promoting a new series that looks to be very popular after a short amount of time. If they’re willing to put the money into it, why shouldn’t they capitalize off of the most popular off-road events of the year?
I hope they add the Tennessee Knockout next year so I can compete in a WESS event.
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Location: MX Town, ZAF
CalimeroFan wrote:Never heard of this WESS serie before even though I did race the Knock Out last year.
But seeing the winner getting a KTM ...more
Well we are both wrong. I raced last TIME, in 2016. Before that is was 2015, then I was injured. Before that it was 8 years ago, 3 years in a row. I raced them all three. So not every other year but whenever Red Bull feels like :-)
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Location: San Clemente, CA USA
When our countryman Haaker was involved in the beginning, I was genuinely excited with all the heavy hitters involved. I think the races are so vastly different, an overall champion is an cool concept
"A link is only as long as your longest strong chain"
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Location: MS, USA
Any manufacturer can enter. They can hire good riders and put them on their bikes and contend for the title. In fact Wade Young on a Sherco looked like he was going to win it at one point. The coverage on Red Bull TV is the best in motorcycle racing.
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Location: Yellow Pine, ID USA
Wow, that is bad ass.
As far as WESS in general:
I expect more manufacturers to try to have a legit WESS contender in the future, how can they ignore it? The YouTube views (this matters) and the press it's getting are simply too big of numbers to ignore. It has bar none the best video coverage of any "Off Road Series" in the world, other series aren't even close really...
Yamaha has a perfect suite of bikes for someone to put together a championship run on and I expect them to try to start hiring someone to do it. I'd love to see them cut a big check to Manny Lettenbichler, he's the future of this I think, those Red Bull logos would look great on a blue bike!
Say what you want about it catering to the Extreme Guys, but Nathan Watson ended the series in 3rd and now that he's got a year of the extreme races under his belt, I don't see why he can't up his game enough to contend for the title next year. Same for Josep Garcia. These guys will have an easier time gaining the skills to have decent finishes in the extreme events than the extreme guys will finding the speed to beat them in the more 'traditional' events.
Congrats to Billy Bolt, the dude is a straight up STUD.
Taylor Robert needs a shot at this, he'd be the USA best shot at a title right now I believe. He's got enough technical skill and experience to make it through the Extreme rounds and more than enough speed to be a contender at the other events.
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Location: Salt Lake City, UT USA
I love it. Each event is covered really well and easily accessible to watch online with great coverage. I can't get enough of Erzberg.
Get more rounds and more guys participating and it will be even better. I watched this a lot more attentively than I did any super cross this year.
I assume if you ride off-road you might appreciate it more...the skills these guys have and tough to gauge as they all make it look easy....sometimes.
And I don't care if they are all riding the same brand (roughly). That's not their fault that the Japanese OEMs haven't figured out how to justify bringing 2-strokes back. And don't forget about Mario and Wade Young on Sherco. Now we need Gas Gas (Damon effing Bradshaw) and Beta to get going on it.
