Rockstar Energy Husqvarna Factory Racing’s Colton Haaker scored solid points at Round 3 of the AMA U.S. Hard Enduro Series, earning a season-best finish of second overall at the Iowan Hard Enduro in Spragueville, Iowa. Husqvarna Motorcycles-mounted Ryder Leblond finished just behind Haaker in third overall.
The start of the U.S. Hard Enduro season has been a progression for Haaker, who missed the opening round due to illness and fought through some bad luck to finish just outside the top-five at the previous round. Bouncing back to his competitive form, Haaker grabbed a second-place start position with a solid run in Saturday’s Hot Lap and he set himself up for a favorable start heading into Sunday’s four-hour battle.
At the start of the race, Haaker unfortunately found himself on the ground on the opening lap and he was forced to play catchup right away. Putting his head down, he chipped away at the leader’s gap in the first couple of laps but another bigger crash set him back even more early on. He rode a smooth and steady race as the only other rider besides the race leader to complete 15 laps on the day. After more than four hours of brutal racing, Haaker came through for his best finish of the season in second.
“It was a brutal but good race with lots of tricky sections and jagged rocks,” Haaker said. “I had a not-so-great start with some first lap crashes that set me back playing catch up and then I had another out-of-the-blue crash that kind of knocked the wind out of my sails. After that, I really just managed the race as best I could to not have any more crashes or risk injury to myself or the bike. A bit of settling, which is not what I wanted, but we got points on the board and we learned stuff to take into next race.”
Round 4: May 28-29 – Little Hocking, Ohio
Overall Pro Results – Iowan Hard Enduro
1. Trystan Hart (KTM)
2. Colton Haaker – Rockstar Energy Husqvarna Factory Racing
3. Ryder Leblond (HQV)
