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Walker Wins Las Vegas EnduroCross Opener at the White Flag

Jonny Walker and Ryder LeBlond left the Orleans Arena tied on six points, and Walker's pass at the tire-covered finish jump in the last moto decided it. Cooper Abbott was third; Trystan Hart's post-race DSQ dropped him to seventh.

Maya TorresOct 6, 2026 · 6 min read
Cooper Abbott (12), Jonny Walker (1), Trystan Hart (84) and Cody Webb (2) lead EX Pro through the opening turn at the 2026 Las Vegas EnduroCross opener, Orleans Arena. - Credit: Jack Jaxson / EnduroCross

Six points apiece, and the whole night came down to one jump. Jonny Walker won Round 1 of the 2026 AMA EnduroCross Championship at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas on Saturday, October 3, but only because he got past Ryder LeBlond over the tire-covered finish jump just as the white flag came out in the final moto.

Walker, the defending champion on the Triumph, went 1-4-1. LeBlond went 3-1-2. That's six points each, and with the final moto as the tiebreaker, that late pass was worth the overall. Cooper Abbott completed the podium with 5-2-3 for 10 points, per the official EnduroCross race report. It was also EnduroCross's first night back at the Orleans Arena in nine years, and Vegas got its money's worth.

How the finale set up

Walker opened the night the way champions are supposed to. In the 10-lap first moto, Abbott grabbed the first turn, but Walker got by as the field hit the rocks and led every lap from there. Trystan Hart worked into second by Lap 3 and cut the gap to 3.715 seconds with two laps left before Walker pulled away again to win by 5.798 seconds. LeBlond climbed from fifth to third, with Cody Webb fourth and Abbott fifth.

Moto 2 flipped the script. Blake Neville led out of the first turn, Abbott took over before the end of the opening lap, and LeBlond hunted him down, moving into second by Lap 3 and taking the lead on Lap 5. He won the eight-lap race by 4.630 seconds. Abbott held second, 1.787 seconds clear of Hart in third.

Walker's Moto 2 was a salvage job. He was 10th after the first lap and still ninth after three, then picked his way forward through the second half to finish fourth, with Nick Thompson less than a second behind him. Webb's night took a bigger hit: a 12th in that moto that he'd spend the rest of the evening paying for.

So the math going into the decider was tight. LeBlond had 4 points. Walker and Hart had 5 each. Abbott sat on 7, still very much in the podium fight. One moto, four riders, no room for a bad start.

The white-flag pass

Abbott jumped out front again in Moto 3, followed by LeBlond, Webb and Colton Haaker. Walker was fifth through the first two laps, and Hart's night came apart early. He got caught up in the crowded opening sequence around the rocks, dropped to the back, and was still 16th after two laps.

Walker moved to fourth on Lap 3 and third on Lap 4. Up front, LeBlond was glued to Abbott's rear wheel by the end of Lap 5 and took the lead on Lap 6, with Walker following him into second. LeBlond led through Lap 8, but he never shook Walker. With other riders around them in the log straight, Walker closed up, drew alongside, and went by over the tire-covered finish jump as the white flag waved.

Here's how close it was: 0.316 seconds between them going into the last lap. Walker stretched that to 1.546 seconds at the checkers for his second moto win of the night and the overall. LeBlond won a moto, never finished worse than third, and still went home second on a tiebreaker. Abbott held third in the moto and on the box, after leading early laps in both the second and third motos. Webb was fourth and Haaker fifth.

Hart's DSQ, and why some results still show him fourth

Hart did ride back from 16th to cross the line eighth in Moto 3. The series later disqualified him for on-track assistance prohibited under AMA rules, which put him 16th in that moto and seventh overall on 2-3-16 for 21 points. The release doesn't go further than that in describing what the assistance was. Riders who finished behind him in the final moto each moved up a spot.

If you saw an early results list with Hart fourth overall on 2-3-8, that's the pre-penalty finish. Dirt Bike Magazine's Round 1 results still show it that way. The official EnduroCross release, also carried by Racer X, has the DSQ applied, and that's the classification we're using. For scale, an eighth would have given Hart 13 points and fourth overall. Instead he's seventh, 15 points off what Walker and LeBlond scored on the night.

It's a rough opener for a rider who came into the fall on a hard-enduro high. Hart clinched the AMA Hard Enduro title at Hollow Point, where Webb and LeBlond filled out the podium behind him, and he was second to Manuel Lettenbichler at the Red Bull Tennessee Knockout.

Tiebreakers all the way down

The close finishes didn't stop at the front. Webb, Haaker and Thompson all finished on 20 points, and final-moto results sorted them fourth, fifth and sixth. Further down, Branden Petrie and Tim Apolle tied on 25, with Petrie taking eighth.

Official EX Pro overall top ten:

  1. Jonny Walker - 1-4-1 (6 points)
  2. Ryder LeBlond - 3-1-2 (6)
  3. Cooper Abbott - 5-2-3 (10)
  4. Cody Webb - 4-12-4 (20)
  5. Colton Haaker - 8-7-5 (20)
  6. Nick Thompson - 9-5-6 (20)
  7. Trystan Hart - 2-3-16, DSQ in Moto 3 (21)
  8. Branden Petrie - 10-8-7 (25)
  9. Tim Apolle - 6-11-8 (25)
  10. Braxton Hintze - 7-10-9 (26)

Results from the official EnduroCross release.

The rest of the night

Shelby Turner led every lap of the six-lap Pro Women final, but Rachel Gutish kept her honest, closing to 2.596 seconds going into the last lap. Turner answered with her fastest lap of the race, a 59.870, and won by 12.655 seconds. Gutish, who won Women's Pro at the TKO in August, was second, with Chantelle Bykerk third.

In Expert, Niko Piazza sat second behind Nick Thompson for six laps, then got by on the final lap to win by 3.648 seconds. Cole Clarkson led every lap of the Intermediate final, Johnny Hagan won Novice, Kael Widdicombe took the Junior overall with 1-2 scores, Bobby Prochnau won Veteran, and Ray Amos won Club.

What's next

The series takes a week off, then gets busy. Six rounds total, per the official 2026 schedule (full calendar on our EnduroCross hub):

  • Round 2 - Saturday, Oct 17 - Ford Idaho Center, Nampa, Idaho
  • Round 3 - Oct 24 - Angel of the Winds Arena, Everett, Washington
  • Round 4 - Nov 7 - Maverik Center, Salt Lake City, Utah
  • Rounds 5 and 6 - Nov 13-14 - Mountain America Center, Idaho Falls, Idaho (doubleheader finale)

Walker leaves Vegas with the win, but not much else to feel comfortable about. LeBlond beat him straight up in Moto 2 and had him covered for most of Moto 3, Abbott led laps in two motos, and a 10th-place opening lap like Walker's in Moto 2 is the kind of thing that won't always get bailed out by a last-lap pass. With five rounds packed into the next six weeks, Nampa is where we find out whether Vegas was a one-off or the shape of the season.

Further reading

Results

AMA EnduroCross Championship · Round 1 - Orleans Arena, Las Vegas, NV (Oct 3, 2026)

EX Pro Overall

  1. 1

    Jonny Walker

    Triumph

    1-4-1 / 6 pts
  2. 2

    Ryder LeBlond

    3-1-2 / 6 pts
  3. 3

    Cooper Abbott

    5-2-3 / 10 pts

Sources

FAQ

Who won the 2026 Las Vegas EnduroCross opener?
Jonny Walker (Triumph) won EX Pro overall with moto scores 1-4-1 and six points, beating Ryder LeBlond on the final-moto tiebreaker after both finished on six points.
How close was Walker vs LeBlond in Moto 3?
Walker passed LeBlond at the tire-covered finish jump as the white flag came out. The gap was 0.316 seconds into the last lap and 1.546 seconds at the checkers, per the official EnduroCross release.
Why is Trystan Hart seventh overall instead of fourth?
Hart crossed the line eighth in Moto 3 but was disqualified after the race for on-track assistance prohibited under AMA rules. That placed him 16th in Moto 3 and seventh overall on 2-3-16. Some early results lists still show the pre-penalty 2-3-8 and fourth overall.
When is the next EnduroCross round?
Round 2 is October 17, 2026 at the Ford Idaho Center in Nampa, Idaho, followed by Everett (Oct 24), Salt Lake City (Nov 7), and an Idaho Falls doubleheader (Nov 13-14).

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