DIRT NEWS
ROMANIACS MANIA
Red Bull KTM Factory Racing ’ s Manuel
Lettenbichler bounced back from injury to take the Red Bull Romaniacs crown for 2024 . After seizing the lead on Offroad Day 1 , the KTM 300 EXC mounted racer maintained his sizeable advantage for the remainder of the event to take the overall win by over 33 minutes . The victory marks the German ’ s third win of the 2024 Hard Enduro season , after missing round three due to injury . Red Bull Romaniacs is widely regarded as the world ’ s toughest hard enduro rally , and the 2024 edition lived up to that billing . Competitors faced an intense city prologue followed by four gruelling days of offroad racing in the mountains close to the home city of Sibiu , totalling over 23 hours of riding for most and far more for many .
KIWI CONTINGENT Now , before we cover the seemingly unstoppable German ’ s latest victory , it ’ s important to recognise the intrepid Kiwis who made the huge effort of travelling to Romania to tackle the world ’ s toughest enduro rally . Top placing Kiwis were the indomitable Chris Birch who took to the podium of the silver class for the second year in a row after riding to second place , who was closely followed by Ryan Hayward in fourth . In total six Kiwis completed the Silver Class in a tremendous effort . Eight Kiwi riders took to the Bronze Class , with Owen Broughton , Ethan Jameson and Sean Clarke the top placing New Zealanders in 11th , 12th and 13th places respectively . Paeroa ’ s Mark Whyte the class leader of the nine-strong pack of Kiws , with the Beta dealer putting his money where his mouth is by claiming a top five spot in the Iron class with a solid fourth-place finish aboard his Beta RR 300 Racing .
COMING BACK STRONG Kicking off his return to competition with Tuesday ’ s prologue , Lettenbichler made a strong start to the race , but a small mistake on the opening straight left the German playing catchup . In placing third on the tight and technical SuperEnduro-style course , Mani was awarded the unenviable task of leading out the field on Wednesday ’ s Offroad Day 1 .
88 KIWI RIDER