SEQUATCHIE, Tenn. – Katie “Goon” Carder and Jackie “Mayhem” Townsend were standing in the woods on Saturday afternoon debating the virtues of two-stroke bike engines when a dirt bike sped by and sprayed them with fragments of the forest floor torn up by its back wheel.
The pair cheered, as did the dozens of other dirt bike enthusiasts scattered around the hairpin turn known as “Up Hill Swamp,” one of six skill areas tackled by bikers in the Kenda Tennessee Knockout Extreme Enduro Race.
“I love the smell of the dirt. The smell of the gas. Everything,” Townsend said with an enormous grin plastered across her face.
For bikers like Townsend and Carder, the TKO race – in its seventh year – is one of the most entertaining events of the year, partly because of how brutal it is for the racers.
The two-day challenge has brought more than 200 bikers from around the world and recently was listed on DirtBikes.com as one of the 10 most extreme enduro challenges in the world – the only American race to make the cut.