In his second time competing in the AMA Extreme Off-Road Grand Championship at the Kenda AMA Tennessee Knockout, Manny Lettenbichler was the class of the field.

The German rider had a dominating performance Aug. 18 at the Trials Training Center in Sequatchie, Tenn., to claim his first AMA Extreme Off-Road National Championship title.

After winning the day’s first Knockout competition and finishing runner-up in the second, Lettenbichler stormed to a victory in the Final Knockout. He grabbed the holeshot and lapped up to fourth place in the 30-minutes-plus-one-lap contest.

All three days of the event featured hot, humid and dusty conditions. Most of the eight previous editions of the Tennessee Knockout event have featured at least one day of wet conditions, which makes the course much harder to ride.

“I would have preferred to be a little more wet just to make it harder and cut down on the number of laps in the final,” Lettenbichler said.

His first time competing at the TKO was 2018, when he finished second overall to six-time champion Cody Webb. Webb did not participate in the 2019 TKO due to an injury.

Letterbichler said he started riding trials when he was 8 and didn’t ride anything but trials until he was 16.

“My dad got me into the enduro sports,” he said. “I’m pretty happy where I am now. It was never a big dream of mine to become a professional rider.”

Lettenbichler competes full-time in the World Enduro Super Series in Europe.

“I’m leading that championship at the moment after winning the Red Bull Romaniacs Hard Enduro,” he said.

He’s also hoping he’ll be able to return to the Tennessee Knockout in 2020 and defend his title.