A week before the Red Bull TKO Straight Rhythm Enduro was set to hit Broadway Street in Nashville, Tenn., Rachel Gutish was on her dirt bike, hopping concrete barriers in the trainyard behind her old high school in Terre Haute, Indiana.
Though Gutish and her family own 40 acres in Indiana, there’s not a single concrete barrier to be found on the property — or a straight rhythm track for that matter.
But when she received a text from AMA Women’s Extreme Champion Louise Forsley inviting her to Nashville for the Hard Enduro competition, Gutish swung into action.
“Well, of course I’m in, who wouldn’t be in for that?” Gutish said.
The one-off race on Lower Broadway was set as a prologue to the Aug. 12-14 Red Bull Tennessee Knockout (TKO) — a grueling, off-road endurance race that Gutish has won six times.
However, it’s been nearly four years since Gutish raced enduro full time. Having a chance to race the prologue event was a well-needed opportunity to revisit her old passion.
A few years ago, a slew of injuries and limited contract opportunities shifted her career focus to the Grand National Cross Country (GNCC) series, where Gutish has been riding for the Beta USA Factory Team since 2018. The 26-year-old now rides for GasGas/Bonanza Plumbing Racing.
She uses about 30 wooded-acres of her family’s property as her practice loops for GNCC, but a few days after the text from Forsley, Gutish and her dad, Andy, went to work with a rented skid steer to build a straight rhythm track.
“I was a little nervous coming in, because the track map featured like three K-rails,” Gutish said.
Though K-rails — or Jersey barriers — are common obstacles to find at a Hard Enduro track, at around 2,000 pounds apiece, it’s not an easy item to borrow for a few days.
Gutish’s solution: Drive around Terre Haute with her dirt bike until she found one.
With only a few days to go before the TKO Prologue, Gutish spent a day in the trainyard riding over the barriers and dedicated the rest of the week to putting in laps on the track.
By Thursday, she was on her way to Nashville with her 350S loaded in the back of her van.
“We get to the venue and I can’t decide if I’m excited or not, because there’s not a K-rail to be found,” Gutish said with a laugh. There wasn’t much time to dwell on the re-arranged track before Gutish was preparing for day practice alongside her competitors — Forsley and Morgan Tanke.
It was an uphill battle for Gutish, who struggled with the 180-degree turn at the midway point of the course.
Typically, there’s a rock garden or tire bed close enough for Gutish to set her foot on for extra height through the drastic turn. But on Broadway Street, there was nothing but asphalt and an eight- by 10-foot space to turn the bike around in.
“You would just have to lean the bike over as far as possible and give it gas,” Gutish said. The ensuing issue was that her four-stroke engine, combined with the soft tires that most Hard Enduro obstacles demand, were working against her.
Her front tire would stick to the ground, costing her precious time on the 45-second track.
Forsley and Tanke were both competing on two strokes, which were roughly 30 pounds lighter and had a shorter wheel base that was easier to maneuver in the narrow space. As a result, Gutish was third after daytime practice and was looking at a similar result in the night show if she couldn’t dial in the turn.
“One of the track builders went and found my mom and said, ‘This might sound nuts, but I have an idea,’” Gutish said. “‘Since the race is in a straight line, why don’t you cut off all the knobbies on the left side of the tires?’”
Her initial reaction: No way. But then, she said, “I sat down and thought about it and realized that there was no reason I needed them on the straight course.”
It was worth a shot.
So, her dad removed the knobs and after 15 practice spins in a semi-abandoned parking lot in downtown Nashville, Gutish was confident with the change.
“Unorthodox as it was, it worked,” Gutish said.
Her first draw in the bracket-style night qualifying was Tanke. After three back-to-back qualifiers against Tanke and two with Forsley, Gutish clinched the second spot in the finale by one-tenth of a second over Tanke. While Gutish recuperated from the hard runs and the men’s TKO division rode qualifying sessions, Forsley was sizing up the track for the showdown.
“It was kind of tricky, we were on pavement,” Forsley said. “Everything that we were hitting was at such a 90-degree angle that it beat your body up pretty quickly.”
Trying to hit each obstacle with speed, but also having to jump straight from asphalt to obstacle, was taxing. Not to mention the added pressure to perform in front of the thousands of people lining the course on Lower Broadway.
“Once I got there, I realized how big this event was. The atmosphere was absolutely wild and intense and so cool. I was really just trying to control my nerves the entire day and evening,” Forsley said.
As it came time for the final race, Gutish and Forsley lined up side by side.
With her heart rate spiking to 189 beats per minute on top of the 12-foot starting platform, Gutish grabbed a fistful of throttle and launched onto the asphalt with Forsley close behind. The two traded the lead over the tire jump, through the logs and around the 180-degree turn at the midway point of the course.
“We knew we were having such an epic battle and a great race,” Forsley said.
The result was nearly a photo finish, and with both competitors under the impression that Forsley had won, they were signaled to the starting line again to race for “best of three.”
Another twist of the throttle and the two were off, racing down the city blocks.
“I made a mistake and she pulled ahead,” Gutish said. “I gave the 350 everything it had down that final straight. I was going so fast, I was scared to brake.”
Crossing the finish line, it was evident Gutish had taken the win. Still, she and Forsley lugged their bikes toward the start once more, expecting there to be one final tiebreaker.
“We went back thinking that I had won one and she had won one, so we were just sitting there,” Forsley said.
They waited around five minutes until Gutish’s mom and a race official made their way over and informed the two women that Gutish had won both races.
“I didn’t get to do a big burnout, and in fact it took forever for it to actually sink in, because it was so unexpected,” Gutish said. “I never expected an event like this could exist in the first place. After not racing EnduroCross for three years, I wouldn’t have expected to win it.”
In the inaugural event of its kind, Gutish became the first Red Bull TKO Prologue Women’s Champion.
Even with her second-place finish, Forsley acknowledged how incredible the event was to be a part of and how proud she was of Gutish.
“This is my passion and my career. Usually, we’re out in the woods by ourselves and you see like 10 people out there. But here we are on this platform in front of thousands of people,” Forsley said. “It was pretty amazing.”