Belgian freestyle motocross (FMX) rider Julien Vanstippen has been crowned King of the Whip for a fourth time at Africa’s premier FMX competition. Vanstippen previously ruled the contest from 2022-2024 before American Wyatt Fontenot snatched the title in 2025.
This event enjoyed humble beginnings in a quarry of all things.
Entry was free for spectators, sponsors would brand every possible nook and cranny and the local FMX and MX riders would pull in to jump. We’d all bring deck chairs and often a braai and perch ourselves all around the edge to catch the action.
That was fun.
Sadly with progress, the quarry is now becoming a warehouse. Gladly, for the last few years, King Of The Whip has found a home at Montecasino. Things are distinctly different – and this event attracts some of the biggest freestyle names on the globe.
It’s a great fit for sure and once again this year, tickets sold out and the venue was packed to capacity.
This year, just as things were starting up, the skies started to growl, it got dark and windy and – things were put on hold. You can’t have people flying through the air with the wind howling – and, to be frank, we were worried that rain would spoil play. Incredibly, it all cleared and after more than just a few sighs of relief, the riders took a few tentative leaps just to check that conditions were good.
It was game on for the rest of that evening!
We watched some of the world’s best Motocross and Freestyle Motocross riders go head-to-head in a seriously action-packed showdown, all competing for a share of the R250 000 prize purse. The 2026 rider line-up featured 17 of pour South African competitors and the event’s biggest contingent of international athletes. Christian Dresser (USA), Edgar Torronteras (Spain), Gabe Fink (USA), Genki Watanabe (Japan), Guillem Navas (Spain), Julien Vanstippen (Belgium), Marc Pinyol (Spain), Rusty Cobb (USA), Taka Higashino (Japan), Tom Parsons (USA), Tyler Bereman (USA) and Wyatt Fontenot (USA) all came along to compete.
Whips, backflips, side saddle, bicycles – hell we don’t even know the names of some of the stuff we saw… it was, MAGNIFICENT!
Throw in the first front flip to be seen on SA soil by a certain Mr Marc Pinyol and – well you get the idea.
Once again the sponsors like Ducati, Motul, Yamaha and Monster branded – well everything. The music pumped, the refreshments flowed and there was a steady supply of great food for the spectators.
It was a seriously festive event.
We can go into great detail about who did what…
But – man we’ll tell you – every single person who jumped put on a show. Some might have had other favourites for the wins – but hey – we are not the judges – and to be honest, given the quality of the athletes – it’s a job that none of us would like.
So! If you missed this one – you missed out. If you didn’t get yourself tickets the first time we told you about the dates and all that – well – what can we say?
We’ll let you know next years date as early as we can – and this time – react a bit quicker.
To the team from LW Mag – the organisers of KOTW – well done chaps!
Our opinion: This was the best King Of the Whip to date!
KING OF THE WHIP FINALS
🥇 Julien Vanstippen
🥈 Tom Parsons
🥉 GENKI WATANABE
4th TB 653 ™️
5th Dalton Venter 451
6th Ryan Adler
7th Edgar Torronteras ®
8th Dallan Goldman
BEST TRICK UPSIDE-DOWN
🥇 Takayuki Higashino
🥈 Julien Vanstippen
🥉 Dallan Goldman
BEST TRICK UPRIGHT
🥇 GENKI WATANABE
🥈 Dallan Goldman
🥉 Edgar Torronteras ®
AFRICAN RIDERS CHAMPIONSHIP – BEST WHIP
🥇 Dalton Venter 451
🥈 Ryan Adler
🥉 Dallan Goldman
🏅 RICKY RAFF AWARD
🏆 Dallan Goldman
