Everett Washington EnduroCross to Taddy Blazusiak Geoff Aaron and Cody Webb round out the podium!
The 2011 GEICO AMA EnduroCross series, presented by Lucas Oil made a huge impact as part of the X Games less than two weeks ago then the riders made the trip up to the Pacific Northwest to race in the Comcast Arena in Everett Washington. And just like at the X Games, Taddy Blazusiak rode his Factory KTM 350 to the win. Geoff Aaron finished second on his GEICO Honda while Cody Webb rounded out the podium on his factory Beta.
The afternoon got started with the timed qualifying laps to determine the gate picks for the heat races. Blazusiak set the fastest time followed by Aaron, Graham Jarvis, Mike Brown and Colton Haaker. The “Hot Laps” determine the gate picks for the heat races.
Blazusiak, Webb and Jarvis each won their heat races to get direct transfers to the main event. Webb has really stepped up his game for EnduroCross and looks like he will be a regular podium contender. Jarvis made the trip from England to compete in a few North American off road events and showed that he is a contender. The biggest surprise non-qualifier for the main event was Monster Kawasaki’s Taylor Robert who could not re-fire his bike after stalling in his semi.
When the gate dropped for the main event, Blazusiak immediately took the lead but could not shake the field for the first three laps. Brown, Webb and Aaron all stayed very close and began a fierce battle that slowed each of them and allowed Blazusiak to pull away. Aaron eventually took control of second and Webb fought back to third after a few mistakes. Brown took fourth just ahead of Graham Jarvis. Jarvis rode a very steady race but seemed uncomfortable with the high intensity of the first few laps. Lucas Oil backed Haaker finished sixth ahead of Oregon’s Kevin Rookstool. Justin Soule finished eighth on the Monster Energy Kawasaki ahead of Gary Sutherlin, Wally Palmer and an unlucky Bobby Prochnau. The top Canadian off road motorcycle racer had worked his way to fourth but a derailed chain ended his race.
Geoff Aaron and Cody Webb Swap Positions
In the end, Blazusiak lapped all the way up to third place, which is an amazing display of skill with such a strong field of riders that included Aaron, a 10 time AMA Trials Champion, Cody Webb, the 2010 Trials Champion and Jarvis, who just this year has won the Romaniacs, Tough One and Hells Gate Extreme Enduro events.
Taddy: ‘Everything went to plan this time, not like at X Games where I had to go to the LCQ. The first round of the series was amazing, and to win the first Endurocross event at X Games was unbelievable, but it’s good that things are kind of back to normal now. There’s always a lot of pressure at the first race of any championship and X Games was pretty crazy. I made a few mistakes there so I wanted to get back to how things were last year this weekend – getting a good Hot Laps time in before winning my qualifying race to get a good gate pick for the main event. That’s what I was able to do, and it made things much, much easier for me. I got a great start in the final and just focused on getting a few good laps completed without mistakes. The riders behind me were at each other, which I guess helped me a bit, and I was able to pull away. I just made sure I didn’t make any mistakes and tried to ride smart. Everything worked out great, I hope I can keep it that way at the next round in two weeks.’
Results – Endurocross 2011, Rnd 2
1. Taddy Blazusiak (KTM) 2. Geoff Aaron (Honda/Christini) 3. Cody Webb (Beta) 4. Mike Brown (KTM) 5. Graham Jarvis (Husaberg)