FIM SuperEnduro, Genoa

Blazusiak dominates at Italian opener

The opening round of the 2012 FIM SuperEnduro Championship held in the Palasport Fiera, Genoa, Italy witnessed the perfect start to the series for KTM’s specialist enduro star Taddy Blazusiak. Pre-race favourite, Taddy dominated the event taking victory in each of the three SuperEnduro finals. After a steady opening race Husaberg’s Joakim Ljunggren improved during the course of the evening to secure second overall, followed closely by KTM’s Cristobal Guerrero who took third.

Taddy wins from Ljunggren and Gurrero

Recording the fastest time in qualification, Blazusiak was quick out of the starting gates and grabbed the holeshot in the opening SuperEnduro final. As he quickly set about distancing himself from the rest of the field, an exciting race for the remaining podium positions developed behind him. Ljunggren, who topped the opening final twelve months ago in Genoa, struggled to recover from a poor start while Xavier Galindo – Husaberg initially held second.

Under pressure Gallindo fell back into third as Guerrero began to work his way forward. By mid distance Britain’s Jonny Walker – KTM had charged his way from outside the top ten to challenge Gallindo for third. Finding his way past in the log section, Walker closed the gap to Guerrero and with less than a lap to go had passed the Spaniard, but lost the runner-up position just metres from the chequered flag.

Taddy's the Daddy Indoors

With the start order reversed for the second SuperEnduro final, Blazusiak again claimed the holeshot, although this time from the far outside gate. Quickly stretching his lead to over six seconds, the Polish rider held his advantage to enjoy another start-to-finish victory. Behind him home favourite Alex Salvini – Husqvarna recovered quickly from a poor start to record his

best result of the night as he snatched second position away from Ljunggren in the dying moments of the race. With Ljunggren making a mistake in the water splash section it was all that was needed for Salvini to find a way past for second, much to the delight of the Italian crowd.

With two convincing wins to his credit Blazusiak began the night’s third final in exactly the same way he started all others – by claiming a convincing holeshot and quickly establishing himself as the rider to beat. Instantly opening up a commanding lead Taddy put the finishing touches to a perfect night and having made no mistakes claimed a well-deserved third final win to end the opening round of the 2012 FIM SuperEnduro World Championship with a perfect score of sixty points.

Swede Joakim Ljunggren claimed his best result of the night to place as runner-up behind Blazusiak, claiming the same position in the event’s overall results. Third went to Xavi Gallindo, who like Ljunggren claimed his best result of the three finals. Third overall went to Spaniard Cristobal Guerrero, who placed one-point ahead of countryman Xavi Gallindo.

The 2012 FIM SuperEnduro World Championship now moves on to Poland, where round two takes place in Lodz on Saturday 10th December.