Las Vegas, NV – Round one of the 2013 GEICO AMA EnduroCross series, fueled by Monster Energy and presented by Lucas Oil kicked off on Friday night inside the Orleans Arena and Mike Brown established himself as a serious title contender with a convincing main event win over Taddy Blazusiak and Colton Haaker. Brown led every lap and opened up a nine second lead but was only two seconds clear at the finish as Blazusiak, Haaker and Webb closed up while fighting for second.
Brown was strong all day and set the fastest time during the afternoon qualifying laps, won his heat race and then set the fastest time again during the new night time hot lap that determines the gate picks for the thirteen main event qualifiers. The new night time hot laps had the crowd on their feet and Brown set the fast time to get the first gate pick. Blazusiak, Webb, Graffunder and Redmond rounded out the top five.
Brown rocketed into the lead on the start of the main event and was closely followed by Blazusiak, his KTM Teammate. Brown, who switched from a KTM 250 to a 350 for 2013 steadily pulled away from Blazusiak and opened up a nine second lead but then proved that no lead is safe in EnduroCross as he got stuck in the last rock section. At that point, Blazusiak, Haaker and Webb had a fierce battle going on for second and were within sight of Brown as he blasted through the wood pile and over the finish line. Brown was happy with his second ever EnduroCross win and said “I put five hard laps in with no mistakes and the white flag came quicker than I thought it would. It feels good to get a win to open the season.” Blazusiak had an off night and said “I have a few things that I think I can make better for the next race”. Haaker, who is riding for the Rockstar Energy, Lucas Oil backed JCR Honda team rode well to take the final podium spot in spite of a tight race with Webb. “I got a good start from the second row and worked my way up to third and I felt like I could have made an aggressive move on Taddy in the second to last turn but I knew he would not give it up easily so I decided to check up.”
Webb, now riding a Beta two-stroke had to come back from a terrible start to finish fourth ahead of Geoff Aaron, who is now riding a Red Bull backed KTM 350. Monster Kawasaki’s Taylor Robert finished sixth ahead of Husqvarna’s Cory Graffunder, RPM KTM’s Kyle Redmond, Monster Kawasaki’s Justin Soule and Beta’s Max Gerston rounded out the top ten. Destry Abbot was eleventh, Jamie Lanza twelfth and Gary Sutherlin was thirteenth in the main.
Las Vegas, Nevada GEICO AMA EnduroCross, Fueled by Monster Energy Expert Main Event result:
1. Mike Brown KTM
2. Taddy Blazusiak KTM
3. Colton Haaker Honda
4. Cody Webb Beta
5. Geoff Aaron KTM
6. Taylor Robert Kawasaki
7. Cory Graffunder Husqvarna
8. Kyle Redmond KTM
9. Justin Soule Kawasaki
10. Max Gerston Beta
The Women’s class had a first time winner as Shelby Turner beat fellow Canadian, Chantelle Bykerk. Rachel Gutish finished third. Maria Forsberg, the defending Women’s champion had a tough night and finished fourth and Louise Forsley, the second place women from 2012 missed the race due to injury.
The night also included support classes and Kurt Nicoll started the night off by winning the Vet 35+ class ahead of Ty Davis and Colby Begin. Tyler Murray won the Open Amateur class by taking the lead in the last turn from second place finisher, David Broderick. Gavin McCarthy finished third. Australia’s Jack Field wowed the crowd by pulling a backflip off the finishline log while taking the win in the TrialsCross class. Ty Cullins and Ty Tremaine finished second and third.
Round two of the GEICO AMA EnduroCross series will take place in Sacramento, California inside the Sleep Train Arena on Saturday, June 8th. You can get tickets at Ticketmaster, http://www.ticketmaster.com/event/1C004A48A4E0645E?artistid=1305969&majorcatid=10004&minorcatid=25
Prior to heading to Sacramento, most of the top EnduroCross riders will make a trip to Barcelona, Spain for the second of the Global X Games Enduro X events. That event will take place on Saturday, May 18th and will feature live ESPN coverage.
For more information, please visit www.EnduroCross.com
