2013 GEICO AMA EnduroCross Las Vegas Results
Las Vegas GEICO EnduroCross Opener Recap
Exciting Opening Round With The Top Four Riders Battling To The Finish Line
[caption id="attachment_25880" align="alignright"
width="300"] Mike Brown established himself as a serious title
contender - Photo: Drew Ruiz[/caption]
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 Cody 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,
Cory
Graffunder and Kyle 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".
[caption id="attachment_25879" align="alignleft"
width="300"] Taddy Blazusiak had a fierce battle for
second, finishing within seconds of first - Photo: Drew
Ruiz[/caption]
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
Abbott was eleventh, Jamie Lanza
twelfth and Gary
Sutherlin was thirteenth in the main.
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.
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
Source:
EnduroCross
Mike Brown Wins AMA EnduroCross Season Opener
[caption id="attachment_25881" align="alignright"
width="300"] Mike Brown earned his first official AMA
EnduroCross Series win - Photo: Drew Ruiz[/caption]
Factory FMF/KTM rider Mike Brown
earned his first official AMA EnduroCross Series win at the opening
round held at the Orleans Arena. Red Bull KTM Factory rider and
reigning AMA EnduroCross Champion, Taddy
Blazusiak, finished second overall.
Brown was the highlight of the show from the afternoon hot lap
session where he earned the fastest time until the final finish
line jump where he secured his first win. Brown never showed any
signs of struggling and made the technical track look easy as he
worked toward his win.
Brown, an X-Games EnduroX Gold Medalist, was placed in the first
heat where he choose the far inside gate. His gate choice paid off
and earned him the holeshot and helped him to lead every lap to
easily qualify into the main event. Blazusiak followed in Brown's
footsteps and also took a heat win aboard his KTM 350cc
machine.
The AMA EnduroCross Series added a new element to its night show
line-up for the 2013 season where the twelve riders that qualify
for the main event ride in hot laps with the fastest person getting
first gate pick. Brown again took the honor of holding the top spot
after turning a 40.1. Blazusiak earned the second choice spot with
a time of 40.2.
[caption id="attachment_25878" align="alignleft"
width="300"] Taddy Blazusiak was happy with his performance,
but is shooting for the top step - Photo: Drew Ruiz[/caption]
The two riders choose the two inside gates for the start of the
main event. Just as predicted, they rounded the first corner in
that order with Brown taking the holeshot and Blazusiak in second.
The two riders never changed position throughout the twelve lap
main event. Brown went on to earn his first career EnduroCross win
while Blazuisak took the runner-up position with Colton
Haaker rounding out the podium in third.
"It feels so great to get my first win tonight. I've been training
hard and working toward this goal for a few years now and
everything finally feels right. I am extremely grateful to my team
that has been behind me this season and built me a great bike. I
hope to carry my momentum into the next round and work toward a
championship," stated Brown.
Blazusiak was also happy with his performance, "I struggled a
little bit with bike set-up this morning but everything was
improved for the main event. I am happy to start the season off on
the podium but I definitely have a goal of being on the top step
and will shoot for that at the next round."
Factory FMF/KTM rider and the reigning Women's EnduroCross
Champion, Maria
Forsberg, had a spell of bad luck in her main event. She
grabbed the holeshot in the main but made a mistake approaching a
large log section which sent her back to second place. A corner
later she was taken out by another rider and because of the
position of her fall, had to wait for all riders to pass by before
she could get back on her bike. She restarted in last position and
in the short three-lap race was able to climb back to fourth place
just barely missing out on a podium finish.
Next Event: Sacramento, CA - June 8, 2013
Source: KTM North America
Las Vegas Overview And Point Standings
2013 GEICO AMA EnduroCross Las Vegas Image Gallery (Click for full size images)
Overall Results EX Pro Class
Finish | # | Brand | Name | City, State |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 311 | KTM | Mike Brown | Bluff City, TN |
2 | 111 | KTM | Taddy Blazusiak | Nowy Targ, Poland |
3 | 10 | HON | Colton Haaker | Gilroy, CA |
4 | 247 | BTA | Cody Webb | Watsonville, CA |
5 | 4 | KTM | Geoff Aaron | Temecula, CA |
6 | 33 | KAW | Taylor Robert | Scottsdale, AZ |
7 | 118 | HSQ | Cory Graffunder | Vavenby, Canada |
8 | 7 | KTM | Kyle Redmond | Lake Hughes, CA |
9 | 6 | KAW | Justin Soule | Clovis, CA |
10 | 15 | BTA | Max Gerston | Scottsdale, AZ |
11 | 74 | KAW | Destry Abbott | Peoria, AZ |
12 | 125 | HSQ | Jamie Lanza | Calimesa, CA |
13 | 324 | KAW | Gary Sutherlin | Bakersfield, CA |
14 | 539 | HON | Ricky Dietrich | Menifee, CA |
15 | 41 | KTM | Keith Sweeten | Oregon City, OR |
16 | 9 | KTM | Bobby Prochnau | Savona, Canada |
17 | 114 | KTM | Ty Tremaine | Gardnerville, NV |
18 | 27 | CHR | Wallace Palmer | Mullica Hill, NJ |
19 | 5 | KTM | Bryan Roper | Glendale, AZ |
20 | 456 | KTM | Chris Birch | New Zealand |
21 | 200 | BTA | Eric Rhoten | Montrose, CO |
22 | 747 | GAS | Jack Field | Riverside, CA |
23 | 551 | KTM | Phil Smage | Elkhorn, WI |
24 | 51 | KTM | Tyler Murray | Whistler, Canada |
25 | 11 | KTM | Ryan Sandoval | Nuevo, CA |
26 | 214 | KAW | David Broderick | Glendale, AZ |
27 | 96 | HSQ | Jon Seehorn | Fairfield, WA |
Rider Point Standings - EX Pro Class ( Race 1 of 8 )
- Mike Brown - 25
- Taddy Blazusiak - 22
- Colton Haaker - 20
- Cody Webb - 18
- Geoff Aaron - 16
- Taylor Robert - 15
- Cory Graffunder - 14
- Kyle Redmond - 13
- Justin Soule - 12
- Max Gerston - 11
- Destry Abbott - 11
Overall Results Womens Class
Finish | # | Brand | Name | City, State |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 50 | KTM | Shelby Turner | Barons, Canada |
2 | 333 | KTM | Chantelle Bykerk | Salmon Arm, Canada |
3 | 217 | YAM | Rachel Gutish | Terre Haute, IN |
4 | 4 | KTM | Maria Forsberg | Lynnwood, WA |
5 | 31 | KTM | Morgan Tanke | Riverside, CA |
6 | 3 | HSB | Victoria Hett | Lumby, Canada |
7 | 174 | HSQ | Nicole Madsen | Taft, CA |
8 | 89 | KTM | Sarah Whitmore | Cheboygan, MI |
9 | 11 | GAS | Melissa Harten | Calgary, Canada |
10 | 15 | KTM | Lexi Pechout | Calgary, Canada |
11 | 972 | Honda | Tatum Sik | Murrieta, CA |
Rider Point Standings - Womens Class ( Race 1 of 8 )
- Shelby Turner - 25
- Chantelle Bykerk - 22
- Rachel Gutish - 20
- Maria Forsberg - 18
- Morgan Tanke - 16
- Victoria Hett - 15
- Nicole Madsen - 14
- Sarah Whitmore - 13
- Melissa Harten - 12
- Lexi Pechout - 11
- Tatum Sik - 10
Manufactuerer Cup Point Standings ( Race 1 of 8 )
- KTM - 47
- Beta - 29
- Honda - 27
- Kawasaki - 27
- Husqvarna - 23
- Christini - 5
- Gas Gas - 3