JG Off Road / GEICO Powersports Report

August 4, 2009, 9:45am

The team was recently in Las Vegas, NV for the first round of the GEICO EnduroCross Series. Facing temperatures in the 100’s, the action started at 9 am with practices and qualifiers and continued throughout the day. The JG Off Road / GEICO Powersports line up for the event: Paul Whibley, Wally Palmer, Scott Watkins, Ryan Rodgers, Eric Rodgers, and JT Bennett.

Morning/Afternoon Program:

Ryan Rodgers, Eric Rodgers, and Scotty Watkins all qualified for the Open Amateur Main Event in their first round of qualifiers. Eric and Scotty had also qualified to run the Expert Qualifiers in the evening program. Ryan Rogers suffered a devastating hit to his radiator in the Expert Qualifier forcing him to go to the LCQ. Team manager JT Bennett gave up a radiator off of his bike so that Ryan could go on. Ryan did not qualify in the Expert LCQ but as previously mentioned, will be racing in the Open Amateur Main Event. To see group results, click here.

Paul Whibley and Wally Palmer are pre-qualified for this evenings event.

Evening Program:

The evening program brought with it a lot of action. Scott Watkins took a 2nd place finish in the Amateur Main Event, placing him into the Dash for Cash. Next, Whibley and Palmer faced the track in heat 2 of the first round of qualifiers followed by Watkins and Eric Rodgers in heat 3. All 4 riders were forced to move onto the Semi Finals. From the Semi's Wally and Eric advanced on to the LCQ, but unfortunately the evening was over for Whibley. Watkins had one more chance to qualify for the Main in the Dash for Cash, but after leading the first lap, got hung up in the rock garden and was passed by Matt Crouch who took the win.

Wally and Eric got one last chance at the track in a fun race, the night race - where they have Baja lights attached to the front of the bike and the arena goes dark. Palmer took a second place finish.

The Main Event was full of excitement with the lead changing almost every lap. Taddy Blazuziak took the win in a photo finish with Ricky Dietrich. Mike Brown took third place.