Blazusiak Holds on in Washington
Everett, WA – A sold out Comcast Arena in Everett, Washington hosted round six of the GEICO AMA EnduroCross series and witnessed an amazing night of racing. Although KTM’s Taddy Blazusiak got another win, he was challenged again by Beta’s Cody Webb who passed him and then led several laps before sliding out in a simple turn of all things. Blazusiak regained the lead but Webb remained close until two laps from the end when he stalled his bike and could not get it to re-fire and eventually went a lap down and finished tenth. Monster Kawasaki’s Taylor Robert fought through the pack to take second position. The battle for third raged until the last lap when top Canadian off road racer, Bobby Prochnau took the position away from Mike Brown.
KTM’s Blazusiak set the fastest lap time during the afternoon’s MVP Racing Hot Laps, which puts the riders on the track one at a time against the clock to earn the best picks for the heat races as well as the bragging rights amongst the top riders. Lucas Oil/Rockstar backed Colton Haaker was second fastest ahead of Brown.
Taddy Blazusiak took home another overall in Washington.
Drew Ruiz photo
Brown, Haaker and Blazusiak won their respective heat races and got the first picks for the main event. Cory Graffunder, Geoff Aaron and Webb got second in each of the three heats to earn direct transfers to the main as well. Only one rider earns a spot out of the Semi’s and Prochnau earned his way in via Semi number one. Jamie Lanza had a great battle with Gary Sutherlin to take the win in Semi two. And Semi three was won by Robert. That left several top riders fighting for that last two transfer positions via the LCQ and Justin Soule and Kyle Redmond got those last two spots in the main. Kevin Rookstook missed qualifying by one position for the third race in a row and was joined on the sidelines by Ricky Russell, Max Gerston, Gary Sutherlin, Ryan Sandoval, Byran Roper, Keith Sweeten and Destry Abbott.
Blazusiak took the lead at the start and that usually means the race for the lead is over but he got stuck in the rock pile on the second of 12 laps and Mike Brown ended up stuck right next to him, which allowed Beta’s Cody Webb to blow by and into the lead. Webb looked solid for several laps before sliding out in a turn and handing the lead back to Blazusiak. Webb then held second until lap ten when the costly stall took him out of the running. Robert was battling with Webb and took over second. The battle for the final podium position changed several times in the last two laps and Brown had it leading into the last lap with Prochnau and Soule on his tail. Prochnau, who recently switched from a KTM 250 2-stroke to a 350 4-stoke passed Brown on the last lap to get his first podium position of the year. Brown held on for forth and Husqvarna’s Redmond and Graffunder both passed Soule to take fifth and sixth. Soule ended up seventh ahead of Lanza, Aaron, Webb and Haaker.
Taylor Robert fought back to finish second behind Blazusiak.
Drew Ruiz photo
The night also included several support classes. The Open Amateur class was won by Thomas Cordner over Harrison Oswald and Ty Tremaine. Ty Tremaine came back to win the TrialsCross class over Max Nelson and Zach Sweeten. The Vet 35+ class was a thriller with the entire pack stuck in the rocks on the last lap and Wayne Reimer coming out with the lead to take the win. Jason Gitchel emerged with second ahead of Jeremy Pugh. The women’s also came down the last lap with Louise Forsley taking the win ahead of the Canadian pairing of Chantelle Bykerk and Lexi Pechout.
Everett, Washington GEICO EnduroCross, presented by Lucas Oil Expert Main Event results:
- Taddy Blazusiak KTM
- Taylor Robert Kawasaki
- Bobby Prochnau KTM
- Mike Brown KTM
- Kyle Redmond Husqvarna
- Cory Graffunder Husqvarna
- Justin Soule Kawasaki
- Jamie Lanza Honda
- Geoff Aaron Honda
- Cody Webb Beta
- Colton Haaker Kawasaki
The next round of the GEICO EnduroCross series, presented by Lucas Oil will be next weekend in Boise, Idaho on Saturday, October 27th.
Boise event tickets are available at www.endurocross.com/buy-tickets/ or the Idaho Center Box Office and at the following local dealers:
