The Las Vegas Season finale of the AMA Maxxis EnduroCross series is in the books and Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Ricky Dietrich scored a second place finish to his teammate, Damon Huffman, but second was more than enough to clinch the title for Dietrich. Geoff Aaron rounded out the podium with a third-place finish ahead of KTM’s EnduroCross ace, Taddy Blazusiak.
In the grand tradition of the Las Vegas finale, the EnduroCross course was one of the most technical of the year, and riders from all walks of racing came out to ride “just for fun.” Among them were Kurt Caselli, Nathan Kanney, Sebastien Tortelli, Mika Ahola and Mike Brown. A new obstacle called “The Matrix” awaited riders, which consisted of logs spaced out at nearly a bike-length. The Matrix proved to be one of the most technical obstacles of the course and kept things unpredictable all night.
The first heat race saw Mike Brown with the holeshot but it didn’t take long for Huffman to take over the lead. Although a strong charge from Aaron had the crowd on its feet, Huffman would hang on to the lead until the finish.
Dietrich grabbed the second holeshot of the evening and never looked back, taking his heat race win. The second qualifying spot went to Kyle Redmond who managed to come all the way through the pack from a dead-last start after tangling with several riders on the first lap.
Taddy Blasuziak and Kyle Calderini put on a show in the third heat, dicing back and forth before Blazusiak took the heat win. KTM’s Mike Brown topped his Semi race to qualify for the main event as did Destry Abbott and Mika Ahola of Finland, who was riding a Hart & Huntington Honda CRF250R. The final qualifying position went to Bobby Prochnau who topped the LCQ.
Just like his heat race, Huffman managed to lead the main event from start to finish, grabbing the holeshot and checking out on his way to his third victory of the series. It was a bit of redemption for Huffman who lost the points lead at the previous round after dislocating a finger. But his win wasn’t enough to snatch the title back from his teammate, Dietrich, who only needed a podium finish to lock up the championship. Dietrich stayed calm and smooth, riding to a fairly uneventful second place finish and while Huffman collected the $10,000 purse, Dietrich collected the number one plate.
Huffman claimed second overall in the championship. Lucas Oil-sponsored rider Colton Haaker came into Las Vegas third in points, but had to watch it slip away as he watched the race from the sidelines after suffering a broken collarbone at the Barcelona Indoor Enduro last week. Blazusiak took over into third in the series behind Huffman.
Main Event Results
1. Damon Huffman (Kaw)
2. Ricky Dietrich (Kaw)
3. Geoff Aaron (KTM)
4. Taddy Blazusiak (KTM)
5. Bobby Prochnau (KTM)
6. Mika Ahola (Hon)
7. Patrick Smage (KTM)
8. Destry Abbott (Kaw)
9. Kyle Calderini (Hon)
10. Kyle Redmond (KTM)
11. Mike Brown (KTM)
