Taddy Dominates Lazy E EnduroCross

Shan Moore | August 16, 2009

Except for a small tip-over late in the race, Taddy Blazusiak turned in a near perfect day of racing at round two of the GEICO AMA EnduroCross Series at Guthrie, Oklahoma. The KTM rider wedged his way past Northland Kawasaki’s Jamie Lanza in the second turn of the main event and pulled away to a massive lead by the finish of the eight-lap race.

Meanwhile, the battle for second was a five rider affair, with Christini/KTM-mounted Geoff Aaron holding down the runner-up position during the early going, before a crash in the rocks handed the position to Lucas Oil/Kawasaki-backed Colton Haaker, who gave way to KTM’s Mike Brown, who eventually gave up the spot to Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Damon Huffman. Huffman managed to stay on two wheels for the remainer of the race to take second, while the final spot on the podium went to Zip Ty Racing Husqvarna’s Cory Graffunder, a top Canadian off road racer that has been steadily improving his EnduroCross skills over the past year.

Aaron rebounded to finish in fourth position ahead of Haaker, with Brown rounding out the top six.

AmPro FMF Yamaha’s Kyle Redmond battled Mike Brown to the finish but settled for the seventh position ahead of Nick Brozovich, Destry Abbot and Patrick Smage, the current U.S. Trials champion and Lanza.

Lanza earned the $500 Girardi Wealth management holeshot in the main event but finished eleventh due to a severely twisted brake lever. Blazusiak quickly took over the lead and rode a mostly mistake free race until he hit the ground on lap six but still maintained a relatively safe lead.

Ricky Dietrich, the defending EnduroCross champion suffered a foot injury during his qualifying “hot lap” that forced him to the hospital for x-rays during the time that he should have taking part in his heat race. The x-ray fortunately showed no broken bones but he was unable to compete on this night. Another notable rider that did not qualify for the main was multi time ArenaCross Champion Josh Demuth, who came up one position short by finishing third in the Last Chance Qualifier but it was an impressive first attempt at EnduroCross.

Results: 1. Taddy Blazusiak (KTM0; 2. Damon Huffman (Kaw); 3. Cory Graffunder (Hus); 4. Geoff Aaron (KTM); 5. Colton Haaker (Kaw); 6. Mike Brown (KTM); 7. Nick Brozovich (Hon); 8. Destry Abbott (Kaw); 9. Patrick Smage (KTM); 10. Jamie Lanza (Kaw).