Cycle News Staff | August 20, 2017
2017 Las Vegas EnduroCross Results.
Las Vegas is known for boxing and Rockstar Husqvarna backed Colton Haaker landed a few knockdown blows on FMF KTM’s Cody Webb to take the win at the opening round of the 2017 AMA EnduroCross series. A new race format pitted the top riders against each other three times during the evening racing and Haaker managed to come out on top in all three to take maximum points on the night. Webb started the day setting the fastest lap time during the afternoon hot laps and appeared to be the fastest rider all night but ended up on the ground due to contact with Haaker twice and had to settle for second. With six races remaining, EnduroCross should prove to be an exciting series to follow.
The race for third was nearly as exciting as the race for the win. Twenty-year-old Trystan Hart, the revelation of last year’s EnduroCross series outdueled his SRT Offroad teammate, Kyle Redmond to take his first ever podium.
A new race format for the Super EnduroCross (Pro class) automatically places the top eight riders into the evening heat race (round one uses last season’s points) but all the other riders have to earn a spot via a daytime qualifier. Those riders that qualified during the daytime then face off in the first race of the night with the top five joining the top eight seated riders in a gate pick qualifying race. Beta’s Ty Cullins and fellow young gun Cooper Abbott on the Purvines, DA8 Yamaha topped GasGas backed Geoff Aaron, Yamaha mounted Eric Rhoten and Quinn Wentzel rode his Husqvarna to fifth to move forward for his first ever EnduroCross main event.
This put all the top riders in the qualifier and this would be the first time that Haaker and Webb would clash. As the two battled for the lead, Haaker put a hard block pass on Webb and knocked him to the ground. Haaker went on to win while Webb recovered for second but was clearly unhappy about the contact. The crowd booed Haaker, who brushed it off on the podium by stating, “Either you’re going to hate or love but either way you’re going to be talking about it so it’s all good”. Redmond finished third in the qualifier to serve notice that he is ready to compete for podiums in 2017.
The new bracket racing round groups the top 12 riders into single lap head to head battles until the final two riders face off. As expected, Haaker and Webb moved through to the end and put on another exciting fight with Haaker coming out on top and earning a single bonus point for the evening.
When the gate dropped for the main event, it was Webb in front and Haaker quickly made a few moves to get into second. The top two riders rode in unison until lap eight of fourteen when Webb was the first to take the No Joke lane. This allowed Haaker to take the lead and he tried to open a gap but Webb closed back in and briefly took the lead before Haaker passed him back in the rock pile and then the two made contact with Webb once again going down. This allowed Haaker to open a ten second gap but he still waited until the final lap to take the No Joke lane but safely took the win. Webb finished twelve seconds back in second.
“They dropped the gate about four seconds earlier than I expected and I got caught way off guard. I came into the first turn not in first unlike I did in every other race tonight,” said Haaker.” “My starts were on point for every race except the main. I moved into second quickly and started pacing Cody and he took the joker lane at about the midway point and I knew I needed to get a gap going. Unfortunately, I made a major mistake and, even though the track wasn’t as technical as some, Cody made a mistake, too. So, if two of the best riders in the world make mistakes it seems it was pretty hard, actually. I caught back up to Cody after my mistake and he left the door open a bit and somehow my foot went into his front wheel and he went down. I didn’t mean to put my foot in there, obviously. From there, all I could think about was hitting the joker lane. I did it on the last lap and got the win.”
“The main event wasn’t ideal but I’ve never been known to enjoy the faster tracks and this was probably the easiest track EnduroCross has ever had. I felt really great tonight and led for a bit. My plan was to have Colton lead with the pressure of taking the joker lane and I was just going to hunt him down and when we had to take the joker lane I would take advantage of it. But he got ahead of me when I made a mistake, then he crashed and I passed him momentarily and eventually he moved over on me and his foot peg or something got stuck in my wheel and I couldn’t hold the bike up. I went down, killed the motor, knocked my lever down too far and by that point it was too late in the race to recover. My confidence feels great. I wasn’t pumped on the track when I walked it and I’m looking forward to the rest of the series.”
In the battle for the final podium spot, Hart and Redmond finished less than a second apart after battling wheel to wheel the entire race. Hart held the position at the start before Redmond moved by only to be re-passed for the final podium spot.
“For sure my good start was so key to the race for me. I had a good gate pick and the track wasn’t super hard but it was super-fast and you couldn’t make a mistake and that made for some really tight racing between Kyle (Redmond) and myself for the entire time. It was super tiring even though the track wasn’t too hard. You had to be on it the entire time (and) that it was really intense. I worked hard for this and now that I’m up here it doesn’t feel real. Everybody always says that, but the last lap I thought, ‘This is it!’ Last year I was fourth in Boise and I felt like I threw third away a little. Now, it feels great to get it.”
Beta’s Max Gerston took fifth ahead of RPM KTM’s Ty Tremaine in sixth. SRT’s Cory Graffunder was seventh and Cooper Abbot took the important eighth place position that will put him directly into the night show at the next round. Joan Pau Segura made the long trip from Spain and finished ninth on his GasGas ahead of fellow GasGas rider Noah Kepple in tenth.
2017 Las Vegas EnduroCross main event results
- Colton Haaker, Husqvarna
- Cody Webb, KTM
- Trystan Hart, Husqvarna
- Kyle Redmond, Husqvarna
- Max Gerston, Beta
- Ty Tremaine, KTM
- Cory Graffunder, Husqvarna
- Cooper Abbott, Yamaha
- Joan Pau Segura, GasGas
- Noah Kepple, GasGas
- Eric Rhoten, Yamaha
- Geoff Aaron, GasGas
- Ty Cullins, Beta
- Quinn Wentzel, Husqvarna
- Spenser Wilton, Honda
There was a strong field of women riders and the main event proved to be one of the most exciting of the evening with the lead changing several times among the top five riders. Canada’s Shelby Turner, the defending Women’s EnduroCross champion passed Australia’s Tayla Jones on the final lap to take an exciting win. Jones crashed out of the lead and FMF KTM’s Kacy Martinez also snuck by for second while Jones recovered for third. Tarah Geiger and Morgan Tanke rounded out the top five.
The next round of EnduroCross will be a first-time event inside the Reno – Sparks Livestock Events Center on September 23rd.
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