Kit Palmer | November 20, 2005
Once again, the racing action could not have gotten much more exciting in the second running of the Maxxis EnduroCross at The Orleans Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. And when it was all over, it was World Enduro Champion David Knight, of the Isle of Man, who dethroned reigning EnduroCross Champion Ryan Hughes.
In front of a sellout crowd, KTM’s Knight rode a smart and methodical 10-lap main event to take the win and the $10,000 first-place prize money. After crashing in his heat race and injuring his arm, Knight recovered from a bad start and slowly worked his way through the pack, taking the lead around the halfway point and going on to win the race.
Suzuki’s Hughes put himself in a good position to retain his number-one plate, but he went over the bars while running second. After dropping back to about midpack, Hughes struggled some more on the challenging track and ended up finishing ninth out of the 10-rider field.
Team Green Kawasaki’s Ricky Dietrich got out front early and led much of the race. A bobble by the young up-and-comer, however, allowed Knight to get close and he soon gave way to the World champ. Dietrich held down second until the last lap when Suzuki-mounted John Dowd came along. After taking the white flag, the two riders battled back and forth and had the crowd on its feet. With two turns to go, Dietrich and Dowd slammed into each other, and Dietrich ended up going down, handing Dowd second place for the night. Dietrich got up in time to take third.
Fourth place ended up going to Montclair Yamaha/Zip-Ty Racing’s Ty Davis, followed by Spanish rider and E1 World Enduro Champion Ivan Cervantes aboard a KTM.
Kawasaki rider Ryan Dudek finished sixth, followed by KTM’s Kurt Caselli, National Enduro Champion Mike Lafferty, Hughes and Spain’s Xavier Galindo.
Kit Palmer | Off-Road Editor
Kit Palmer started his career at Cycle News in 1984 and he’s been testing dirt and streetbikes every since – plus covering any event that uses some form of a knobby tire. He’s also our resident motorcycle mileage man with a commute of 120 miles a day.
