Blasuziak Takes Closest win in EnduroCross History

Jean Turner | July 26, 2009

The last win for Shock Doctor KTM’s Taddy Blazusiak, at the Erzberg Rodeo, was by a margin of 43 minutes. Although he took another win in Las Vegas, things were a bit different at the GEICO Powersports AMA EnduroCross opener. Blazusiak (111) was barely able to rip the win away from Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Ricky Dietrich (1) in a photo finish of the most exciting main event EnduroCross has ever seen.

The lead was traded so many times, it was starting to look like the race no one wanted to win. It all started with Blasuziak, Dietrich and fellow Kawasaki riders Destry Abbott and Jamie Lanza charging for the lead. Damon Huffman moved up and joined the battle, but went down hard over the tractor tires, losing nearly a lap in the process. Dietrich nipped at Blazusiak’s heels in the early laps before the Polish rider began to open up a gap. But a mistake by Blazusiak left the door open for Dietrich, the defending EnduroCross champion, to snatch the lead. Side-by-side into a turn, Dietrich had the inside and tried to push Taddy wide, but the two ended up both going down with their bikes tangling in the process. Haaker was then able to tip-toe past them both to take the lead momentarily before losing it in a log pile just before the finish. Then it was Brown’s turn to run out front, though Brownie admits he didn’t realize he was in the lead at the time.

Dietrich and Blazusiak both recovered and continued to bang bars with each other as they chased down Brown. Taddy made his way around Brown and regained the lead, and Dietrich moved into second at the white flag. The last lap battle between the two sent the Las Vegas crowd into a frenzy, as Dietrich stole the lead, only to stall in the rock turn and give it back to Blasuziak. In the next obstacle, however, Blazusiak nearly returned the favor as he slid off the side of the rock pile, letting Dietrich pull up right beside him yet again. The two pinned it down the last straight side by side, but Blasuziak was the last to shut off just before the finish line tractor tires, and stole the win by a nano-second.

Brown held on for third followed by Geoff Aaron and Haaker who rounded out the top five.

Round 1

Las Vegas, Nevada

Results: July 25, 2009

1. Taddy Blasuziak (KTM)

2. Ricky Dietrich (Kaw)

3. Mike Brown (KTM)

4. Geoff Aaron (Chr)

5. Colton Haaker (Kaw)

6. Kyle Redmond (Yam)

7. Cory Graffunder (KTM)

8. Jamie Lanza (Kaw)

9. Damon Huffman (Kaw)

10. Destry Abbott (Kaw)

11. Matt Crouch (Yam)

12. Nick Brozovich (Hon)