Taddy Blazusiak

Taddy completes perfect Endurocross season

KTM’s Taddy Blazusiak has put the finishing touches to what has been a truly remarkable 2011 Endurocross campaign by dominating the final two rounds of the series in Las Vegas, NV, to win a third successive Endurocross championship.

Headed into the last round of the series, and the only event to feature two point-scoring main events, Taddy held a commanding championship advantage and needed little time to show exactly why he’s been the year’s stand-out performer. Although not posting the fastest time during the qualifying Hot Lap session, Blazusiak once again comfortably won his heat race to transfer into the main events.
 
Knowing that just a handful of points would be enough from the first of the night’s two finals to see him crowned champion for a third year running, Taddy took an instant lead and quickly asserted himself at the front of the race. With 10 punishing laps to complete Taddy remained mistake free and in reaching the chequered flag first brought his 2011 Endurocross campaign to a deservedly successful close. With the championship his Taddy was then able to race the second main event safe in the knowledge that no matter what happened the championship was his.

Making light work of the course and his rivals Blazusiak was soon out front in the second main event going on to make it eight main event wins from eight starts in 2011, cementing his position as the world’s fastest indoor enduro racer.

Taddy now turns his attentions to the opening round of the FIM SuperEnduro World Championship, which starts next weekend, November 26, in Genoa Italy.

Taddy: ‘Winning the final two main events of the championship is the perfect way to end the series. It’s been an amazing championship and to get my third Endurocross #1 plate is just great – I have to say a massive thank you to everyone that’s been involved in my championship success. I kept working hard coming into this race so I felt pretty confident, but the track was tight and I knew the racing was going to be close. Thankfully, everything went pretty much perfectly. I got two great starts, didn’t make any mistakes, and managed to complete a perfect season of eight main event wins. I’m so pleased that I’ve been able to win the championship, it’s been one hell of a year and to get another AMA title is just fantastic. I head straight back to Europe now for the opening race of the SuperEnduro World Championship this coming weekend, which I’m really looking forward to.’

Results – Round 7, Main Event #1
1. Taddy Blazusiak (KTM)
2. Justin Soule (Kawasaki)
3. Cory Graffunder (Husqvarna)
4. Mike Brown (KTM)
5. Cody Webb (Beta)

Results – Round 7, Main Event #2
1. Taddy Blazusiak (KTM)
2. Taylor Robert (Kawasaki)
3. Mike Brown (KTM)
4. Justin Soule (Kawasaki)
5. Kyle Redmond (Honda)

KTM RACING
KTM’s Taddy Blazusiak Wins AMA EnduroCross Crown

LAS VEGAS, Nevada – Red Bull/KTM Extreme Enduro Factory rider Taddy Blazusiak won his third consecutive AMA EnduroCross Title in front of a nearly sold out Las Vegas crowd completing a perfect season where he took all eight event wins.

Blazusiak did not miss a beat in the defence of his 2010 title. He came out swinging in the opening round taking a dominating win and continued in style to end the season with a perfect scorecard, victory in every round and the coveted number one plate. His main competition this year was fellow KTM rider Mike Brown. The FMF/KTM rider landed on the podium multiple times throughout the season and went into the final rounds at Las Vegas with the only other rider with at least a mathematical chance of taking the title.

The Vegas round highlighted Blazusiak’s remarkable talent as he easily won the second heat to transfer into the main. Brown matched Blazusiak’s performance and took the win and the holeshot in heat number three. KTM Factory rider Johnny Walker also came all the way from the United Kingdom to race in his first EnduroCross event. He is known for his ‘out of nowhere’ podium at the 2011 Erzberg Hare Scramble event and his second place result in the Red Bull Sea to Sky extreme Enduro and after a tough battle in the LCQ he pushed his KTM into the main event.

The Las Vegas Finale was unique in that it was a double-header format that allowed the riders to race two 10-lap main events for a total of 50 points up for grabs. When the main event gate dropped for moto one, it was Blazusiak who launched his KTM to hop over the first log and led the group around the first corner. Brown was sitting in the top three but made a mistake and dropped to fifth. Brown eventually moved up one position to finish fourth in the main event while Blazusiak went on to take the win and the 2011 AMA EnduroCross Championship.

“It has been a really crazy year, remarked Blazusiak on the podium. “I am so happy to win the championship and to have a perfect season is amazing. It hasn’t completely sunk in yet but I am so happy to have been the first to remain undefeated in the series and to wrap up my third consecutive championship.”

After a quick break, the riders lined up for the second moto where Blazusiak quickly moved out front and went on to pull a big lead and take another easy event win to complete his perfect season. Brown had a much stronger second moto and charged his way into third at the chequered flag. Brown’s results earned him second overall in the series, his strongest overall result this season.

Blazusiak was not the only KTM rider to win a main event at the Vegas finale. KTM riders stacked the podium in the Women’s Pro class with KTM’s Louise Forsley taking the win followed by RPM/KTM rider Maria Forsberg and the newcomer Rachel Gutish in third. KTM support rider Kurt Nicoll also earned an AMA #1 plate after taking the victory in the Vet Amateur race.

KTMOFFROADRACING UK

KTM USA and WORCS champion Kurt Caselli kindly invited Jonny Walker to attend the final round of the America Endurocross Championship in Las Vegas at the Orleans Arena.

JW jetted in just over a week before to prepare himself and make some practising with Kurt and his friends, the Indoor World Enduro Championship starts this week so the Las Vegas event was really important to prepare for that.

Jonny riding a KTM 250 XC instead of his usual 300 showed good promise in the practice sessions and made 3rd fastest time behind Cody Webb and Taddy Blazusiak. After practice each rider makes just one hot lap to decide gate position for the qualifying heats, a slight mistake in the rock section dropped him to 6th fastest but still a good position to gain a decent starting position in one of the 3 qualifying groups. The start in Vegas is very short and directly into a 180 degree bend, almost every race was won from a holeshot and as the track is so tight and gnarly and passing difficult the start is everything.

So in his heat race he got second pick on the gate behind series number 2 KTM's Mike Brown, Browny made the holeshot with Jonny in hot pursuit, these two pulled a small gap on the rest of the field and it looked like Jonny would easily qualify , but he stalled in the rocks and got jammed up, he dropped to 4th positions and could only return to 3rd by the flag, not good enough as only top 2 go to the final.

So now we had to make the LCQ race and JW got a terrible gate choice and even worse start, but he quickly worked his way to the front, the racing was desperate in the LCQ with all riders nervous and making many mistakes, Jonny described it as the messiest race he had ever done, he also made mistakes and dropped back but In the later stage put in several solid laps to move up to 2nd and right behind the leader, good enough to join the nights two final races.

With qualifying from the LCQ it meant Jonny was almost last to join the start line and had to start from second row !!! he hoped to squeeze up the inside on the first turn, but other riders cut him off and he got hooked up in the tyres, but he pushed hard from almost last to each lap pick riders off and eventually made 6th position.

In the second final he was not so lucky, in the first turn other riders crashed and JW got caught up with them, another start from the back and several other small incidents meant he could do no better than a disappointing 10th.

Jonny Walker, KTM 250 XC: “I have really enjoyed my time in USA, I must give special thanks to Kurt Caselli and KTM USA for giving me this chance, I hope I can come back next year and make a better result, my riding was good but I just suffered with more than my fair share of mistakes, the racing is so close and aggressive out here and everybody is making mistakes, its a case of limiting them.”

Julian Stevens, Team Manager: “This was a great experience for JW and excellent preparation for the Indoor World Championship, it would have been nice to have been closer to Taddy and we never got chance to race against him, he was on top form and we congratulate him for another championship, I hope that in Italy this weekend when Jonny is back on his familiar 300 he can be fighting for the podium, thanks to all the American supporters and helpers who made us all feel so welcome”