Blazusiak Wins First Ever X Games Endurocross

CC | August 3, 2011

Maria Forsberg Wins Women’s Class!

The 2011 GEICO AMA EnduroCross series, presented by Lucas Oil kicked off as part of X Games 17. The inaugural X Games appearance could not have been more exciting as Taddy Blazusiak, the KTM rider from Poland that has dominated the sport for the past two years had to go through a Last Chance Qualifier just to make the main event. He then had to work his way past a very strong Kevin Rookstool, Geoff Aaron and Mike Brown, who passed him back multiple times to get to the lead in the main event. Blazusiak went from third to first in one section when Aaron went over the bars just as Blazusiak was challenging Brown for second. Brown also moved past Aaron take over second and held it to the finish.

The battle for the final podium spot ultimately went to Monster Kawasaki’s Justin Soule, who had to fight off repeated challenges from Joakim Ljunggren from Sweden. Geoff Aaron recovered for fifth position. Destry Abbott, Kurt Caselli, Cody Webb, Taylor Robert and Kevin Rookstool rounded out the top ten.

Several top riders did not even qualify for the main event in the very stacked field or riders. Ricky Dietrich, the 2008 EnduroCross champion and current top ten Outdoor MX competitor was leading the LCQ but got stuck on a wet log leading into the last lap and fell out of a qualifying position. Colton Haaker, the two time Junior EnduroCross champion just missed the main event by getting third in both his heat race and LCQ after first turn crashes each time. Kendal Norman, the multi time Baja 1000 champion, Ryan Hughes, Gary Sutherlin, Kyle Redmond, and Husqvarna’s Jamie Lanza also failed to qualify for the main event.

In the first ever Women’s EnduroCross event, KTM backed Maria Forsberg dominated the event and lapped the entire field. Tara Geiger rode her Lucas Oil backed Honda to second place and Kacy Martinez led the early laps and looked comfortable until a crash took her out of the lead.

The EnduroCross series will now head directly north to Everett Washington in less than two weeks for the second visit to the region. Last year was an amazing event with a sold out Comcast Arena so get your tickets now. And if you will be anywhere near Indianapolis Indiana on Friday, August 26th, the EnduroCross series will be kicking off the MotoGP event weekend inside the Pepsi Coliseum located at the Indiana State Fairgrounds.

Ticket information for all of the GEICO EnduroCross events can be found at www.EnduroCross.com.