BROWN WINS DRAMA FILLED ENDUROCROSS ROUND TWO
Mike Brown leads the field home at Salt Lake City to win round two of the GEICO AMA EnduroCross Championship
“The track was good for me tonight,” told Brown. “It was fast but the rocks were tough and a lot of guys were going down there.
“When I saw the other guys behind me crash after the start I told myself I better go now. The start was the whole race. If I started third or fourth I probably couldn’t have won – these guys are going so fast.”
While Brown led off the start it was the second-turn pile up behind him involving defending champion Cody Webb (KTM) that became the talking point of the night.
Right after the finish tyre jump – into the second turn of the course – was were most of the drama on the evening unfolded.
As Webb and Colton Haaker (Husqvarna) charged for the inside line, they both refused to give way. It resulted in both of them going down and the rest of the class stacking up, around and even on top of them.
© Brian Jefferies
Haaker remounted quickest – inside the top 10 – while Webb suffered worst with multiple bikes and riders blocking his way. Webb finally got going again in near last position.
Somehow Beta’s Max Gerston made his way through relatively unscathed and held second for the first half of the race with newly crowned SuperEnduro Junior World Champion Ty Tremaine (KTM) in third.
Behind them, Haaker and Webb were on a charge. By the halfway point, Haaker had worked his way past Cory Graffunder (KTM) and Tremaine to put the pressure on Gerston.
Gerston looked strong, holding him off until nearly lap 10 of the 15-lap main when Haaker made a smooth move on the rocks to take second.
“I wanted to shut the door on that second corner and Cody didn’t want to let me inside so we just collided right in the beginning,” explained Haaker. “He was on the inside and I had a wheel on him but he probably felt like he had it too. Both of us felt like we didn’t want to back off.
“I managed to get up faster and get out of there in the top ten and put in some good, consistent laps. I finally caught up to Brown on the last lap but ran out of laps. Second is good though.”
© Brian Jefferies
Grabbing a debut podium result, Max Gerston took third…
“I’m feeling like a million bucks. I feel like this is where I belong and we’ve been working so, so hard for such a long time to get here. I just eat, sleep, breathe EnduroCross, hopefully this is a start of a big thing.”
Like Haaker, Webb was flying too. His pace only impeded by the fastest line being occupied by a slower rider or lapped rider. He ended up going down once more but still, somehow, managed to fight back to salvage fourth overall.
With Webb in fourth, Graffunder completed the top five.
© Brian Jefferies
In the Women’s class, Sandra Gomez (Husqvarna) took her first EnduroCross win of the season after missing Daytona, despite crashing on the first log after the start.
The Women’s Main Event was packed with action as defending champion Lexi Pechout took the lead early. A hard-charging Shelby Turner followed with Morgan Tanke – round one winner – in third.
Slowly but surely Gomez closed in on the front three. And with two laps to go, she moved into second place.
When it came down to the last lap, Gomez and Tanke were bar-to-bar with Tanke going down hard and Gomez taking the win.
The next round of the GEICO AMA EnduroCross series takes place at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas on Friday, May 1.
RESULTS – AMA ENDUROCROSS CHAMPIONSHIP, ROUND TWO
1. Mike Brown (Husqvarna)
2. Colton Haaker (Husqvarna)
3. Max Gerston (Beta)
4. Cody Webb (KTM)
5. Cory Graffunder (KTM)
6. Ty Tremaine (KTM)
7. Nick Thompson (KTM)
8. Kyle Redmond (Beta)
9. Kevin Rookstool (Suzuki)
10. Destry Abbott (Kawasaki)
GEICO AMA EnduroCross 2015 Point Standings (unofficial)
1. Cody Webb 45pts
2. Colton Haaker 45
3. Mike Brown 43
4. Max Gerston 36
5. Kyle Redmond 34
6. Cory Graffunder 34