VOL. 50 ISSUE 38 SEPTEMBER 24, 2013
No one was
immune to
mistakes on the
Ontario track,
even winner
Taddy Blazusiak.
RISKY
BUSINESS
Taddy Blazusiak blasts to round three
win on fast and tricky Ontario course
BY JEAN TURNER
PHOTOGRAPHY BY KIT PALMER
H
e may have lit up the STAPLES Center and left with the gold,
but Taddy Blazusiak did not taste victory at a 2013 AMA EnduroCross race until now. The defending champion took his
first win of the series at round three in Ontario, California, where he
was able to best his KTM teammate Mike Brown for the main event
win. American Beta's Cody Webb climbed through the field to take
third, his first podium of the season.
Blazusiak took the victory in his dominant style – a style we haven't
seen much of since 2012 – by biding his time behind Brown, waiting
for his moment, making the pass stick and pulling away to a convincing win. What made the difference for the defending champ?
P33
Briefly...
Kyle Redmond also went back to
the drawing board midseason after
having parted ways with RPM Racing KTM. The FMF-backed rider
opted to saddle up a new KTM 250
SX for the remainder of the season,
admitting he was "tired of the fourstroke thing." With only three days
on the bike, Redmond was able
to fit a new program together and
come to Ontario with a sense of rejuvenation.
"I really don't know why more guys
aren't on two-strokes," Redmond
said. "It was a good first race. It was
a lot to figure out in one week. My
dad and buddy, Eric Jones, helped
me out a lot. That bike comes from
really good stock so it's easy to
ride. I had a good night. There was
only, like, five of us that were jumping that matrix. In the main event I
had the worst start. I was dead last.
I battled through and came to sixth
but those top-five guys were going
really fast. If I want to run with them
I got to start with them. I had some
really good battles all night so I'm
pretty happy with that."
We've known he has the speed,
and now he has the team support
behind him, but Colton Haaker's
limiting factor now seems to be
the small mistakes. Despite setting
the hot lap before the main event,
Haaker's race was plagued by minor mistakes that ultimately cost
him a shot at the podium. "It was
a snowball effect for me tonight,"
Haaker explained. "I stalled and
that made me lose three positions
and then I was just coming back,
made a pass, got it back into fourth
and then had a crash that was kinda
violent. From there it was just surcontinued on next page
