VOL. 51 ISSUE 47 NOVEMBER 25, 2014 P37
Haaker's Hail Mary
At the polar opposite end of
Webb's tactic, Haaker knew
his only chance of taking the
championship was by letting it all
hang out. The Rockstar Energy-
backed rider approached On-
tario with a no-holds-barred ap-
proach, despite a nagging thumb
injury that hindered him in Boise.
"I crashed in my main event
Hot Lap and I hurt my hand
again," Haaker said, looking at
his bandaged left thumb. "It's
been an ongoing thing. I wasn't
feeling too good before that
main, but I pulled it through and
got a good jump—a great start,
which I haven't really had all year.
I tried to run down Taddy after he
caught me on the first lap, but I
was losing grip out there with my
hand. The whole thing is just use-
less [indicating his hand]."
Haaker came into the Ontario
round 15-points back from Webb,
but only two points from Blazu-
siak which meant that champion-
ship runner-up position was still
up for grabs. There wasn't much
Haaker could do about Blazu-
siak's runaway win, however, and
Haaker was forced to settle for
third in the series.
Briefly...
land. Defending five-time champion
Taddy Blazusiak is already looking
forward to squaring off once again
with Webb. "He better get back into
training and not party his ass off be-
cause I'll be waiting for him again in
10 days," Blazusiak said with a laugh.
Taylor Robert and Mike Brown
were two of the only riders jumping
over the entire pool—a move that
evoked a favorable response from
the crowd every time. Robert was the
first to attempt the daring feat, which
involved gunning it from the tunnel
coming back into the arena through
Taylor Robert
(33) and Colton
Haaker (10) both
got off to a fast
start in the final.
continued on next page
