BY SEAN FINLEY
PHOTOGRAPHY BY KIT PALMER
I
t was a fight to the finish between Colton Haaker and
Cody Webb for the main-event win at the GEICO AMA
EnduroCross at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas, and
when the dust settled, it was Haaker, on the Rockstar/Lu-
cas Oil Husqvarna, coming away clean as a whistle.
VOL. 52 ISSUE 18 MAY 5, 2015 P97
Briefly...
Colton Haaker, who now holds
the points lead after three rounds,
nearly missed the opening race of
the season having suffered broken
ribs and a ruptured spleen just two
weeks prior to the opening round in
Florida. He now has 2-2-1 record so
far this season and the red plate. "I
knew that for this race, I was finally
back to 100 percent, so I could really
push for the win" Haaker said after
the race.
The next round of the series for the
Men and Women will take place as
part of the X Games on Friday, May
15, in Austin, Texas. Twenty-four rid-
ers earn invites and the top 15 from
the 2014 season and past Enduro
X medal winners are automatically
included. The remaining riders are
selected by top finishes at the first
three rounds of the GEICO Enduro-
Cross Series, so there were three
spots on the line in Vegas. Jamie
Lanza, the longtime EnduroCross,
ISDE and WORCS racer earned an
invite with an 11
th
-place finish. Eric
Rhoten and Tucker Larrieu are the
other two riders that are expected to
earn invites.
Utah's Nick Thompson burst onto
the EnduroCross scene in 2014 and
qualified for several pro main events.
He has qualified for all three main
events so far in 2015 and turned
some heads again in Vegas by win-
ning an exciting heat race battle with
Max Gerston, Kyle Redmond and
Cory Graffunder.
Spain's Sandra Gomez took her
continued on next page
Colton Haaker
(10) grabbed
the holeshot,
edging out his
teammate Mike
Brown (behind
Haaker) and
Cody Webb (1).