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Endurocross
The 2nd Annual Maxxis Endurocross was held again at the Orleans hotel in Las Vegas. Brian and I got invitations which meant that we did not have to ride the Friday qualifiers, we were in Saturdays program. We didn't get to see Friday's program but heard that it was exciting. Most of the talk was about how aggressive Josh McLevy and Wally Palmer were. Wally crashed out but Josh got the final transfer spot with Ryan Dudek of Cycle World taking the $1000 that Dirt Rider put up for Fridays winner. Saturday we had a practice lap followed by a timed qualifying lap. As you can see by my picture below I wasn't the fastest qualifier. I had a good lap going but came up short on two telephone poles I was trying to double. The crash looks nasty but it didn't hurt so I got up as quickly as possible and finished out my lap. Brian put in a good lap and was about in the middle of the pack in qualifying times. Ryan Hughes looked super impressive. The amount of aggressiveness that he has is amazing. He charges so hard and hits things harder than I would be able to. He was the fast qualifier ahead of David Knight and John Dowd. Crashing in my qualifying lap put me in the second row in the first heat race. With Hughes, Dowd, Abbott, Pearson and six other really fast guys and only two riders advancing to the main, I knew I had my work cut out for me in the heat race. I didn't ride aggressive enough but ended up racing quite a bit with Destry Abbott in the heat race. In Brian's heat race he got caught up in a first turn pile up that put him at the back of the pack. He rode well and was making up positions but missed out on a transfer spot with a fourth place finish. In the other qualifier was one of the best races of the night. Mike Lafferty got the holeshot but his teammate Kurt Caselli made a aggressive pass to take the lead. At the same time Cervantes from Spain also passed Lafferty. Cervantes passed Caselli when Kurt had a little bobble in the rocks. That set up a Caselli- Lafferty duel for the last transfer spot. Mike caught Kurt on the last lap and they raced down the last straight side by side. The last obstacle was a big log that Caselli launched to the crowds delight and almost landed on Lafferty. Lafferty hung tough on the inside to take the final spot while Caselli picked his bike off the ground and headed for semi. In the semi I didn't get the start I needed but rode better. I again raced a bit with Destry and finished in fifth. The winner made the main and second through fourth made the last chance. Since I was fifth I was going....to Wilseyville. Brian again got a poor start but rode well. He was in about third spot but for some reason didn't cross the finish line and got DQ'ed. We had a flight out for Sacramento that night so we got undressed and headed for the airport. We heard that the main was exciting. Ricky Deitrich led for most of the race before David Knight roared by. Knight took the win with John Dowd making a last lap pass on Deitrich for second. Hughes was fast but crashed, tried to go fast and crashed harder and finished at the back of the pack.
TSF photo from Racerxill.com |
