Words and photos by Jeff Kardas

Yes this is Motocross.com and yes, this is an article about the Endurocross race in Columbus, Ohio this past weekend. What business does this have being on Motocross.com is a valid question, so here's the answer: Because Endurocross racing is crazy hardcore stuff that ANY moto-head can appreciate.

Typically held in hockey or down-sized basketball arenas, Endurocross has grown exponentially since its inception just four years ago. Founded by Eric Peronnard (of US Open and Bercy and other international fame) and originally held as a one-off event at The Orleans arena in Las Vegas, this hybridization of our sport has since expanded. For 2008, the series consists of 6 rounds, of which the Columbus round at Ohio State University's Schottenstein Center was round #5. The first-ever motorsport event to be held in the Buckeye state's premier athletic facility, the fact that it even happened is no small miracle. According to Peronnard, the Schott's general manager actually came to him to ask if Eric knew of any good motorsports events to hold there (pulling on their previous experiences together promoting the US Open at the MGM Grand Garden Arena – of which the Schott GM had managed at the time). It just so happened that Peronnard DID have a good motorsport event for the Schott, and Endurocross at Ohio State was born.

The series is a new one, really, as this is only the second or third year that one could become an Endurocross series champion. Past champs include David Knight and his factory KTM teammate Taddy Blazusiak – who's a story in and of himself. Blazusiak busted onto the scene about two years ago when KTM called him up to provide some competition for their completely dominant duo of Juha Salminen and David Knight, who were winning everything in sight on both sides of the pond. Taddy, a former Polish world Trials champ, showed up at the Vegas Endurocross and straight-up beat Knight at his own game – much to the dismay of Knight, who proceeded to launch his bike into him at the finish. To follow that up (and add insult to injury for Knight), Blazusiak then beat him at the Red Bull Last Man Standing and the famously hard Erzberg Enduro in Austria.

Long story short, Blazusiak has since replaced Knight as the top KTM extreme off-road racer, and Knight not only decided to skip the entire Endurocross series this year but is not even mentioned in KTM's 2009 team lineup DESPITE winning the GNCC title this season! To add to it all, Blazusiak's appearance in Columbus was only his second of the season, as he's just returning from a horrific face injury he sustained earlier in the year while racing a WORCS race in Washington. Having several plates and screws installed to reconstruct his cheek bones, eye sockets and nose, Blazusiak appears none the worse for wear as he took home third in Denver in addition to winning the Columbus round.

Not only did Blazusiak win here, he appeared to be absolutely dominant up until the main event, where he was actually challenged by trials ace Geoff Aaron for the win during the entire final lap. Clearly at an advantage, these two trials-riders-turned-endurocross-stars looked to be the only racers on the track that could come up with any sort of a rhythm on this exceptionally technical and difficult iteration of an already insanely challenging sport. Where most riders made it through the two rock sections with maybe a 10% chance of getting through cleanly, these two were able to dance their way in and out relatively easily, and easily making 20 seconds or MORE per lap on their competitors.

It was apparent that the harder these tracks get, the more the pure trials rider will be at an advantage. This really is nothing new, either, as up until this year trials bikes were allowed to race right along side the regular bikes in the premier class events but since the right rider on the right trials bike was often almost an unfair advantage, they were outlawed in 2008. And not only was the trials bike itself outlawed (from the premier class – Open Expert), but trials tires were outlawed as well, which had become somewhat of the hot ticket to gain traction on the gnarly rock and log sections that typically make up an endurocross course.

In an attempt to gain somewhat of an advantage, a couple of the factory teams have moved to cutting slits in the knobs of their tires, in addition to using road-race style tire warmers to get the knobs as warm as possible to hook up on the rocks and logs.

Speaking of factory teams, there is no shortage of them in this series. KTM and Kawasaki give Endurocross their full attention. In fact, Kawasaki actually focuses their off-road effort on it just as much they do the WORCS series, and more so than the GNCC's. This is almost unbelievable, really, and shows just how significant this type of racing is in the eyes of the manufacturers. Monster Energy/Kawasaki brings their entire off-road squad to each round, including the team transporter, complete with riders of the absolute top caliber in the sport: multi-time desert champ Destry Abbott

(shown here warming up outside on the loading docks), former Supercross star and Kaw factory rider Damon Huffman

, WORCS champion Ricky Dietrich

and occasional regionally-based riders – this weekend it was factory Kaw GNCC Lites rider Scott Watkins.

In fact, Huffman had a decent chance of leaving central Ohio with the 2008 AMA Endurocross series title, assuming something bad happened to teammate Dietrich who'd been sitting second. Since Blazusiak had missed the first several rounds, the ‘ringer' wasn't a threat, but luck wasn't on Huffman's side this night. Things went awry for the smooth, lanky Huffman early on as he had problems throughout qualifying, always struggling on the ultra-gnarly track. Coming into his heat race, he started off decent but fell on the first lap, dislocating his pinky finger and DNF'ing, heading to the semi. Oddly enough, the EMT's would not re-set his finger w/o the presence of a physician, so Damon did it himself, and found himself back on the ground in his Semi. This lead him to the LCQ which, in Endurocross, is a winner-take-all deal and... Huffman didn't win. Neither did his teammates Abbott or Watkins. This left Ricky Dietrich as the sole Monster/Kawasaki rider in the main event, and he represented them well. In the bigger picture, though, this meant that Huffman was now behind the 8-ball for the series championship heading into the final round in Vegas.

But don't think for a minute that Endurocross is all about the big stars of the sport like, say, Supercross or national motocross is. Not a chance. Anyone can race one of these, and there are actually several classes to race and qualifiers all day leading up to the finals each Saturday night. Trials guys do have their own class, and it's arguably the most entertaining of the night. With studs like Patrick and Phil Smage out there running around on their little tiny seat-less Shercos

, it's apparent that trials bikes just might be the real ticket to this form of racing or, at the very least, some hybrid between a trials bike and regular off-road bike would certainly be. Oddly enough, there was even a guy on a YZ85 out there with them

, and he didn't do half bad. The Smage brothers were simply awesome to watch though as they battled it out with their ultra-smooth and precise style. Patrick actually rode a “normal” KTM into the Expert main event, which is more than most of the other riders on hand that night can say. Another fun class was the Open 2 strokes, who had a few quite solid riders such as the Team Geico guys {EXWRH_08.JPG}(Eric Rodgers and JT Bennett, plus Josh McLevy) and a bunch of local guys who showed up from southern Ohio to have a go at it. Open 4-stroke was won by Dirt Bike Magazine's Chris Denison, who's won several rounds this season already.

The main event was a good one. The holeshot went to Mike Brown – did we mention that Mike Brown and his factory KTM were there? Oh sorry about that. Well, he was and despite barely qualifying for the main event, the former 125cc National Motocross champion looked solid, determined and happy all night. After snagging the holeshot ahead of Dietrich, he faded only a bit to end up 4th while Dietrich laid down some relatively quick laps to stay ahead of Blazusiak, who'd tipped over in the first turn. Also moving up quickly was Geoff Aaron on his Christini 2x2 wheel drive KTM. Talk about an almost unfair advantage – stick a trials champ like Aaron on a bike that drives with both wheels and throw him on a really intense Endurocross course and, well, he makes some waves. As previously mentioned, Aaron was excellent all night but up until the main didn't really appear to be on Taddy's pace. But, with the Pole being slowed somewhat while moving up through the pack (and past Dietrich into the lead), Aaron was able to gain and match the pace of Blazusiak. In fact, by the last lap, it was clear that Aaron was the man to beat as he pushed Taddy hard right up to the finish line to end up second on the night. The Blaz took his second win in a row and looks to be fully recovered from his facial reconstructions... and he is one happy winner.

So, long story short, Endurocross is a good time. In the wake of the major Supercross and motocross seasons, and prior to arenacross and the other off-season Supercross races picking up, this was a great event for Motocross.com to attend. It was such a dramatically different atmosphere than anything else we'd done all year and yet, it felt somehow familiar in that it takes a rider back to his or her roots in woods riding or just plain play-riding. The event is run quite professionally by the Primedia staff, and while the fan attendance isn't what one may expect considering the caliber of riders on hand, it didn't seem like anybody really cared – as a matter of fact, it honestly seemed like they run these races just for the fun of it, and that's a rare observation these days. If you happen to be in Vegas the weekend of November 21-22, be sure to swing by the Orleans Arena and check it out. You'll feel right at home.