Britskreig at Erzberg
By TMX Archives on 14th Jun 07
Erzberg first timers dominated the top ten positions at the world's toughest Hare Scramble race as Poland's Tadeusz Teddy' Blazusiak claimed a surprise wild card win aboard a borrowed KTM! Among the 19 riders that reached the finish, Britain's Tom Sagar claimed an impressive runner-up spot placing ahead of Finland's Juha Salminen as KTM-mounted riders fill the podium.
POLISH trials ace Tadeusz Teddy' Bzazusiakclaimed a sensational victory at the XIII running of the Erzberg RodeoHare Scramble, finishing the gruelling race in a time of just underone-and-a-half hours. Competing aboard a borrowed KTM, and havingearned himself a wild card first row starting position after an amazingperformance in the RodeoX Endurocross race held the previous evening,Teddy took control of the race shortly after the start and was thennever headed.
With the course made harder this year due to thehigh number of finishers in '06, Teddy used his trials skills to goodeffect and despite being an Erzberg first-timer, finished six minutesahead of Britain's Tom Sagar, also competing for the first time. Third,after a disastrous start, was Finn Juha Salminen.
Despite not making the greatest of starts,Blazusiak battled through the dust of the first few kilometres of therace and began working his way forward as soon as the race started toget technical. As the course got slower and increasingly morechallenging, Teddy took the lead and claimed what is so far the biggestwin of his career. Not bad for a rider that last competed on an endurobike in 2004!
''The race was amazing,'' commented Blazusiak, ''Ijust came here to have some fun so to win is unbelievable, I'm sohappy. I think I started about 20th and then after the first turn Icouldn't see because of the dust. After a few kilometres I was toldthat I was leading, which was a big surprise. I decided to go quitefast so that I could try and extend my lead, but I was also making sureI didn't crash on the rocks and managed to keep my speed up on all thedifficult sections. I didn't have any problems, didn't get stuck, anddidn't break anything on my bike. I got lost a few times but I was fastenough on the rocks to pull away and win.''
2007 Erzberg Rodeo
Hare Scramble: 1 Tadeusz Blazusiak (KTM) 1.29:48;2 Tom Sagar (KTM) 1.35:36; 3 Juha Salminen (KTM) 1.42:45; 4 WayneBraybrook (Gas Gas) 1.47:10; 5 Paul Edmondson (Suzuki) 1.47:54; 6Gerhard Forster (Beta) 1.48:47; 7 Paul Bolton (Honda) 1.57:05; 8 MarcoTarkkala (KTM) 2.03:50; 9 Kyle Redmond (KTM) 2.09:49; 10 RalfScheidhauer (KTM) 2.11:20; 11 Rudi Poschl (KTM) 2.16:05; 12 MarkJackson (KTM) 2.25:35; 13 Ralf Dennenmoser (Beta) 2.30:20; 14 ErichBrandauer (Husaberg) 2.31:13; 15 Hansi Leitner (Gas Gas) 2.34:16; 16Rene Dietrich (KTM) 2.49:23; 17 Daryll Curtis (KTM) 2.56:22; 18 MartyHalmazna (KTM) 2.58:21; 19 Alex Antor (KTM) 2.58:45.
Prologue: 1 Simo Kirssi (BMW) 8.44:03; 2 WernerMuller (KTM 950) 8.47:09; 3 Juha Salminen (KTM) 9.07:62; 4 Micky Dymond(BMW) 9.10:83; 5 Giovanni Sala (KTM) 9.12:19; 6 Bernhard Walzer (KTM)9.12:71; 7 Werner Muller (KTM 300) 9.16:30; 8 Chris Pfeiffer (BMW 1200)9.19:25; 9 Marko Tarkkala (KTM) 9.20:41; 10 Paul Edmondson (Suzuki)9:21.67; 11 Chris Pfeiffer (BMW 450) 9.23:21; 12 Heinz Hochreiter(Suzuki) 9.24:24; 13 Thomas Gunther (Husaberg) 9.25:01; 14 Rudi Poschl(KTM) 9.26:58; 15 Klaus Martinjak (Aprilia) 9.27:84; 16 Paul Schrank(Beta) 9.29:63; 17 Gunther Scophol (KTM) 9.30:9; 18 Gary Trachy (BMW)9.31:86; 19 Andi Lettenbichler (BMW) 9.35:4; 20 Ralf Dennenmoser (Beta)9.36:08...33 Tom Sagar (KTM) 9.45:08; 34 Wayne Braybrook (Gas Gas)9.46:11; 45 Paul Bolton (Honda) 9.50:44; 72 Justin Wilson (KTM)10.4:89; 75 Mark Jackson (KTM) 10.07:09; 134 Adam Smith (Husaberg)10.25:65; 160 William Midgley (KTM) 10.31:09; 167 Justin Carter (KTM)10.32:41; 191 Keith Jenkins (KTM) 10.37:24; 224 Derry Milling (KTM)10.42:8; 229 Richard Main (Yamaha) 10.43:58; 261 David Mayers (KTM)10.50; 371 Stephen Little (KTM) 11.03:88; 441 James Wood (Gas Gas)11.12:69; 608 Anthony Williams (KTM) 11.32:86; 637. Julian Stevens(KTM) 11.37.33; 700 Simon Douglas (KTM) 11.44:21; 722 Darren Cowen (GasGas) 11.47:23; 772 Paul Mitchell (Yamaha) 11.59.51; 792 Neil Foster(KTM) 12.02.5; 893 Malcom Magnall (KTM) 12.27.39; 916 Hannes Tanzer(Husqvarna) 12.30:77...
Twin-cylinder class: 1 Simo Kirssi (BMW) 9.02:93;2 David Knight (KTM) 9.06:8; 3 Werner Muller (KTM) 9.14:48; 4 Gio Sala(KTM) 9.21:27; 5 Marc Coma (KTM) 9.29:5; 6 Micky Dymond (BMW) 9.31:71;7 Chris Pfeiffer (BMW) 9.35:05; 8 Greg Tracy (BMW) 9.42:09.
For full report, results and pictures see T+MX NEWS, Friday, June 15, 2007.