Master Blaz-ter!

In a night of championship celebrations at the Palau Sant Jordi stadium in Barcelona, Spain, it was KTM's Polish superstar Taddy Blazusiak who clinched the 2012 FIM World SuperEnduro Championship. 

 

Wrapping up the title in convincing fashion by winning eight of the nine SuperEnduro finals over the three round series, Blazusiak capped off what has been an outstanding 15-months of competition. 

 

While Italy's Alex Salvini (Husqvarna) recorded his best result of the series with second overall, it was the battle behind him for third that generated most attention. 

 

Going to Barcelona, Britain's Jonny Walker (KTM) held second position in the points standings by virtue of a slender two-point advantage over Husaberg's Joakim Ljunggren. 

 

However with three races and a potential 60 points up for grabs, that position was anything but secure.

 

Starting the night by dominating the qualification race, Blazusiak put himself into the prime position to secure the title in the opening SuperEnduro final of the night. For Walker, his qualification was anything but a successful one. 

 

Starting badly, he later suffered multiple crashes throughout the race before eventually failing to finish due to twisting the front end of his KTM.

 

As one of the ‘priority' riders Jonny's mistakes didn't rule him out of making it into the finals. But demoted to a second row start for the finals, Walker had most definitely given Ljunggren the upper hand.

 

Knowing that victory in the opening race of the night would clinch the title, the fast-starting Blazusiak grabbed an early race lead. 

 

Mounting a charge to distance himself from the rest of the chasing pack, Blazusiak had opened up a six-second advantage when the race was stopped on lap three. 

 

While holding second, Salvini crashed on the back side of a blind log crossing. 

 

Unable to avoid the stricken Husqvarna, rider after rider piled up behind him until eventually the track became blocked. 

 

Restarting the race, Blazusiak again holeshot and this time rode to a comfortable victory to secure the world championship. 

 

Unhurt from the pile-up, Salvini followed Taddy home for second, as both Walker and Ljunggren traded places. 

 

Benefiting from an improved position following the restart, Ljunggren stayed out of trouble to finish the race in third, while Walker struggled to recover from a second-row start, to finish three places behind in sixth spot.

 

 

Rd 3 – Palau Sant Jordi, Barcelona, SPAIN

 1 Tadeusz Blazusiak (POL - KTM) 20 + 14 + 20 = 54

 2 Alex Salvini (I - Husqvarna) 17 +  8 + 14 = 39

 3 Jonny WALKER (GB - KTM)  9 + 20 + 10 = 39

 4 Ivan Cervantes (E - Gas Gas)  8 + 11 + 17 = 36

 5 Alfredo Gomez (E - Husaberg) 10 + 17 +  9 = 36

 6 Cristobal Guerrero (E - KTM) 11 +  7 + 11 = 29

 7 Joakim Ljunggren (S - Husaberg) 14 +  9 +  6 = 29

 8 Dani Gibert (E - Husaberg)  6 + 10 +  8 = 24

 9 Fabien Planet (F - Sherco)  2 +  5 +  7 = 14

10 Victor Guerrero (E - KTM)  4 +  0 +  5 =  9

11 Mike Hartmann (D - Husaberg) 1+6+2=9, 12 Lorenzo Santolino (E - Husqvarna) 5+4+0=9, 13 Johan Edlund (S - Husqvarna) 0+3+4=7, 14 Doug LAMPKIN (GB - Gas Gas) 3+1+3=7, 15 Xavier Galindo (E - Husaberg) 7+0+0=7, 16 Pau Botella (E - TM) 0+2+1=3.

RACE ONE: 1 Blazusiak (8:49.52), 2 Salvini, 3 Ljunggren, 4 Cristobal Guerrero, 5 Gomez, 6 WALKER, 7 Cervantes, 8 Galindo, 9 Gibert, 10 Santolino, 11 Victor Guerrero, 12 LAMPKIN, 13 Planet, 14 Hartmann.

RACE TWO: 1 WALKER (9:02.535), 2 Gomez, 3 Blazusiak, 4 Cervantes, 5 Gibert, 6 Ljunggren, 7 Salvini, 8 Cristobal Guerrero, 9 Hartmann, 10 Planet, 11 Santolino, 12 Edlund, 13 Botella, 14 LAMPKIN.

RACE THREE: 1 Blazusiak (8:56.670), 2 Cervantes, 3 Salvini, 4 Cristobal Guerrero, 5 WALKER, 6 Gomez, 7 Gibert, 8 Planet, 9 Ljunggren, 10 Victor Guerrero, 11 Edlund, 12 LAMPKIN, 13 Hartmann, 14 Botella.

FINAL SERIES STANDINGS after 3 rounds: 1 Tadeusz  Blazusiak 174 points (CHAMPION), 2 Jonny WALKER 120, 3 Joakim Ljunggren 108, 4 Salvini 94, 5 Cervantes 89, 6 Cristobal Guerrero 88, 7 Gomez 79, 8 Galindo 73, 9 Gibert 41, 10 Hartmann 40, 11 Webb 27, 12 LAMPKIN 26, 13 Edlund 18, 14 Planet 14, 15 Thain 10, 16 Victor Guerrero 9, 17 Santolino 9, 18 Joly 7, 19 Hostinsky 6, 20 Szymkowski 6,...