Blazusiak secures 2012 title in style

Poland’s Taddy Blazusiak – KTM has been crowned the 2012 FIM SuperEnduro World Champion following another superb performance, this time at the final round of the series inside the Palau Sant Jordi stadium in Barcelona, Spain. Winning two of the night’s three SuperEnduro finals Blazusiak once again proved exactly why he is the world’s fastest indoor enduro rider, doing so in front of 10,000 spectators. The championship’s rookie sensation Britain’s Jonny Walker - KTM capped off a fantastic end to his year clinching second overall in the series by beating Sweden’s Joakim Ljunggren – Husaberg into third overall. Knowing victory in the opening SuperEnduro final of the night would secure the world championship Blazusiak grabbed the holeshot and quickly set about building a lead. However, behind him a small crash by second placed Alex Salvini – Husqvarna caused a pile-up, which with the track blocked forced the race to be red flagged. Following the restart Blazusiak picked up where he had left off and rode to a comfortable race win, securing the 2012 SuperEnduro title in the process. Salvini recovered well in the restart to end the opening race in second but it was behind the top two where the real battle developed. Fighting for second overall in the championship, Ljunggren finished in third, two places ahead of his rival Britain’s Jonny Walker – KTM. Walker, who struggled in qualification, eventually finished sixth after starting from the second row on the start. With the start order reversed for the second SuperEnduro final of the night Walker capitalised on his front row start position to steal the holeshot. With a clear track ahead of him he quickly built up a six second advantage over Spain’s Alfredo Gomez – Husaberg while Blazusiak and Ljunggren struggled to work their way through the field. With three laps to run, Walker slid out entering the start straight but was able to remount just in front of Gomez. Sensing a possible victory in front of his home crowd a rejuvenated Gomez tried all he could to make the pass but was unable to get the better of Walker, who clinched his first victory of the 2012 season. The newly crowned champion, Blazusiak, rounded out the top three while Ljunggren could do no better than sixth. With Blazusiak already crowned world champion, the final SuperEnduro race of the night would decide who would claim the runner up position in the championship. Again Blazusiak was fastest out of the start gate with Salvini slotting into second. Ten laps later, Blazusiak would eventually win the final race of the championship as Spain’s Ivan Cervantes – Gas Gas passed Salvini on the final lap to claim a crown pleasing second. However, behind the leading trio Walker’s fifth place result was enough for him to earn the runner up position in this year’s championship while Ljunggren’s ninth place finish would leave him third overall for the series.