The KTM Shooting-Star dominates the toughest Red Bull Hare Scramble of all times! The 500 qualified riders out of 32 nations were greatet at the start of the notoriuos Offroad race by blue skies, sunny conditions - and the most selective Hare Scramble track of all times. The first row of 50 riders alone hosted 21 different nations and once again the world elite of Offroad riders teamed up shoulder to shoulder with ambitious privateers from all around the world.
Right after the strat at 12:00 a.m. BMW factory rider Andreas Lettenbichler (GER) took the lead, closely followed by KTM factory cracks Taddy Blazusiak (POL), Cyril Despres (AND) and Juha Salminen (FIN). It took a mere 20 minutes before last year's winner Blazusiak took the lead from the sympathic German, and from now on it was Taddy' own interstellar race. It was predicted that the riders wouldn't make it to the finish line in less than 2 hours this year, but Blazusiak proofed all experts wrong. Taddy cleared all 16 checkpoints of the track in an unbelieveable 1:20:13 hours!
15 minutes behind of Blazusiak, a fully exhausted Lettenbichler piloted his BMW 450 Sportenduro on second place, despite the fact that he lost one of his footpegs (!) at checkpoint three and had to fight with massive gearbox problems.
3 minutes later the crowd inside the Erzberg-Arena cheared for an extremely happy Paul Bolton (UK), who raced onto the Podium of the Red Bull Hare Scramble on his Sandiford Honda CRF250. Paul attended the Erzbergrodeo in 2007 for the first time, finished 7th - but his third place of today is a real sensation.
Dakar-Winer Cyril Despres (AND) placed 4th, and 19-year old youngster Kyle Redmond from California piloted his Christini All-Wheel-Drive KTM 300 on a remarkable 5th place. Redmond's team colleague and 10-times AMA Trials Champion Geoff Aaron (USA) crowned his debut at the red Bull Hare Scramble with an outstanding 6th place. Aaron started the race out of the second row, so his finish amongst the Top-10 is a really remarkable success.
Aprilia factory rider Nicola Paganon (F) arrived on his Aprilia RXV 450 as 12th at the finish line, marking another milestone at this years Erzbergrodeo: never before in the 14-years history of the event had a twin-cylinder Enduro bike reached the finish line of the toughest single-day race on the planet.
In the end, 36 riders from 14 different nations and three continents finished the extremely tough race, with more than 32.000 spectators on site.
Results RED BULL HARE SCRAMBLE, Sunday May 25th 2008:
1. Taddy Blazusiak (POL, KTM), 1:20:132. Andreas Lettenbichler (GER, BMW), 1:35:583. Paul Bolton (UK, Honda), 1:38:034. Cyril Despres (AND, KTM), 1:38:225. Kyle Redmond (USA, Christini KTM), 1:42:196. Geoff Aaron (USA, Christini KTM), 1:45:327. Gerhard Forster (GER, BMW), 1:46:158. Chris Birch (NZL, KTM), 1:47:359. Juha Salminen (FIN, KTM), 1:51:1910. Mark Jackson (UK, KTM), 2:04:4511. Ralf Scheidhauer (GER, KTM)12. Nicola Paganon (F, Aprilia)13. Darryl Curtis (RSA, KTM)14. Edward Jones (UK, KTM)15. Rene Dietrich (GER, KTM)16. Alex Antor (AND, KTM)17. Martin Craven (UK, KTM)18. Cory Graffunder (CAN, KTM)19. Andrew Reeves (IRE, KTM)20. Roland Sailer (AUT, KTM)
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Martin KettnerErzbergrodeo Press/Media Service-- ERZBERGRODEO
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