The following is from the organizers of the 2017 AMA EnduroCross Series, regarding Cody Webb’s main event and series title victory at the Ontario EnduroCross:
ONTARIO, CA. (November 18, 2017)–Cody Webb took his sixth straight AMA EnduroCross main event win, this one inside the Citizens Business Bank Arena in Ontario, California. The FMF KTM Factory Racing backed rider also earned his third AMA EnduroCross championship in four seasons. RPM KTM-backed Ty Tremaine put up a good fight and finished second on the night. And Team SRT’s Cory Graffunder finished the season strong with a third.
The Super EnduroCross Junior championship, a championship within a championship, recognizes Super EnduroCross riders twenty-one and under; Team SRT’s Trystan Hart held off Tremaine to take the title by a single point. The two also finished second and third respectively in the overall championship.
In the Women’s class, Canada’s Shelby Turner, took her second championship in a row. The Canadian won five of the seven races and finished second in the two races she did not win.
Webb started the night with the fastest hot lap during the afternoon and then also took the win in the gate pick qualifier. Tremaine was second in the hot laps and kept Webb honest with a second-place finish in the qualifier. Cooper Abbott held off Hart for third in the gate pick qualifier.
The gate pick qualifier also determines the match ups for the bracket races and the final came down to Webb and Tremaine. Tremaine put up a good fight, but Webb managed to take the lead out of the first turn and take the win.
Webb did not get a great jump to start the main event but managed to take the lead through the first obstacle, the challenging wood pit. Webb led most of the first lap but then went down in the rock pile and dropped back to sixth position. Webb quickly worked up to third behind Tremaine and Kyle Redmond, but stayed there until the sixth lap when he passed Redmond and Tremaine, who took the No Joke lane. Once in the lead, Webb pushed hard to open enough of a gap to hold the lead when he took the No Joke lane, which he finally did on lap twelve of fourteen. Webb executed it perfectly to hold the lead and take the win.
Tremaine held a relatively close second and finished eleven seconds behind Webb. He also finished third in the championship for the second year in a row, but was a little disappointed to lose out on second position by a single point.
Graffunder put in another great race to take third away from Redmond on the final lap. Redmond held second for the first nine laps, then dropped to third and lost one more position when he took the No Joke lane on the final lap. GasGas backed Noah Kepple rode a steady race to finish fifth, matching his best finish of the season.
Mason Ottersberg rode his Yamaha to a sixth-place finish, a career best. Hart had his worst finish of the season in seventh after a crash pushed him back into the field. Spain’s Joan Pau Segura finished eighth on his GasGas. Ty Cullins finished ninth on a Beta and Geoff Aaron rounded out the top ten on his GasGas.
Cooper Abbott, Jordan Ashburn, Wally Palmer, Eric Rhoten and Gary Sutherlin finished eleventh through fifteenth respectively. For Ashburn, it was only his second ever EnduroCross and for Sutherlin, the 2017 WORCS and AMA Hare & Hound champion, it was his first EnduroCross in several years.
Cody Webb, 1st.:
“The race wasn’t the most stressful race of the year but I sure made it hard on myself. I got a great start and went into the rocks and the bike just disappeared out of my hands. From there I just wanted to be patient and smart and was going fast through the wood pit and the same thing happened and I ricocheted out of the wood pit almost to the concrete. At that point I just paced off Ty Tremaine and Kyle Redmond who were right there and tried not to go crazy. I got past Kyle and then past Ty when he went through the No Joke lane. But right after that, again, I hit a rock or something in the dirt on a flat corner and tucked the front end—almost going down again! Luckily I fought through it all and had a good enough lead that I could take the No Joke and get the win.”
“It’s awesome to get the championship back again. It was a really good year for me. We did a lot of good work with the team and I was just more prepared this year. I’m looking forward to doing it again next year now that we have a great setup and I already have some ideas to fine tune it a little bit more.”
Ty Tremaine, 2nd:
“Tonight was so good. I’ve been struggling with starts all year and I think this is the first race where I’ve started inside the top 10. It was good to finally get out there early. I was right behind Webb and my plan was to just stay with him as long as I could. Then he went down and I took the lead and ran up front for a while. I went through the No Joke lane and Webb got around me, but I think I came out in third or something, which wasn’t bad. I ended up getting around Redmond for second and held on to the finish. I’m super happy with how I ended the season.”
Cory Graffunder, 3rd:
“Well, the night was horrible. The first race of the night was really bad and that gave me a bad gate pick for the main. But, I somehow managed to get a pretty decent start from the outside and worked my way through the carnage through the first couple obstacles and corners and think I came out in fourth! That put me in a good place to push forward. I charged the whole race as Trystan (Hart) was pressuring me the whole race and that kept me moving forward. Coming into the last lap, Redmond took the No Joke Lane and I had no idea he hadn’t taken it already. So, once he went in there I thought, ‘That’s it, this is third!’ and I just pushed through the last couple turns and crossed the line in third.”
2017 Ontario, California AMA EnduroCross main event results:
1. Cody Webb, KTM
2. Ty Tremaine, KTM
3. Cory Graffunder, Husqvarna
4. Kyle Redmond, Husqvarna
5. Noah Kepple, GasGas
6. Mason Ottersberg, Yamaha
7. Trystan Hart, Husqvarna
8. Joan Pau Segura, GasGas
9. Ty Cullins, Beta
10. Geoff Aaron, GasGas
11. Cooper Abbott, Yamaha
12. Jordan Ashburn, Beta
13. Wally Palmer, KTM
14. Eric Rhoten, Yamaha
15. Gary Sutherlin, Yamaha
Shelby Turner took the Women’s class win on her KTM. Kacy Martinez rode her KTM to second and Tarah Gieger piloted her Honda to third. This was the same order for the 2017 AMA EnduroCross Championship in the class.
Destry Abbott took the Vet class win to lock up a perfect season on his Purvines DA8 Yamaha. Some have questioned why he has not competed in the pro class, but he is still undergoing Chemo treatments and said the fatigue is too much to compete at the top level. Dan Hayakawa finished second and David Stirm finished third. Abbott, Stirm and Hayakawa finished the Vet championship in first, second and third respectively.
In the Amateur class, Josh Greco took the Ontario win on his KTM. David Kamo, a fellow KTM rider, finished second and Kevin Dupius rounded out the podium on his Husqvarna. Dupius took the Amateur championship over Greco. Carter York rounded out the top three in the Amateur class championship.
In the Amateur B class, Jared Prosser took the win on his Yamaha. James Flynn rode a Husqvarna to second and Dan Hayakawa rounded out the podium on his Husqvarna.
Anthony Johnson won the TrialsCross main event. Richard Larsen and Kyle Larsen took second and third respectively.
The Ontario event also had two special classes for the local AMA District 37 racers. Brad Goolsby took the win in the Pro Invitational. Jordan Gamboa and Travis Damon finished second and third. In the District 37 Amateur race, Hayden Hintz took a close win over Jordan Gamboa. Ryan Kudla finished third.
Complete results can be found at http://endurocross.escoremx.com/class.asp?s=&c=&e=89