DOWD WINS, DOWD WINS!!!!

John Dowd wins Endurocross 2006! Guess you can quit reading now, because I just gave the ending of the movie away. As was last years, this was an amazing race. The three fastest hot lap times, were also the three fastest qualifier winners and they finished in the same order, it was Dowd, Nathan Woods and David Knight in the top three spots, after that who knows, I think those three had lapped most of the field in the ten lap race.



So like ESPN, I am going to give you some highlights.

Everyone is always talking about Ryan Hughes, mostly because he came in the first year of this thing, just off of a motocross career and kicked ass on a bunch world class off road riders. Last year, he set the fastest hot lap time, I think, and had nothing but trouble in the main. Well this year, he had nothing but trouble in his first qualifier, then he got hung up on the start of his semi, crashed, got stuck, fell over, got stuck, crashed and finished in the back. But the one thing Ryno never did was give up, he charge and I am pretty sure he stuffed someone in the last curve so he wouldn't get last. Hopefully he will be back next year!



One guy all of us TSCEC and other New Mexico and Texas riders were rooting for was Nick Brozavich out of Lubbock Texas, he was riding a Factory Yamaha out of the Zip Ty racing rig and had some backing from our good friend Steve Fox of HoyFox.com Toyota. He had a so-so qualifier but came back strong in the semi, where he put a very aggressive pass on Destry Abbot, another HoyFox.com backed rider, and Abbot tipped over. Well that little incident caused a bunch of boos for the young Brozavich, but FU! all you booers, because last year when Dowd put the same pass on Dietrich, and I would have to say much more aggresively, no one booed. That is what you have to do out there and Nick showed that he is going to be an off road star and isn't afraid to mix it up with the household names. Keep on kicking ass Nick, we got your back!

The main was sick, a first turn pile up set the running order that stood for most of the race, it was Dowd, Woods, and Geoff Aaron, but where was David Knight? He was damned near last coming out of the first turn, but by the next lap he was starting to close in and on lap three, or maybe just before, he moved into third where he stayed the rest of the race. He definitely was on the same pace as Woods and Dowd, it was just that he was quite a few seconds back.



So the drama came when Dowd ended up going over the bars in a pretty simple turn. He was on his back, in front of the bike with the clutch pulled in. He actually managed to never let the bike stall, and got up just barely off the rear wheel of Woods. That lasted for about a lap, and as they came back into the first turn, Woods slowed down considerably to clean his goggles and Dowd slid right in underneath him.






The two stayed about a second or two apart until the last lap, and as soon as that white flag started waving, they dropped the hammer. Woods was all over Dowd, and Dowd was gassing that Suzuki fully wide open. They slammed into the first turn side by side, and Woods aired over the big log on the exit! But Dowd never once shut down, it was a drag race through rocks and logs, and Wood lost. He nailed this really big rock, sending sparks flying from the frame, and you could actually see glowing pieces of metal chips on the rock for a few seconds after the hit. Nathan couldn't keep it upright and tipped over. Dowd cruised around the corner and took the checkers, but the crowd was still on their feet, becasue Woods still could get second, but he had to fire the big KXF450 up before Dave Knight got around him. Well Woods had some Vegas luck on his side and the big beast fired up after two kicks.

And now, much like a Terentino movie, if you go back to the first part of the story, you now know the ending.

Peace out, as my friend Christa says!!