Former Monster Energy/AMA Supercross star snags the overall AMA/Maxxis EnduroCross Series points lead heading into Columbus, Ohio, this weekend

CORONA, Calif., (Sept. 29, 2008) – Monster Energy/Kawasaki’s Damon Huffman grabbed the lead early at the Denver EnduroCross and held off his Monster Energy/Kawasaki teammate Ricky Dietrich to take the event win and overall points lead after four (of six) 2008 AMA/Maxxis EnduroCross Series rounds.

The battle for first place was intense throught the entire main event and, in order to stand under the giant inflatable Monster Energy cans on top of the podium, Huffman had to tap on not only his World Off Road Championship Series skills, but also the supercross skills that endeared him to many fans (think: Seattle vs. McGrath, ’96). Dietrich, fresh off an International Six Days Enduro gold medal – off road competition motorcycling’s equivalent to Olympic gold – hounded Huffman for the first half of the race, then suffered a crash and fell back to 6^th.

Former EnduroCross winner Taddy Blazusiak and Geoff Aaron would move into Dietrich’s challenge position and continued to force the issue with Huffman, but the veteran racer had plenty left in the tank and weathered the storms to take the overall win. And though Dietrich would battle back to 4^th, he’d lose the overall points lead to Huffman.

For Huffman the win would be his second in-a-row (along with South Carolina’s round three of EnduroCross). The secret? “You’ve gotta be consistent, and especially keep the larger mistakes to a minimum,” said Huffman. “Everything’s amplified when a course is so tight and technical like EnduroCross. So the best thing to do is just focus, be smart about your line selection and trust you’ve got enough energy in the end to hold everyone off.”

Denver also marked the return of Huffman and Dietrich’s Monster Energy/Kawasaki teammate, Destry Abbott. Abbott, another ISDE gold medalist, took the tough road attempting to make the finals (heat, semi), then crashed and got run over in the LCQ to end his evening.

Said Abbott: “ I had another great jump and was third into the first corner. Not to far into the first lap we went into the wood chips. It looked like I was going to move into 2^nd , but then suddenly I was on the ground and my head landed straight on the last log. The first thing I thought of (besides a massive headache) was the fact that I had a pack of guys behind me. I had one guy hit me, and went right over me. It left a pretty good gash on my side, but my head was hurting more then anything. I got up and slowly walked over to my bike and went back to the pits.”

Next up for Monster Energy riders on the AMA/Maxxis EnduroCross Championship tour – with Monster Energy being the “official” energy drink of EnduroCross – is this weekend’s (Oct. 4) round of the series in Columbus, Ohio, on the campus of Ohio State University.