Rockstar Energy Husqvarna’s Colton Haaker delivered a winning performance at round three of the SuperEnduro World Championship in Madrid to move to the top of the series standings. Adding to the memorable night for the team, Alfredo Gomez returned to competitive action following his injury last time out in Germany to claim third overall.
With round three of the SuperEnduro series in Spain marking the halfway point in this year’s championship battle, two-time world champion Haaker arrived in Madrid knowing that a winning result was necessary to lift his title hopes. Feeling comfortable with the course from the off, he set some impressive lap times in training before transferring his impressive pace into the fastest time for the qualifying SuperPole.
Executing a near-perfect start in race one, Haaker immediately took control of the lead. Breaking away from the rest of the field, he secured his first victory of the night. With the start order reversed for race two, the American tried to ride cautiously on lap one and unfortunately became entangled in a multi-bike collision.
Remounting near last, he battled his way up to second. However, becoming stuck on the final rocky corner resulted in a three-way fight to the finish line. Crashing heavily with close rival Taddy Blazusiak, Haaker was lucky to walk away unscathed in third.
With the overall win up for grabs, Haaker refocused for race three and delivered arguably his best performance of the night. Riding to a commanding 26-second margin of victory, he secured the top step of the podium and took control of the championship lead.
For team-mate Alfredo Gomez, his home race in Madrid was one to savour. Deciding to return to racing following an elbow injury last time out in Germany, the Spaniard raced his way into podium contention as the evening progressed. Ninth in race one, he jumped to fifth in race two. A much-improved start in race three saw him avoid trouble and after holding second place from mid-distance he did enough to secure third overall.
Colton Haaker: “It feels great to come away tonight with the overall win and also become the new points leader in the championship. I really wanted to push for the victory tonight and race my way back into title contention and I definitely feel like I did that out there, despite what was a very eventful night on the track.
“Taddy and myself came together and we both hit the ground hard. Thankfully I was okay for the final race and was able to come out and win that for the overall and with it take the championship lead. We’ve Budapest in two weeks’ time and I’m looking forward to going there with the leader’s red plate.”
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