.jpg)
2010 Tecate Enduro
Zip-Ty Racing Husqvarna teammates Bobby Garrison and Cory Graffunder closed out their 2010 racing season with a 1-2 sweep of the Tecate Enduro last weekend in Baja Mexico. A 4-time Tecate winner, Team captain Ty Davis also won the Senior class and Team Husqvarna topped the overall team standings as well.
Ty Davis says: "We had a pretty good day. I think we showed exactly what Team Husqvarna is capable of!"
"Capable" is an understatement of what it took to win in Tecate. Billed as one of the toughest Enduros in North America, this year’s event drew many of the country’s top off-road racers and teams to the Baja peninsula for Tecate.
The sponsoring club, San Diego-based Los Ancianos adopted the new AMA National Enduro Series timing format (vs. a Hare Scrambles format) to celebrate the event’s 50th anniversary. The crafty club members (membership requirements dictate you must be over the age of 30 and Los Ancianos means "the old ones" in Spanish), made sure 90 miles of virgin single-track was up to their historic standards for being challenging.
Ty Davis says: (Four-time Tecate Champion, 1994, 1998, 2001, 2007) says: "It was great to return to the Enduro format. The conditions were perfect… If you like it chilly and wet," he jokes. However his TEi250 excelled in the tight, twisty sections and Ty not only won his class, but finished 9th overall against the bigger 450cc machines ridden by many of 240 Enduro entrants.
Speaking of the big bore bikes, Garrison and Graffunder blazed the way to the top two spots on their matching Husqvarna TC450s. "It is really cool here… reminds me of where I grew up in Canada with the sage brush and hills," says the youngster from Kamloops, British Columbia, Graffunder. "I have never been to Baja before… it is pretty amazing!"
Accompanying Cory on his trip to Baja was his Zip-Ty Racing Husqvarna teammate Nick Burson.
The multi-time District 37 champ and defending U.S. Desert Racing #1 plate holder swapped his usual open class mount for a TC250 and finished 15th Overall. However the man of the hour was former motocrosser Bobby Garrison, the Tecate Enduro overall winner who had no problem adapting to the enduro format by conquering all three loops and six special-test sections.
Garrison just edged team mate Graffunder by less than 8 seconds after the three loops were totaled. "The pressure was on, Cory and I couldn’t let Ty beat us," laughs Garrison.
Corey Eastman (Husqvarna National Marketing Manager) says: "In addition to the Zip-Ty Husqvarna team topping the Tecate Enduro results, our National Sales Manager Revelle Harrison and After Sales Manager Andy Jefferson also competed. How’s that for "field work’ by our managers? This is a great way to set the tone for Team Husqvarna in 2011."
