Ice Man vs. Iron Man: Raikkonen prevails in the Red Bull Clash on Erzberg

2010-06-05 14:25
It was the Clash of the Titans on Saturday evening on Austria's notorious Erzberg (Iron) Mountain when Ice Man Kimi Raikkonen met KTM's Iron Man Taddy Blazusiak in a race to the top as part of the notorious Erzberg Rodeo, the toughest offroad challenge on the planet.

The unique challenge, which pitted Kimi in the rally car against Taddy on the KTM 530 EXC was organized by Red Bull as part of the Rodeo program.

But in one mad timed dash for the summit it was the Flying Finn Raikkonen, together with his co-driver Kaj Lindstroem who came off best in their WRC (World Rally Championship) Citroen CR4 racing car, clocking 10:28 minutes to outstrip KTM's extreme Enduro specialist Blazusiak who finished in 11:06 minutes. Raikkonen, the 2007 Formula One world champion and winner of 18 GPs is in his second season of WRC competition. He registered a top speed of more than 200 kmh on the fastest part of the ascent.

Taddy chose the fastest Enduro in the KTM model lineup, a 530 EXC, pimped with extras from the KTM Power Parts range for the challenge and in doing so set the fastest time ever up the mountain on two wheels to again stamp his name in the Erzberg record books. The Polish extreme Enduro specialist last year completed his hat trick of wins in the Red Bull Hare Scramble and will be on the hunt tomorrow for a fourth bite of the cherry. For Sunday's race he will be back on his agile KTM 250 EXC two-stroke.

"It was a good event and fun to have this competition," Raikkonen said. "In the end there was not really a big difference between Taddy and me."

Taddy too was gracious in defeat saying: "This was all about fun but I gave 100% and finally Kimi was the right winner." Then he went off to wash Kimi's car, the price he had to pay for losing the challenge.

Source: KTM-Sportmotorcycle AG

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