Welcome back and Happy New Year! Hope the holiday season was fantastic for everyone. I had a fantastic break, it was nice to be able to spend time with family and relax a little. We all met at my Grandma’s in Washington State for Christmas. I was so happy to see everyone and visit with my sisters, and just hang out. I love the holidays, lots of food, hot chocolate, and cookies!! It is a good thing the Toyota AMA Arenacross Series is starting back up, because it gave me an excuse to stop making and eating all those treats!

We had our first round back in the New Year at the Van Andell Arena in Grand Rapids, MI this past weekend, January 4-5. It is always fun to come back after the break because the riders usually come back more fired up! There is always this feeling in the pits before the races begin, a little tense but mostly pure adrenaline, it could just be my adrenaline because I get so excited!

The only time I have ever been to Michigan was last year at the Saginaw, MI Arenacross, I don’t know if you remember it but it was the softest, wettest dirt I have ever seen at an Arenacross race. The track had so many ruts, but the racing was so exciting! I was expecting the dirt in Grand Rapids, MI to be really wet and soft, but to my surprise it was pretty hard pack a little moist. I was curious how it was going to hold up after jam packed night of racing.
The Suzuki’s Cory Green is leading the points for the North division in the Lites class, and he came out Friday night charging, once again, to defend his points lead. Codi Adams 979 got the holeshot out of the gate and was putting in a great race. Cory Green and Shane Sewell were keeping both themselves and Codi Adams honest throughout the entire track. The whoops section was once again the section where most of the action was taking place. They were big, but they were also getting chewed up by the tires. I thought Cory Green “Da booty shaker” was going to be able to pass Codi Adams coming out of the whoops by going underneath him; however he waited out for the right moment and for some reason Codi Adams had to roll the catapult one lap giving Cory the perfect opportunity to take over the lead. He remained out front with the Speed TV helmet cam getting a clear view of the track and finally the checkered flag! It was good to see the Suzuki rider with a huge smile on top of the podium! Shane Sewell and Codi Adams kept themselves out of trouble and on the podium. It was a crazy race, with a ton of carnage, my hats off to them for keeping themselves out of trouble and on the box! 

Team Babbits/Monster Energy rider Kelly Smith is a Michigan native, and fan favorite in for the Grand Rapids Arenacross. However, Chad Johnson has been the most consistent rider of the season so far, which is why he is the points leader.  Brock Sellards was riding well, taking the win in his heat race. Robbie Reynard the other Suzuki/ Reynard Mods rider was also charging hard and flying around the track, taking his heat race win. The main event was definitely going to be a really insane race! The gates dropped and off they went, Jim Neese, Brock Sellards and Kelly Smith were all out front as they went side by side into the whoops. There was a little bit of trouble at the start for #17 Robbie Reynard getting a little hung up at the gate, but he was still on the gas passing guys left and right. Ti- Lube Honda rider Teddy Maier was definitely riding with his head clear this week, he put his head down and worked his way toward the front. The track got the best of Foremost Insurance/ Suzuki rider Jim Neese and he unfortunately went down, but he was not the only one. There were riders down all over the place, especially in the whoops. The leaders were in lap traffic by the 3rd or 4th lap, and the main event is 25 laps!! It was chaos. Brock Sellards kept himself out of trouble and rode a very good race, making sure to try and look ahead. Even though there was one time in the whoops he said he saw the caution flag and jumped into his line then looked up and had to quickly move because there were riders down left and right! Teddy Maier had worked his way up to 2nd position, with Kelly Smith in 3rd.

This past weekend was another spilt event weekend for the championship points, Teddy Maier and the TiLube team headed down to Kansas City gained a ton of points for the overall championship! Teddy won Saturday night’s main event moving him from 7th place overall up to 4th place overall! It was a good move for him to put in those extra miles to race in Kansas City! So things are really going to start to get intense for the rest of the points battle in the 2008 Toyota AMA Arenacross Series!

I am headed to Baltimore, MD next weekend to race once again at the Mariner Arena in downtown Baltimore! I always have fun in Balitmore, and I am excited for next week! Don’t forget to keep checking in at the website to see when the series will begin on Speed! If you are in Baltimore next week we would love to see you, come on down to the races! This year is the most intense points chase in Arenacross history and it is not even close to being done, you don’t want to miss it! So I will see you all at the race! Until then keep smiling! 

XOXO
Ashley Miss Arenacross