Hello race fans! We just finished off with a great weekend of arenacross racing in Youngstown, OH. Ohio has a huge motocross scene with a ton of fans. The freezing cold made a difference in the racing we had this weekend. As we came into this weekend, Chad Johnson had opened up a 25 point gap on Kelly Smith and a 27 point gap to 3rd place Brock Sellards. As you know it was a spilt weekend for the series, with the other round in Hampton, VA. We weren’t sure who was going to show up where, especially with the championship points on the line. Also, I guess a lot of us were lucky to make it into Youngstown, because Thursday’s weather was really bad and a ton of people were stuck everywhere.  Colt Humphrey did not even make it to Friday night’s race because every flight got canceled. 

The track was a typical arenacross style track; start straight into whoops, into rhythm section, right hand turn up and over the catapult. The whoops were huge as usual, only they were really skinny, probably a little over 2 bikes wide.  The dirt looked like it could get rutted up. During practice Chad Johnson, Keith Johnson and Kevin Johnson were all going extremely fast, although the seeded practice did seem a little smaller than usual without Kelly Smith, Jim Neese, and Tyler Bright.  They all ended up going the extra mileage to Hampton, VA. A huge part of this weekend was the fact that we were in Brock Sellards backyard; he lives only an hour away from Youngstown. He said it was the first time there has been a professional race this close to his hometown and it felt great to be with his hometown crowd.

Friday night’s qualifiers were definitely exciting, with both Cory Green and Shane Sewell going after the Arenacross Lites North Region Championship title. They were both riding really well and both looked like they had the determination to win. Zach Ames also was going really quick winning his heat race. It definitely looked like he could get in the mix during the main event. The bikes were loaded in the gate and off went the 30 second board. It was Shane Sewell off to an early lead with Kyle Brown #748 right there and Cory Green getting a mid pack start, Sewell triple tripled through the rhythm section and was keeping himself out of trouble. The Lites main event is 18 laps and the track changes with all those laps and develops in so many different ways it makes every lap different. Not to mention the lapped riders that sometimes get in the way. Then Cory Green started to make his move. He was riding strong through the pack and making his way up to the podium position. Shane Sewell held on tight and kept his head on straight as he came up over the catapult taking the win, with Kyle Brown in 2nd, and Cory Green in 3rd.  Cory still held on to the points lead but Shane gained a couple by taking the win in Youngstown, OH Friday night.

Up next on the line was the Arenacross Class, Kevin Johnson and Zach Ames both won their heat races, getting first and second gate picks for the main event.  The gate dropped and off they jumped, Robbie Reynard, that’s right Robbie Reynard, came out of turn one getting the holeshot! His first holeshot of the year, followed by Teddy Maier, Kevin Johnson and Keith Johnson, both Brock Sellards and Chad Johnson got off to bad starts and had their work cut out for them! Robbie Reynard still out front as Kevin Johnson began to put the pressure on. Kevin was letting it all hang out and was taking a couple different lines; he came to the inside of Robbie and was able to make the pass. Kevin Johnson was now the leader followed by Robbie Reynard and Teddy Maier.  Both Chad Johnson and Brock Sellards were having a tough time trying to work their way through the back. Robbie Reynard began to gain some on Kevin but Kevin was riding extremely smart and making no mistakes and worked his way around the 25 lap main event.  In the end, Kevin still remained up on top of the podium with Robbie Reynard taking 2nd and Teddy Maier in 3rd and Robbie also took home a check for $750 from Toyota Certified Used Vehicles for getting the holesot!

Saturday’s stage was set from the amazing arenacross racing we had on Friday night.  Saturday was a sold out crowd with not one empty seat in the house! We also had a track party down on the track giving the fans a chance to get down on the dirt and see what an arenacross track really does look like up close and personal. All the top riders also set out their bikes and brought out their posters. Track parties are also a ton of fun to go to, the kids love to be able to check out what it is like to be one of the Toyota AMA Arenacross racers.

Colt Humphrey finally made it to Youngstown, OH. He got the holeshot and won his arenacross lites qualifier, with Cory Green winning the other lites qualifier. Giving them the first two gate picks for the main event. Colt Humphrey was the first to jump out of the gate and into turn one. He was followed by #599 Ronnie Hapner, #669 Phillip Harris, and Shane Sewell. Colt was out front for the first 4 laps when Ronnie Hapner got sideways behind him in the whoops and his bike shot across the whoops and landed in the rhythm section, by that time Colt had already committed himself to the triple into the rhythm section and the only thing he could do was land right on top of the bike. Luckily for him, his bike bounced off the other bike straight and just barely bucked him off as he landed out of the way. All of us were happy to see everyone come out safely and continue on with the lites main event. Now the top 3 riders were down, and Shane Sewell took over the lead. Cory Green took over 2nd and #731 Steve Roman took over 3rd.  There was more trouble ahead though, caution flags came out all over the track as Shane Sewell came through the whoops in the lead, he made it passed the down riders, but when he came over the catapult a couple of laps later he stalled his bike.  He was kicking it and kicking it but couldn’t get it to start. In the meantime Cory Green took over the lead and had no one behind him. The track was still chaos throughout the rest of the race, but Cory kept himself out of trouble and came over the checkers with the win. Steve Roman ended up taking 2nd, telling me later in the interview he doesn’t know how he rode because he felt as if he tore his ACL in the qualifier but still stocked to take home 2nd. Shane Sewell was able to hang on to the final podium position. Colt Humphrey was excited about taking home some holeshot money from Toyota Certified Used Vehicles, but he was bummed to have crashed out of the lead.

We were all a little nervous about the Arenacross Class Main event, after seeing how many crashes there was during the lites class. But the track crew worked on the track and cleaned it up for the 25 lap main event.  Teddy Maier was the first one to cross the Toyota Certified Used Vehicle holeshot mark coming in strong to the whoops, on his rear wheel was the #110 of Tommy Hofmaster, Keith Johnson, #695 Ben Ritter, and #17 Robbie Reynard. There was a bad crash on the start straight included both Kevin Johnson and Brock Sellards, I couldn’t see what happened. All I saw on the jumbo screen was Brock’s orange gear flying across the screen. It took him a little while to get up and I don’t blame him, he hit the ground hard! Teddy Maier was getting a ton of pressure from the #110 Tommy Hofmaster, it was a battle for a lap or two but Tommy soon went inside and made the pass taking over the lead. By now the front runners wear in lap traffic and it was getting hard to move through the traffic. By the half way mark there was a couple riders who had pulled off the track in pain due to some bad crashes. Also, there were several laps the riders couldn’t jump the catapult because once one person rolled over, everyone had to for their own safety. I thought for a couple laps Keith was going to pass Teddy but Teddy kept pushing and stayed in front of Keith. Chad Johnson got up to the 4th place position, with Robbie Reynard right there with him in 5th. But Tommy Hofmaster was putting it all together and held on to his first place spot for the rest of the race, Teddy Maier worked through his pain of his sprained ankle and came across the finish in 2nd, and Keith Johnson finished the main in 3rd. This was a great night for Tommy and he was so happy to finally take a win this year! It was a crazy race to negotiate your way around down riders and lappers, once again a race to the finish!

We have a week off this week, but we will return to Pikeville, KY February 15-17. Kelly Smith was able to gain points on Chad with a sweep last weekend at the Hampton, VA race. Now there is only 11 points between the 1st and 2nd riders! It is going to get even more exciting coming into the last 4 stops of Arenacross.  Don’t forget to keep your eye out for the series to start on Speed, you definitely will want to see these races for yourself, I cannot wait to re-watch them myself! I wish everyone a safe week off and hope that we will see you soon. Until then, be safe and keep on smiling! I am off to Jamaica for my birthday on Wednesday! J See you at the races!

XOXO
Ashley Miss Arenacross