Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/126962
Saturday's 250cc Pro class winner, Mike Jones (396), leads Fred Andrews (44) during 250cc Pro action at the Atlanta Arenacross. Ross Pederson (25) and Mike Jones (3 9 6 ) traded wins at the Coors A renacross. Pederson took the 250cc f ina l Friday; J ones won Saturday. Willie Surr att (2 7 ) won Friday's 125cc Pro event. Fred Andrews (44) edged Surratt for the class win on Saturday. , Jon~s, Pederson battle in Atlanta Arenacross By Gary Crider ATLANTA, CA , APR. 17-18 Yamaha riders Mike Jones and Ross Pederson p rovided plenty of excitemen t in their battles for 250cc honors both nights in the Coors Are nacross a t th e O mni. Pederson, a seven-time Canadian National Champion, topped J o nes in Friday night 's contest bu t J ones turned the tables on Ped. erson to w10 Saturday. Willie. Surratt edged Sl;lzu~i teamma~e Keith ~~rpm 10 Fnday s 125cc thnller. OhIO s ~red Andrews won th e Saturda y night «;:omest ?ver Surratt, while Turpin ran Into trouble and finished eighth. T he event was not part of the Coors Supercross Series but provided Atlanta fans a Supercross -style show despite last month's cancellation of th e p lanned series event in Atlanta's Fulton County Stadium. Riders advanced to the main event by earning points in two heats and a last chance qualifier. Eighteen-lap heats were followed by a 25-lap main event. Lap tim es averaged around 24 seconds on the compact course. Friday Cabot, · Pennsylvani a ' s Jon es ente red both the 250 and I25cc even ts an.d managed a cl ean sw~ep on Friday, w1On1Og all four of hISheats. Yamaha / Barr/Scott /C ear /Dirt Digits-sponsored Jones won th e night's opening 250cc heat after taking the initial lead from Andrews and then holding off a challenge from second place finisher Surratt. . . . Jones took an early lead 10 h.ls sec0r:td hea t and held on to. WI~ desplt~ a st~o~g effort ~y Flonda s Jeff Fr~sz. Fnsz s efforts fina lly e.n~e? 10 a mp over the handlebars, glv10g th~ seco nd p lace ft~IS? to Surratt. Fnsz reco,:ered to finish a di stant fourth behind Doug Hoo~er: Canada Yama ha /Cnffm Helmets / Answer/Dunlop/Scott-b~ck<:i Pederson hooked the holeshot In hIS first heat and ra n away with the win, while Jeff Hicks and Frisz swapped second position back and forth.Hi cks held the edge at the checkered over Frisz. Pederson go t away fourth in hi s second heat and twice used th e in side line of th e left tum pa st th e finish line jump to pa ss Andrews, and th en Hi cks , to .Ii n ish sec ond. T odd .DeH oop led the heat from start to fin ish. Jones took his first 125cc heat win aft er co rning out on top of a tough fight wit h Surratt. At about th e halfway ' mark , Surratt made h is move and dove under Jones. Surratt took th e lead onl y to let Jones go by in th e next turn. " I could have raced just a little bit dirty in that turn and kept th e lead but I didn't want to risk a cras h," said Su rratt. J on es came back for a runaw ay win in hi s seco n d h eat ove r Andrew s and Surratt. Mark Cozier, back in actio n after last summer's injury but still wearin g a neck brace, held th e lead over T u rp in for seven laps of th eir first l8-lap heat. Turpin then took advantage of severa l mistakes by Crozier and wen t by for th e win . Crozi er was second ah ead of Andrews. Turpin holeshot his second heat and styled his way to th e win over Barry Carsten and Hoover. Main In th e opening laps of the 250cc main, the Jones/Pederson duo found its way pa st initial leader DeHoop. One lap later Surratt dropped DeHoop to fourth , passing on the inside of the tu rn past the big j ump - the same line J ones and Pederson had used to pass DeH oo p. Pederson stayed latc hed to Jo nes' rear fender . until the ninth la p wh en Pederso n slipped past to take th e lead. Pederson eventually stretched his lead to a co mfortable margin over J ones, while Jones worked to keep Surratt - at a safe distance behind in third. Cuy "Air Time" Cooper took the chec kered fourth but cras hed spectacu la rl y after his bike's chai n derailed in midflight, Cooper was not seriously hurt. Suz u ki /TR P / Ara iiOakle y backed Turpin showed the way at th e start of th e l25cc main ahead of Surratt, Andrews and Jones. Jones soon moved up to wr estle with Surratt for second. After severa l laps, however, Jones fell ba ck for an eventual seventh p lace finish while SuzukiiScott/ KSIIScott/ Dunlopbacked Surratt moved up to dog Turpin. With less than four laps remaining, Surratt's persistence paid off when T urpin hu ng his front forks , in a rut and lost enough momentum to let Surratt go by for the win. Turpin said, " I thought it was an excellent rac e. Willie kept plugging awa y at me and I made a couple of mi st akes. " Crozier, Carst en a nd Hoover rounded out th e top five. Saturday Saturday's ac tio n started off with a bang as th e first 250 cc heat exploded out of the gate with Hoover in th e lead ah ead of H icks and Pederson. The Hicks/Pederson dice for second brought the crowd to its feet as th e duo even tually colli ded and crashed. Pederson was up and away first and began closing the gap on leader Hoover. After four laps Pederso n had closed on- his fellow Canadian to begin a wheel-to-wheel fight for the lead. Hoover snagged a hay bale and went off course while Pederson rolled on for the win. " Last night I did all my passing in the same comer, but now I've found some other places to pass!" Pederso n said . H oo ver claimed seco nd spot over Hicks and Joe Rogers. .' In his second heat, Pederson go t away th ird but was set back after a collision with Surratt and, later, by a collision with a course marker. Pederso n recovered and challenged Jones' lead during the final two laps, but Jones held for the win. Ini tial leader DeHoop took third while Surratt DN F and had to ride the last chance qualifier.