Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

~ ARENACROSS AM! NationalArenacross Series: Round 5 ~ ~~~~ " '" e 9 > Jimmy Ga ddis was the top rider in the Denver Coliseum as he won three of the four Pro class main events. Gaddis on the gas in Denver By P am Lambert DENVER, CO, FEB. 14-16 immy Gaddis held National Arenacross series points lead er Cl iff Palmer to on ly one win throu ghout two ni ghts of Pro class raci ng in the Denver Col iseum. Palmer won Friday ni ght's 125cc Pr o main , whi le Gaddis swep t the rest of the Pro class program on bo th Frid ay and Satu rday nights. On Friday, three I25cc Pro heat races were required to thin the 25-rid er field to 15 compet itors for the mai n event. The top four fini shers in each hea t transferr ed directly to the feature. Heat one saw T exan Dennis Haw- J 40 thorne grab the holeshot and lead all five laps for th e win. Jason Langford cha llenged H awt ho rn e bu t had to settle for seco nd ah ead of Sha wn Morga. J eremy Middaugh comp leted th e top four. J eff Glass led fro m start to finish in the second hea t and wa s followed across the finish line by David Ha nd. Ch ad Pederson charged up from a po or start and passed Shawn Mor ga n for third lat e in the race. Morgan fin ished fourt h while fifth-pl ace Travis Hodges was sent to the sem is". Gadd is controlled heat three to score the win, whi le Pal mer brok e away from a bailie with Billy _Whitley to fini sh second. Whitley claimed third whi le Jason Edwards cha rged up from a second-ro w start to grab the last transfer pos ition. Canad ian Ross Pederson led th e eigh t-lap sem i, which put the top -two fini shers into the main, from start to fin ish . And y Atki ns and Chris Young disputed secon d until Yo ung slammed Atkins into the hay bal es an d rode _away with the ticket to the final. At th e sta rt of the 20-lap feature, H aw th orn e jumped into th e lead, followed in or der by Palmer, Langford, Glass, Ross Pederson and the rest of the field. The top three ran no seto-tai l on the first lap until Palmer was able to sneak pa st H awth orne th rough a sand pit. On the second lap , Langford passed Hawth orne over a double j um p to take over second. At th e halfway point, Langford was cha lle nging Palmer for the lead wit h H awtho rne no t far beh ind in third. Gaddis, who lost grou nd early in the race when he spun out, worked up to sixth and was righ t beh ind a battle bet ween Gl ass and Pederson. When Pederson tried to pass G lass, Gadd is ma de .his move but went sideways over a jump and landed o n Pederson. Both riders went do wn, but Gadd is was able to quickly cont in ue in eig h th whi le Pederson slowly recovered and eventua lly fini shed 11th. The war at the front continued to th e fini sh wh ere Palm er re pe lled Langford's cha llenges to take the win. H awth o rn e stayed with the two until late in the race whe n he got stuck behind lap ped riders and dropped a few seconds behind Langford at the finish . Gl ass collected fourth and Ch ad Pederson ro unded ou t the to p five. In the 250cc class, 33 en tra nts were gridded into fo ur heats that tra nsferred the to p two fin ishers to the ma in. Langford led Edwards to the finis h lin e in heat one. The second heat saw Ga ddis charge past You ng to take a lead he he ld to th e finish . Youn g finished secon d. Palmer led heat three fro m start to fi n ish, whi le Mo rga checked the advances of Brad Bolton to finish second. Heat four saw Glass bobble in the sand and pass the lead to H awtho rne . Ross Pederson also got by. Hawthorn e rode away with the win whi le G lass ma de a last-lap charge and passed Pederson to take second place . In the first of two semis which pu t the rop three finis hers in the mai n, New Mexico's Robby Clau s led the way to the finish line with Ch ad Pederson claim in g second ahea d of Atkins. T he second semi saw Kip Sandell get the holeshot , but Wh itley, Ross Pederson and Kerr y Mulligan pass ed him and crossed the fin ish lin e in the same order. The start of the mai n saw Haw tho rne get another holesho t, foll owed closely by La ngford and Ga ddis. It wasn 't until lap eig ht of the 20-lap race that Gaddis found a way past Langford for second, then he q uickly mo ved in to pressure Hawthorn e. On lap ni ne, Gaddis made a clean block pass to gra b the lead then scooted away to victory, H awthorne sett led into second for th e rema inder o f th e race, while Langford ca me under attack from Palmer and surre ndered third on .lap 18. Palmer was too far behind to catch runner-up Hawthorne and fin ished third ahead of Langford. Edwards rounded out th e top five and Ross Pederson charged up from a first -lap crash to pa ss Ch ad Ped erson near the end for sixth pl ace. Saturday night'S acti on began with another three l25cc heats and Gaddis led the ent ire way in the first heat. Atkins started second, but Chad Pederson passed H awth orne and then Atk ins through the whoops to take over the runner-up posi tion which he held to the finish. Ha wthorn e passed Atkins a short time later and held th ird to th e checkered flag. Ed wards pulled the holesho t at the sta rt of the second heat and hi s lead was never challe nge d. Ross Pederson recovered fro m a first-la p collision wi th another rider to fini sh second ahea d of Glass and Hodges.

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