Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

ARENACROSS Rounds 5 &6: Jacksonville Coliseum AMAlPJl NATIONAL AR ENACROSS SERIES By Dave Derin ger Photo s by Kinney Jone s JACKSONVILLE, FL, NOV. 21-22 he Pace-promoted, AMA-sa nctioned PJ1 ational Arenacross l Seri es made its first-ev er appear• an ce in Jacksonville, Florida, and t he Tu f Racing /Thor /Pro Ci rcui tbacked H ondas of Jeff Will oh and [erorny Buehl stole the show. As the newest member of the th reeman Tuf Racing team , Willoh made the podium th ree out of a p ossible fo u r times . Willoh finis hed th ird in bo th fina ls on Friday and p laced second in Saturday's 250cc ma in. A four th in Satu rd a y' s 125cc fina l, a long with tw o jump-off cont est wins, made for a great weekend for the California na tive, who jumped fro m fifth to second in the series point stand ings. "I just need to rid e a .littl e har der to bea t th ese g uys," Will oh sai d of the weekend's events. "I'm havin g a lot of fun in this series and every thing is looking good ." Th e w eeke nd mar ked th e first tw o wins of the new series for Buehl, an Arenacro ss veteran out of Oh io . After a n eighth- and fourth-place finish es in Fridav's two fina ls, Buehl took both mainev en t wi ns o n Saturd a y . Bue h l a lso inc reased his p o sit ion s in th e poin t stan di ngs , as he moved fro m eighth to fourth. "Thi ngs are coming together after a dismal start in Des Moines," Bue hl stated after his secon d victory of the weekend. "I ' ve been goi ng throug h some high s and lows and hopefully I' ll wo rk them out." Pri m al Imp ul se Su zuki /B ill ' s Pipes /Shift-backed Chad Pederson and Carroll ton Kawasaki.com / FMF / Re ynar d Modi fications-supp o rted Cliff Palmer each wo n a main-event fi nal a lso. Pederso n too k the first wi n of the week end as he conv inci ng ly w on Friday's 125cc fea tu re . Palmer wo n la ter , that night on the 250cc, pro ving tha t he 0\ wa nt s to win h is seco nd Aren acro ss title. l-< (l) nds, Pa lmer moves .c theAfter six rouove r WilIoh, 169-165. into po ints lead Primal Im p ulse Suzu ki's Bud dy Antu nez (l) u and Bueh l hold third and fou rth with (l) 161 and 150, resp ectively. Las t week' s le a d e r Vos s w a s a no-s how a t Ja ck sonville and slipped from first to eigh th in the stand ings. Voss expects to com'~ ~ -' = ~ S o 6 Jeromy Buehl came away with two main-event wins at the PJl National Arenacross in Jacksonville, Aorida. p et e in o nly o ne m ore event, and that will be in Rockford in a week. FRIDAY Willoh nailed the start of the 125cc fi nal a head of Pederson a nd G reg Ra nd . Going d own h a rd in th e rockers on the first lap was Ran d , ta kin g several o ther riders with him . 2Xt re me / S u ns ta r / Answer-backed Charley Boga rd quickly took ad va n tage of th e in cid ent a nd s lip ped in to third . Antun ez and Team Green's Jeff Gibson wer e now in fou rth and fifth. Pederson blitzed bv Willoh throug h the rocke rs o~ the second lap, movin g in to the lead . Gib s o n s a w a n o p en ing and did the same to Antunez, slipping int o fourth a . sho rt time later. Gibso n, w ho won tw o 125cc final s the week before in Massachuset ts, once aga in looked to be one of the fastes t as he closed in on Bogard , who se t th e fas test lap time of the nigh t in the first heat race. Pederso n cruised out fron t on the sandy Flo rida d irt , as Willoh was tw o seconds behind in second . Bogard and Gibson di ced for third and four th for some time, as Antunez dropped off the pace an d los t several positi ons. Seri es leader Palme r cras hed har d w hile ru nning m id pack, adding to a n alread y cras h-filled evening. At the halfway p oin t of the 16-lap final, Gibson was ready to move by Bogard . Bogard elec ted to d ouble th rough the rhy thm section so Gibson we n t for the tr iple. Gibso n caug ht the tip of the third jum p and we nt down. Bogard was n ow a lo ne in third as Acerbi s /RRP's Ty Wallace, who was in fifth, mov ed int o fourth as the shakenup Gibso n slow ly made his way over to a hay bale. With o nly a fe w la p s r ema in in g , Pederson had the race locked u p as he wa s now several seco nds ahead of the b a ttling d u o of W ill oh a n d Bogard . Bogard knew it was his time to strike" and he did on the final lap th rou gh the rockers . Bogard hammered through the section a nd di splaced th e Are nacross rookie Willoh to third , leav ing no time for Willoh to make another mov e. Ped erson took his second win of the series in fro n t of Bogard a nd Willoh . Wallace scored o ne o f his best-eve r Arenacross finishes, crossing the line in fourth. "As soo n as I go t ou t fro nt, I was able to use my own lines and smooth out a bit," Pederso n said of his victorv, "The track is a Iittle slick, bu t I fou nd some good lines." "It' s just a matter of time until I do this every wee kend ," explained Bogard of his season-bes t second place finis h. "I ha d tr ou bl e get ti ng b y Will o h for a whi le , but I u se d th e ins ide of th e whoops - w here they were still big - and I knew he wou ldn' t go there." Antu nez holesh ot th e 250cc final in fro nt of Tuf Racing /Thor /Parts Unlimited-sponsored Den ny Step henson and Pal mer . Ped e rson, Bueh l and Will oh chased the lead pack as the top six ra n toge ther for several laps. An tu nez, Stephenson , an d Pa lm er sepa rated themselves fro m the pack on lap six and started to have a race of their own . Ped erson was running fifth wh en he went dow n in the rockers , losing man y positions . Pal mer was th e fi rst to a tta ck up front wh en he go t by Step henson on lap 10. Then Palmer w as ou t for An tunez a n d m ad e h is move o n th e cu rre nt champion o n lap 12. Pa lm e r and An tu ne z ba ttled for a fe w la p s until Pa lm er p ulled so me d istance a n d secured the top spot for good . A n tu nez h e ld th e seco nd s po t as Willoh moved past th e slowly fad ing Stephenson in to third. Buehl was next to attack Ste p he nson a n d m o ved in to fou rth as the race was wi nd ing down. Palmer took his third win of the vea r, follow ed bv Antu nez, Willoh and B~ ehl. "I kne \V" tha t if I was in the top thr ee at the middle of the race tha t I wou ld be ab le to pass those guys," a bruis ed and batter ed Palmer said. "I jus t d ug d eep , tried to forge t abou t the 125cc race and focu sed on the race a t han d ." "I' ve bee n cras h ing so m uc h lat ely th at I actua lly ro d e a li ttle cau tio u s," Antunez sa id. "For every mistake Cliff made, I ma de two and he jus t capitalized on them." "I' m just riding cons istent right now and I' m happy with that ," Willoh said . SATURDAY Afte r posting the fastest 125cc qu ali-

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