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Rounds 27 &28: Areo Arena AMAIPJI NATIONAL ARENA CROSS SERIES By John Silva SACRAMENTO, CA, FEB. 26-27 uddy Antunez was unstoppable :: . in Sacramento. The Primal Impulse/Bill's Pipes/Suzukibacked rider simply ruled the AMA/PIl Arenacross Series racing at the Arco Arena, as he topped all four main events during two nights of racing in Northern California. And, of course, Antunez also further increased his series points lead, which is now nearly up to 100 points (901-809) over his nearest rival, Honda rider Jeromy Buehl, who posted a pair of second-place finishes, a third and a fifth over the course of weekend. On Friday, Antunez topped Kawasaki of Carrollton's Greg Rand and Thor/Honda/Tuff Racing-backed Buehl in the 125cc Pro /Expert main, and Buehl (again) and Honda rider Denny Stephenson in the 250cc main. Antunez was just as successful on Saturday night, topping Buehl and Stephenson in the 125cc main and KIM's Lance Smail and Rand in the 250cc feature. In other news, after losing former series leader Cliff Palmer to an injury a few rounds ago, the series lost another top contender at Sacramento Friday [8 .c e ... ~ 54 (Above) BUddy Antunez reeled off four straight main-event wins at the AMAlPJ1 Arenacross at Sacramento's Arco Arena. (Right) Jeromy Buehl (5) leads Denny Stephenson in Friday night's 250Cc main. night when Jeff Willoh crashed in the 250cc main and busted his arm. "That's racing," Willoh said. "I felt really good this year, and I 'knew I had a real shot at winning it all. I'll be back." Despite winning all four main events, it wasn't a perfect weekend for Antunez, as Stephenson won both Dash For Cash races and Mike Jones won both Jump-Off contests. Antunez got the weekend's racing 9ff with a holeshot in Friday's 125cc main, followed by Smi\il, who is a newcomer to the series. '''1 knew this was a pretty lucrative series, so I figured I'd get my feet wet," said Smail. Also in the hunt were Rand, Buehl and Willoh. Willoh was working on his teammate -Bu.ehl when he su.ddenly went down in the whoops, taking Doug DeHaan down with him and losing many positions. Willoh and DeHaan weren't the only riders who would taste the Arco Arena soil before the race was over. The challenging track took its toll, as yellow caution flags waved around the track throughout much of the race. Some of those crash victims ineluded series regu1ar Tom Hoffmaster, who took a nasty spill, and Jerrad Fisher, who carne up short over a jump and flipped spectacularly. Even Smail dumped his bike late in the race. '1 was bobbling a little bit out there," Smail said. "But tha.t's what it's all about: getting the track figured out." At the end, Antunez emerged scotfree and collected the win, followed by Rand, Buehl, Stephenson and Willoh. "After I made a couple of moves at the start, it was pretty much a wire-towire win," Antunez said. "It was chaos quite a bit (of the race), with lapped traffic. I just did my best to pick my way through it and come out unscathed." At the start of the 250cc main, J\ntunez got the jump on the rest of the field, while Jones, Willoh, Scott Davis and Smail settled in behind him. Close racing among the leaders resulted in some rough contact that eventually sent several riders to the ground in a heap - a heap made up of Jones, Smail, Davis and Willoh - the latter breaking. his arm. "We all went into a turn together," Davis said of his view: of the incident. "Willoh just kind of went straight off, kind of over the hay bale, and ended up landing on his arm and breaking it. Smail dominoes into him, and I domino into Smail. I got up unhurt but had to head to the pits to replace a broken cI utch lever. I really feel for Jeff (Willoh)." Jones restarted fairly quickly, but Smail took his time getting going ag?lin. Antunez built up his lead, while Stephenson, Buehl, Rand, DeHaan, Hofmaster, Jim Chester and Jesse Olson all tried to keep him in sight, but none of them could. They did, however, provide plenty of racing action among themselves. Olson eventually crashed ou,t, while Buehl and Stephenson swapped , positions a couple of times. Rand and Hofmaster were also going at it behind them. Hofmaster would later bobble and lose a position to Jones.