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National Arenacross Series Round 9: Hampton Coliseum so red rider to the ground. Antunez ended up winning and that is when Gibson settled for fourth. The talented and reserved 18. year-old, though, took it in stride and just shrugged it off and moved on to bigger and better things. Those things were a second place later that night on the 250cc, a second on Saturday in the 125cc final and a win later that night on the 250cc. "It was a good weekend for me," Gibson said. "A main-event win; two Dash wins, and two other podiums rides - not bad." Gibson is now 140 points out of the lead and 46 out of second. Clearly one of the fastest riders on the circuit, if anyone can catch up it would be him. "I think the championship is out of reach but second isn't," Gibson said. "Suzuki wants to finish one and two in the series and that's what I'm aiming for." A sore and slightly injured Antunez By DAVE DERINGER PHOTOS BY KARL OCKERT HAMPTON, VA, JAN. 26-27 he ninth stop of the Speed Stickpresented National Arenacross Series was quite a good one for Thomville, Ohio's Jeff Gibson. Recently signing a Suzuki Factory-support contract for Arenacross, Gibson made the most of his new ride as he made the podium in three out of the four finals throughout the weekend and finished just off it with a fourth in the other main. Coupled with two big Dash-for-Cash wins, Gibson and his Scotty Haynes-tuned RMs came out of Hampton smelling like a rose. It wasn't as pretty as it sounds though. In fact, it was a little ugly at one point. Gibson and his new teammate, four-time AX champ Buddy Antunez, got together on the final lap of Friday's 125cc final while Gibson was leading and the collision took the newest Bill's Pipes/AXO/RG3-spon- T had somewhat of an off weekend as he only stood on the podium twice. Those two were wins, but the big news was that he finished 10th and seventh in the other two finals. Antunez was suffering from a pulled muscle in his back at Hampton and said that it did affect him as he could only raise his arm about halfway. Perhaps that was why he wasn't his dominant self, but others say that it was karma. "The two wins were good and I got some good points, but the other two bad races were due to first-tum pileups and that happens a lot," Antunez said. And what about the incident with his newest teammate Gibson? "Willoh and I rolled the double and Jeff doubled and almost landed on me," Antunez added. "That really just fired me up and I got back into the race right then. I saw an open door on the last lap and took it and I thought he saw me, but I guess he had his head down and he hit my back wheel and went down." Having one of his better weekends since suffering a broken wrist back in November was Carrollton Kawasaki/ TeamSaftey.com/Thor's Josh Demuth. The resident of North Richland Hills, Texas, went 6-8-4-2 throughout the four finals and looks to be getting back into his Arenacross groove. The 21-year-old, who is a crowd favorite at many events, had fun all weekend and signed autographs late into the night Saturday, realizing that he is back and soon will be up to full speed. "I've been having trouble getting back up here on the podium these last few weeks, but I think I'm starting to get it back," Demuth said after Saturday's event. 30 FEBRAURY 14, 2001 • cue • _ n __ s