Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

I5r ,rlorin€r Arcno Bolrimorc, ,vlD I .;,-::( r" Kevin tohnson pulls Arenacross viclory ' off firsi career lvvice! I ^/ :I"J:l I'J+"TTXi,1'1,1: };:il..:il: l(. ;n:,:::',:"J1"il1 T#ilr:'#:Jil: I \f"". Farth/ Yamana-sponsoreo noer s iirst- ever in National Arenacross competition and it moved him into third overall in the series standings. Johnson topped series poins leader Yamaha's Chad Johnson and Thor/Honda/TUF Racing's Brock Sellards, who current- ly sits third overall, en route to the wins, and it pretty much goes without saying the he'll be heading into the remainder of the series with renewed confidence- 'All it took was a couple wins to raise my confidence," .lohnson said. "l knew I had the speed and knew I could run with the leaders, but it seemed l'd always make at Ieast one mistake that would end up being the differehce between fourth and first. Now I know I can run - and win - at the end of 20 laps-" With Chad Johnson on the recovery trail after a recent bout yr'ith the flu, Sellards had a chance to up his stock in Baltimore, as well, but bad luck on Friday the l3th - including a busted chain - had him leaving town trailing by l9 points instead of something less. "Man, I got bit by the Friday-the- l3th bug," Sellards said. "l got out pretty good in the main, then stalled my dang bike and couldn't get it started and lost like three I+s there." On the other hand, Chad ,ohnson turned in an admirable performance, despite spending the week on the couch with the flu, and raced to two toP-live finish- es in some of the more heated racing of the season. Another racer poised to make up some ground was Sellards' Thor/Honda/ TUF Racing teammate .leff Northrop, who entered Baltimore - a race that he shared the victory with last year - in third place overall in the points, only to leave in fifth place overall- "First turn of Friday's main I smashed my pointer finger and middle linger enough so that both fingernails are black." Northrop said. "Then on Saturday I ran into the back of Shawn Clark, broke the shroud off my fork and had my brake line come loose. I had to pull I over so they could zip-tie my brake line so it wouldn't get caught up in the wheel." While Sellards and Northrop were battlinS to stay in things, Team Faith's KevinJohnson was on it. Survivin8 an early race tangle with Chad Johnson on Friday, Kevin 8ot the lead and held onto it the whole way. Team ROCK- STAR/Suzuki's Greg Schnell also made up some valuable points, finishing on the podium (second) on Friday and moving past Northrop for fourth in the overall standings. Chad struggled all night but was able to pull off a lifth and some valuable points, thank to Sellards stalling his bike late in the race. During Saturday night's main event, with everybody gunning for Chad, Suzuki rider Jim Neese pulled the holeshot and ran hard for the first half of the race, while Kevin Johnson, Neese and Sellards battled for second, When Neese got into some lappers, Kevin got around him and started to check out. Over the last four laps, all four riders were on top of each other, howevet Kevin held on for the win over Sellards and Neese. The AMA Lites class featured first-time winner, Jeremy Cook, on Saturday. Shawn Clark continued to shine on the Lites bikes, as he took another win on Friday. Cll lsr Ma{Nrn AIENA BalTt oRE, MAnYhND ABENACROSS: L Kwin lohaEn (Ym); 2. GreS sa- 'L '^b h L \ -bl .!r '".ti. - Togota AMA National Ac€nacross s€ri€s I t Bt I '.b -E \ I Brock Scllqrds finished second Soturdoy night to Jtoy in th. fille hunt' \ *;,' \ ! i i'? .T 'f) :

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