IN
THE
WIND
P32
BLOSE TOPS KAWI SWEEP
AT ARENACROSS OPENER
T
he 2015 AMSOIL Arenacross
Championship, featuring
Ricky Carmichael's Road to Su-
percross, kicked off this week-
end, with the opening round
taking place in Cincinnati, Ohio,
at the U.S. Bank Arena, Janu-
ary 10. With four-time champion
Tyler Bowers now competing in
Supercross, it has left the door
wide open for a new champion,
and so far, it's looking like that
champion will come from the
Team Babbitt's Monster Energy
Kawasaki camp.
Chris Blose led the way to
the checkered flag on Saturday
night, leading a Babbitt's Kawa-
saki sweep of the top-four in the
main event, followed by Zach
Ames and Matt Goerke, who
rounded out the podium. In the
Lites class, Monster Energy Ka-
wasaki Team Green rider and
Road to Supercross competitor
Darian Sanayei claimed his first
win in the Eastern Regional Ar-
enacross Lites Class.
In the first of two 15-lap main
events, Husqvarna's Kyle Regal
grabbed the holeshot and took
the early lead with Blose and
Robert Kiniry close behind. Re-
gal soon crashed and gave up
the lead, handing it over to Blose,
who ran unchallenged to the end
of the race. Yamaha's Kiniry fin-
ished second with Babbitt's Ka-
wasaki rider Goerke in third.
In the second main event,
KTM-mounted Steven Mages
grabbed the holeshot much to the
delight of his home crowd. Bab-
bitt's Kawasaki rider Jacob Hayes
followed in second with Steve
Roman in third. Blose got out to
a seventh-place start with Ames
running behind him in eighth.
Hayes made quick work of
Mages to take over the lead in
the first lap, and never looked
back on his way to taking the
main-event victory. Road to Su-
percross competitor Jordon
Smith put his GEICO Honda into
second place soon after and
held it until a hard-charging Zach
Ames relieved him of the point.
Smith tried to hold on to the fi-
nal podium position, but Blose
got around him late in the race
to take third.
Blose's 1-3 score awarded him
the overall victory, a single point
ahead of his teammate Ames
who carded a 3-2 finish. Goerke
finished third with a 2-7 score,
while Hayes took fourth with an
unconventional 10-1 finish. Kiniry
rounded out the top-five with a
6-5 on the night.
The Babbitt's
Kawasaki team led
the way in Cincin-
nati at the AMSOIL
Arenacross opener
by sweeping the top
four positions.
PHOTOGRAPHY
BY
JOSH
RUD/SHIFTONE
PHOTOGRAPHY
