Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
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IN THE WIND P34 ARENACROSS: HAYES, FAITH TOP WILD WEEK- END IN GRAND RAPIDS T he 2015 AMSOIL Arenacross, featuring Ricky Carmichael's Road to Supercross made a trip to Grand Rapids, Michigan, January 16-17, for the second stop of the 2015 series. Another exciting weekend of racing saw some wild action on Friday night and a shake-up in the points after Saturday night's action drew to a close. Team Babbitt's Monster Energy Kawasaki's Ja- cob Hayes was the first big winner at the Van An- del Arena. Hayes topped the wild action on Friday night, which had the crowd in a frenzy, as Hayes and his Babbitt's Kawasaki teammate Chris Blose went bar to bar for the win in the first main event. Hayes' second-place finish in the second main event was enough to grant him the overall win. Husqvarna TiLUBE TUF Racing's Kyle Regal took the second main event win—a career first for him, and paired it with his fifth-place finish in the first main to card second overall. Matt Goerke rounded out the podium with a solid 3-3 tally on Friday night. Unfortunately for the Babbitt's Kawasaki team, Zach Ames (second-place finisher from the open- ing round) was unable to compete after a practice crash ended his weekend prematurely. Worse yet, his Babbitt's teammate Chris Blose had a hard get-off in the second main event and joined Ames on the sidelines for the rest of the weekend. Blose finished second in the first main, and was running second in the second main when he went down after the finish line jump. On Saturday, it was Husqvarna's Gavin Faith who ended the night on top in the premier class. In the first main, he finished ahead of Goerke for the win. In the second main, it was KTM's Steven Mages turn to take the win, but Faith's runner-up finish was enough to garner him with the overall. Mages took second with a 5-1 score while Brown- ing and Goerke had to split hairs for the final po- dium position. Browning's 3-3 finish barely edged out Goerke's 2-4 for third on the night. Despite his fourth-place finish on Saturday night, Goerke holds the championship points lead coming out of Grand Rapids. Hayes was unable to repeat his winning performance from Friday, and finished a distant 11th overall on Saturday. With Blose and Ames both out of the action, the advan- tage goes to Goerke. In the Lites class, Team Green's Darian Sanayei backed up his opening-round performance with another big win on Friday night. The Road to Supercross competitor methodically made his way through the pack from fifth place to win the Lites main event and strengthen his lead. That's as far as his win streak would extend, however, as Satur- day night was a different story. Sanayei was off to a great start in the Lites Main until he crashed out of the race. It was Sanayei's Monster Energy Kawasaki Team Green teammate Mitchell Harrison who took the win, controlling the race from start to finish. Honda's Daniel Herrlein held on for second ahead of KTM's Daniel Blair. Team Green remains undefeated in the Lites division, but it is Herrlein who took control of the Eastern Regional Arenacross Lites Class Cham- pionship points lead. KTM's Dave Ginolfi now sits second while Sanayei slipped back to third overall. PHOTOGRAPHY BY JOSH RUD/SHIFTONE PHOTOGRAPHY Husqvarna's Gavin Faith celebrated Saturday night's big win in Grand Rapids.