VOL. 54 ISSUE 12 MARCH 28, 2017 P29
in seventh place and eventually
fighting his way up to fifth. In the
second main, Owen started bet-
ter, in third, but couldn't make up
much ground from there, finish-
ing behind Faith and Blose.
Owen rebounded something
fierce Saturday night. Even
though Owen still couldn't defeat
Faith for the Head 2 Head Chal-
lenge on the second night, he
at least made the Head 2 Head
field. Then, in the first main
event, Owen got the holeshot
and checked out, apparently
free from the nerves of his first
championship fight. Faith man-
aged to come in second just in
front of Blose. In the second
main event, Faith got his third
main-event holeshot of the week-
end, but Owen was hot on his
heels and wasn't about to let the
defending champ go. Around
the halfway point, Owen started
looking for a way around Faith,
and he found it down the rhythm
lane before sprinting to a solid
4.7-second margin of victory.
Still, Faith leaves Reno with
the points lead in the Race to
the Ricky Carmichael Cup. He's
seven points ahead of Owen with
three stops left on the 2017 tour.
In the Western Regional AX
Lites class, the championship
continues to be a battle between
Woodstock KTM's Hunter Sayles
and Babbitt's/GPF/Monster En-
ergy Kawasaki's Ryan Breece.
The two traded main-event victo-
ries in Reno, with Breece going
1-2 on the two nights, and Sayles
going 3-1. Sayles leads the
Western championship chase by
one point with three races left to
run. CN
FRIDAY
1. Gavin Faith (Kaw) 1-1
2. Chris Blose (Yam) 2-2
3. Gared Steinke (Kaw) 3-4
4. Jace Owen (Hon) 5-3
5. Daniel Herrlein (KTM) 4-5
SATURDAY
1. Jace Owen (Hon) 1-1
2. Gavin Fath (Kaw) 2-2
3. Chris Blose (Yam) 3-3
4. Daniel Herrlein (KTM) 6-4
5. Gared Steinke (Kaw) 5-5
PHOTOGRAPHY
BY
SHIFTONE
PHOTOGRAPHY
Jace Owen (5) had a tough opening
night but came back strong Saturday
to win both main events.
Hunter Sayles took
back the 250AX
Western Championship
lead in Reno.
