TUF Honda AX Race Report

They have had a lot of rain in Pennsylvania and usually this would have no effect on AX except the dirt wasn’t covered this year and the track was extremely soft.  This led to some of the biggest ruts I have ever seen indoors and caused havoc to many of the riders.  Jeff started off great on Friday night finishing second in his heat race.  No one wanted to take to many chances in the heat races on the rutted track one small mistake and you were on the ground.  Cole Siebler was back this weekend and was winning his heat race until a red flag caused a restart.  Cole ended up 3^rd in the restart and it was nice to have two riders in the front row for the main.  The gate dropped on the main and both riders got good starts.  Jeff rounded the first turn out front and Cole was in fourth.  Someone got a little out of shape in the whoops and Cole was back in 9^th after one lap.  Jeff led the first 14 laps but Chad Johnson was right behind him and made the move on lap 15 with Jeff following him home in 2^nd.  Meanwhile Cole was having the ride of the night passing all the way up to third.

Saturday didn’t start as well for the FMF Power team as Jeff had some contact in the first turn in his heat race and could only get himself back up to 5^th.  While this was good enough to transfer to the main he was going to have to do it from the second row.  Cole led his heat into the first turn also, but he also had trouble with some ruts and dropped back to 3^rd.  Cole dropped his back trying to pass for second and dropped all the way back to 9^th.  Cole had worked his way back into a qualifying position when he went down hard in the whoops and would have to sit out the rest of the night.  We knew going into the main starting in the second row was going to be tough on this rutted track so we just wanted to salvage as many points as possible.  Jeff came through the first turn around 9^th or tenth and slowly picked off one rider at a time until he was in fourth.   He was just about to pass Skaggs for 3^rd when Skaggs got cross rutted and Jeff ran into the back of him and went down.  He got up and going again but he was back in 7^th.   Jeff put his head down and slowly re-passed the riders he had just worked his way around.  At this point in the race Gibson was the fastest rider on the track. He passed Skaggs back for fourth with 4 laps to go and set his site on Johnson in 3^rd but just ran out of time by the checkers.  This was a great ride by Jeff and with it he maintains his six point lead over Bowers going into the break.

 

Arenacross Points Standings
Jeff Gibson           144pts. (Hon)
Tyler Bowers       138pts. (Kaw)
Chad Johnson    129pts. (Kaw)
Josh Demuth      127pts. (Kaw)
Kelly Smith           117pts. (KTM)

 

TUF Honda’s full list of supporters for 2012 is as follows:

FMF Power Beverage, Poynt, American Honda, Thor, Smith, NGK, Wiseco, Renegade, Silkolene, Bazzaz, K&N, KG Clutches, Motion Pro, DP Brakes, Hinson, RK/Excel, UFO, FMF Exhaust, Cernics, Hot Cams/Pivot Works, Wow Tickets, Vortex, Factory Connection, Works Connection, HBD, Motorsport Products, Moto Tassanari, Dunlop, Sidi, and TUF performance products.