Well, he did it, not without its challenges but Phoenix Racing Honda’s Kyle Peters won his fifth AMA Arenacross title in Vegas. Calling it the “toughest one yet,” Peters had to deal with an injury, some drama in Daytona and a very competitive Ryan Breece to bring home another cronwn. We talked to KP on the PulpMX Show recently and here’s some of that conversation.
Racer X Online: That was pretty cool. You had eight points going in. [Ryan] Breece swept it. In your mind, you’re like, just jump the jumps, basically?
Kyle Peters: Essentially. Just here to get a job done.
You’ve won a bunch of these before. Was it nerve-racking, or how was it?
This one was definitely different, just throughout the season, all the adversity, being sick, to my thumb injury in Daytona. This one was probably the toughest mentally and just everything that came along with it, for sure.
How was the Vegas round? How was the crowd? How was the track and all of that?
For me, I feel like it was probably the best round that we’ve had all year. It seemed like the stadium was pretty crowded. Starting on the outside, you couldn’t go around there and see who was all there, but it seemed pretty packed. The track was awesome. The dirt, it’s Vegas dirt so it was hard-pack, but it held up well.
In arenacross, the second main, the top six go to the back row, but then Breece won. KP, you got third. Marsh [Marshal Weltin] got fourth. So, you all got through the pack from the second row in the second main. Which tells me the track was a little tougher, for an average guy. KP, you did catch and pass Breece in the heat, though.
The heat started off really well. I felt really good on the bike. There was a little bit of traction out there. It seemed like I could find it pretty good. Had the old Phoenix Honda 250 on the rev limiter.
You went back to a 250 for this weekend. Just you’re more familiar with it?
Yeah. I have more time on it. I know what it’s going to do. I just know it better.
Was there any shenanigans with Breece?
No. No shenanigans at all.
He’s eight back, and they do single points. So, if you’re Breece, you can’t really do much.
Yeah. It definitely could have went either way, obviously. You know how racing goes. Anything can happen. But it wasn’t one of the Daytona rounds where it was super sandy, and it was just a toss-up. It was good to finally lock it up and get some weight off the shoulders.
This is your fifth championship. Is this the hardest one? The most drama, the most stuff you had to overcome?
Definitely the most drama and the most stuff I’ve had to overcome, from being sick with COVID for four rounds, and then the Daytona incident. All that together, very stressful. A lot of anxiety there.
In Daytona, you were third in the LCQ with two turns to go, not going to make the main and two guys make mistakes to get you in! I’ve never seen that.
It was over. I was like, I did everything I could do. I gave it 100 percent, and that’s all I had. If that wouldn’t have happened [the crashes], it would have been over. That would have been very difficult to come back from, for sure.
