The following press release is from Honda:
DAYTONA BEACH, Florida:
- Missouri native dominates in his debut season
- Seven-straight AMA Arenacross crowns for Honda
DAYTONA BEACH, Florida – The 2025 AMA Arenacross series concluded on Friday evening at Ocean Center in Daytona Beach, Florida, with Vince Friese and the SmarTop/MotoConcepts Racing team winning their first AMA Arenacross Championship. Friese had clinched the crown at the previous round, in Prescott, Arizona, and he sat out the finale; Mike Alessi rode in his place. The title extended a dominant string in the series for Honda-supported teams, whose riders have now taken the last seven titles in a row.
Although fellow MotoConcepts rider Ryan Breece provided a respectable challenge during the season, Friese was the clear title-fight leader all season, his opening-round sweep of both races in Reno, Nevada, in mid-November setting a tone of dominance that was continued over the following three-and-a-half months. The Missouri native eventually collected a total of 17 race victories and eight overall wins aboard his CRF450R, while never finishing lower than fifth in a single race, or off the podium for the overall.
"We looked at the schedule before Arenacross started, and it just made sense to campaign the championship," said Friese, who also competes in AMA Supercross. "The level at the top was high—those guys have the tight tracks dialed! The team gave me such a good bike that I knew my starts would be dialed. Luckily, we were able to take the pressure off and wrap up the championship."
Phoenix Racing Honda riders earned the previous six AMA Arenacross crowns, with Jace Owens winning in 2019 and Kyle Peters ruling from 2020 through 2024. Peters had a decent start to this season in defense of his fifth title, but an injury at round 4 put him out of the series (Friese already had a healthy points-chase lead at the time). This was the first attempt at the AMA Arenacross series for Friese and the Mike Genova-owned, Tony Alessi-run MotoConcepts squad.
"On behalf of everyone at American Honda, congratulations to Vince Friese on a well-deserved championship," said Brandon Wilson, Manager of Racing and Advertising at American Honda. "Honda riders have ruled the AMA Arenacross roost for a while now, but Vince and everyone at MotoConcepts deserve a lot of credit for coming into an unfamiliar series and performing so well. That's not easy, but Vince immediately made it clear that this was his championship to lose. Thank you to everyone who made this possible, and congrats as well to Phoenix Racing Honda and Kyle Peters on an amazing run of AMA Arenacross crowns."
