Moss Dominates Reno Arenacross

Shan Moore | March 2, 2009

The 2009 AMA Arenacross Series completed its west-coast swing with two nights of racing at the Reno Livestock Events Center in Reno, Nevada, February 27-28. With a seven-race break from the Western Regional AMA Supercross Lites-class Championship, Troy Lee Designs Honda’s Jake Moss made a one-race appearance in the series and came away with a convincing sweep of both the AMA Arenacross and AMA Arenacross Lites classes both nights.

Jake Moss

After suffering a serious injury in the off-season leading up to the start of the AMA Monster Energy Supercross Series, Moss was forced to sit out until February, making his 2009 racing debut just three weeks ago. With the mid-season break for the Western Regional Lites Supercross Series in effect, the Troy Lee Honda stable chose to give Moss a chance at more competitive racing by bringing his bike to Reno, where he capitalized on stellar starts in each main en route to the sweep.

As the premier AMA Arenacross-class blasted out of the gates for Friday night’s main event, Team Green House of Kawasaki’s Justin Berry grabbed the holeshot but soon crashed out of the race. Moss assumed the lead and never looked back. Last week’s winner, Triple Effect Kawasaki’s Brock Sellards, overcame an early-race mishap to battle from ninth place to finish in the runner-up position.

Defending champion Chad Johnson battled his way into third after starting in seventh aboard his Babbitt’s Monster Energy Kawasaki.

Saturday’s feature was another Moss-dominated race, but this time, he had to make his way around New Mexico’s Keith Johnson to get to the front, doing so on the third lap of the race. From there, Moss rode to his second-straight win ahead of Sellards, Honda-mounted Tiger Lacey, defending champ Chad Johnson and series points leader Jeff Gibson.

With just two rounds remaining, Gibson holds a comfortable lead over Spinechiller’s Honda’s Nathan Skaggs, 261 points to 222, while Chad Johnson sits third with 217.