With just three rounds and four main events remaining in the AMA Arenacross Series, Tyler Bowers is poised to win his second straight championship after extending his points lead over Jeff Gibson at the latest round in Lexington, Kentucky, February 4. Bowers, on the Babbitt’s Monster Energy/AMSOIL Kawasaki, recorded yet another win of the 2011-2012 series, to stretch out his lead over Gibson to 21.
Tyler Bowers scored his 10th Arenacross win last weekend in Kentucky.
The final three rounds of the championship, this weekend in Fresno, California, followed a week later by a round in Reno, Nevada, and wrapping up at the Target Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota, February 25-26, offer a total four points-paying main events, but Gibson, on the FMF Power/Poynt TUF Honda, must gain an average of six points on Bowers over the next four races in order to steal away the number-one plate from Bowers, and that won’t be an easy task by any means. Gibson has two win thus far this season compared to Bowers’ 10.
At the latest round at Rupp Arena in Kentucky, Gibson had his chance to pull some points back on Bowers but couldn’t quite pull the trigger.
After winning the Dash for Cash in front of his home crowd, Bowers found himself behind Gibson, who put up a strong fight. The two went back and forth early in the race before Gibson settled into a groove up front, but he could never relax, as Bowers was always right behind him, pushing hard.
After about eight laps, Bowers finally made his move and got around Gibson and never looked back.
Gibson dropped one more spot after getting passed by Bella’s Cupcakes/Club MX Kawasaki’s Zach Ames before it was all over.
“I pulled the holeshot in the Dash for Cash and ran away with it from there,” said Bowers of his night. “In the main, I got a great start and pulled in behind the leader [Gibson]. I kept the pressure on him and we battled pretty hard for the first half of the race, it got pretty aggressive. Every time I went through the whoops behind Jeff, I almost ran into his back end because I would get such a good drive. Halfway through the race, I used my advantage in the whoops to get around him and then checked out. It was nice to take the win in front of my hometown crowd. I was actually surprised about the size of the crowd, I would say it was one of our best turnouts of the year.”
Heading into the penultimate round in Fresno, Bower holds 330 points to Gibson’s 309, while Bowers’ teammate Chad Johnson is third with 268 points.
The Eastern Regional Arenacross Lites Championship concluded at Lexington, with Michael McDade, on the Motostar Kawasaki, taking the number-one plate with him back home to Pennsylvania. A couple of crashes left him in 13th place on the night, but he still had 14 points over series runner-up Dave Ginolfi of Lake Hopatcong, New Jersey.
On the night, Kevin Johnson, on the Team Faith KTM, took the win, followed by Daniel Blair, on the Airide KTM, and Ginolfi.
