Battle royale at UK Arenacross in Sheffield

The thousands and thousands of AX fans who packed the Sheffield Arena to the rafters witnessed Thomas Ramette of SR75 Molson Racing Suzuki reeling in the Pro class points deficit to just three points behind current leader, Geartec Yahama's Cedric Soubeyras. Elsewhere, the crowning of Joe Clayton as ProLite, and Harry Kimber as SuperMini champions, the first-ever Arenacross electric motocross bike race, and an astonishing jaw-dropping trick from Freestyle ace Arran Powley kept the event ever-fresh and exciting.

With a full-house settled in, the evening programme was quickly underway and the opening ceremony, complete with moving and atmospheric music, light strobes and smoke set the scene. Exuberant hosts Christian Stevenson, aka DJ BBQ, and Jeff Perrett were in fine voice as they revved up the expectant crowd. Once the Pro riders burst onto the circuit the show was well and truly on!

The Pro heats were largely incident-free with American Collin Jurin, XBladez Husqvarna, the single casualty. Whilst in a strong position and vying for third, he and Jack Brunell, SJR Kawasaki, clipped and the resultant tumble saw Jurin injuring his shoulder, and leaving the race.

Next up were the Freestyle gang of Edgar Torronteras, Petr Pilat, Nez Parker, Dan Whitby, Samson Eaton and Arran Powley. The guys are always a massively-popular act with Arenacross audiences and the Sheffield fans were vocal in their appreciation of their performances. As ever the louder the crowd, the more daring the tricks and ‘Babyface' Powley was ready to rise to the occasion. He executed a perfect Cliff-hanger-to-no-hander-lander that won him the Big Trick vote and the Sheffield fans were vocal in their support. Commenting on his first ‘shootout win' of the 2016 series, he said; "I haven't performed this trick at Arenacross before as we don't usually have the landing space. I haven't done one in six months, but have been thinking about it for a while. I messed about with it in practice, however, it didn't go that well. It's one of the hardest tricks to do and not many people do them but, when the crowd gets behind you, it motivates you to go the extra mile and so I just thought I'd throw it in and see what happened. Luckily it worked but I wasn't expecting to do it twice as if I do it too many times I end up crashing.”

The challenging track made traction difficult for the younger groups. At around two-thirds race-distance Preston Williams slipped on one of the fast jumps, face planted into the packed soil and damaged a previously injured wrist. The medics attended to the fallen rider whilst the race continued for a couple of laps before being red-flagged. Harry Kimber took the race win, overall on the day and the championship itself.

Local hero Bailey Johnston was dominant in the Junior 65 class. He raced off the start line with Kiean Boughen and quickly moved into the lead. He was never bettered and stayed out front right to the chequered flag. Behind him, title contenders Boughen and Ollie Colmer didn't fare so well. Colmer finished tenth and Boughen 12th which has closed up the points gap between first and second to just one point. It's all to play for at the final round.

Having sewn up the ProLites championship earlier in the day, Joe Clayton fought through to win the final race of the day ahead of George Clarke and Edward Briscoe. Clarke is currently second in the championship and Jordan Moxey third.

The Main Event was something of a Ramette masterclass. He fended off a valiant attack from Adam Chatfield of Buildbase Honda, who simply never gave up whilst behind him in third, Cyrille Coulon completed the SR75 Molson Racing Suzuki sandwich. Hitachi Revo Husqvarna's James Dunn enjoyed his best-ever Arenacross result. He had an incredible race and held a solid fourth from start to finish, keeping the likes of championship leader Soubeyras, and top British contender Brunell at bay.

The result means that the Pro class championship is uber-close and will most definitely go to the wire. Soubeyras sits on 189 points and Ramette 186, it's a safe bet that there'll be fireworks at the Grand Final in Wembley at the end of the month and not just the type favoured by Guy Fawkes ....

Thomas Ramette; "This was a really important round for me – like a final really. I had great starts which was vital, as the lap times are all so close. My goal was to close down on Soubeyras as, if he had got away from me this weekend, it could have all been over. Now with just three points in it, everything is on London and it's going to be really intense and close racing. I've got two weeks to get prepared and I don't intend to lose. I'm focussed on being the first back-to-back Arenacross Pro Champ!”

An elated Adam Chatfield; "Everything seems to be working well for me now. I'm really happy with that race and I like the technical track. I was third at round eight in Newcastle and now second today, so if I continue along that track, I should move up to the top step at the final in London. I'll be training hard in the next two weeks and will give it my all.”

All roads now lead to The Monster Energy Arenacross Tour finale at the SSE Arena, Wembley, London on Sunday the 27th of February 2016. Doors open at 6pm with the evening performance starting at 7pm.

Tickets can be bought by calling the box office on 0844 338 8000 or via the BUY TICKETS link at www.arenacrossuk.com

Pro Main
1. Thomas Ramette #1 SR75 Molson Racing Suzuki 25.207
2. Adam Chatfield #407 Buildbase Honda 25.314
3. Cyrille Coulon #5 SR75 Molson Racing Suzuki 25.929
4. James Dunn #200 Hitachi Revo Husqvarna 25.954
5. Cedric Soubeyras #120 Geartec Yamaha 25.779
6. Paulo Alberto #941 Buildbase Honda 26.283
7. Jack Brunell #155 SJR Kawasaki 26.058
8. Matt Bayliss #4 Wooldridge Demolition Honda 26.065
9. Florent Richier #2 LPE Kawasaki 26.434
10. Julien Bill #25 SJR Kawasaki 26.844
11. Xavier Boog #121 LPE Kawasaki 26.438

Pro Championship
1. Cedric Soubeyras #120 Geartec Yamaha 189
2. Thomas Ramette #1 SR75 Molson Racing Suzuki 186
3. Cyrille Coulon #5 SR75 Molson Racing Suzuki 157
4. Adam Chatfield #407 Buildbase Honda 135
5. Fabien Izoird #871 LPE Kawasaki 128
6. Jack Brunell #155 SJR Kawasaki 127
7. Florent Richier #2 LPE Kawasaki 111
8. Matt Bayliss #4 Wooldridge Demolition 110
9. Angelo Pellegrini #941 Buildbase Honda 100
10. Josh Hansen #100 SJR Kawasaki 79

Team Championship
1. SR75 Molson Racing Suzuki 343
2. LPE Kawasaki 271
3. Buildbase Honda 248
4. SJR Kawasaki 222
5. Geartec Yamaha 192
6. Wooldridge Honda 126
7. Xbladez Husqvarna 82
8. MVRD Fuel Husqvarna 59
9. Hitatchi Revo Husqvarna 72
10. Shocktech Honda 8

Pro Lites Main
1. Joe Clayton #14
2. George Clarke #161
3. Edward Briscoe #56

Pro Lites Championship
1. Joe Clayton #14
2. George Clarke #161
3. Jordan Moxey #981

Supermini Main
1. Harry Kimber #78
2. Kacey Hird #28
3. Lewis Hall #419

Supermini Championship
1. Harry Kimber #78
2. Kacey Hird #28
3. Lewis Hall #419

Junior 65 Main
1. Bailey Johnston #19
2. Jak Taylor #22
3. Tye Jones 221

Junior 65 Championship
1. Kiean Boughen #5
2. Ollie Colmer #6
3. Jak Taylor #22