TMX SAYS: It's AX capital punishment!

Okay, that's not close to being true but with all the on-track drama that went down across town at Wembley the chance to dig out that old joke, polish it up a bit and then put a dirt bike spin on it was just too good an opportunity to miss. Sorry about that...

If you made it to the Arenacross finale then no doubt you'll have had a fairly awesome night – I know I did. 

 

From Ash Greedy trying to jump the gate in heat one right through to the very last lap of the main event there was a plethora of high octane action to enjoy – or feel outraged by depending on where your allegiances lie. 

 

As a keen follower of the series I felt like something ‘big' might happen and just before the Head-to-Heads kicked off I was nervous as hell – probably even more nervous than if I'd been racing in them myself. 

 

This part of the programme is always pretty intense but with double points up for grabs the potential was there for big gains to be made and that, along with the fact that things were coming to a head, meant tension was even higher than normal.

 

After eight bar-banging bouts, we had ourselves a winner as Cedric Soubeyras managed to plough his way through Harri Kullas and Cyrille Coulon before fending off the attentions of Thomas Ramette in the final, which meant the Geartec Yamaha rider took a five point lead into the 14-lap Main Event over the reigning champ. 

 

It was basically in the bag and all he had to do to win the title was follow the SR75 Suzuki rider home.

 

As you'll read later on in the full race report, that didn't pan out, and the top and bottom of it was that after early skirmishes with Adam Chatfield and Ramette, big contact with Thomas' team-mate Cyrille Coulon saw Soubeyras drop a lap behind the leaders.

 

That's when things got totally mental and instead of cracking on and making the best of a bad job, Cedric went all-out to ruin Ramette's race instead by blocking and baulking him for a lap or two before blatantly trying to run him right off the track. It basically all got a little bit WWE out there for a moment which isn't really what our sport is all about.

 

Regardless, there was a positive buzz inside the arena and the huge crowd seemed to go home happy afterwards, although there was a bit of a social media backlash the next day – probably from people who weren't even at the event. 

 

The next thing you know the race is under investigation and around 65 hours after everyone had initially packed up and gone home Coulon was excluded from the results, which inadvertently bumped Chatfield up to third in the final series standings. 

 

While I appreciate that under the circumstances a decision could only be made after video evidence had been viewed, I feel that it would have been better to let everyone know that the race was under investigation right from the off rather than allow people to think it was simply a gut reaction to the negativity on Facebook and Twitter.

 

Fortunately for the majority, this issue won't be an issue at all and the awesomeness of the overall Arenacross experience will long be remembered for all the right reasons. 

 

More of the same next year please...