Team Faith Wins at Baltimore Arenacross Finally! It comes! The elusive victory of Pro Racing! Last weekend in Baltimore, MD, Team Faith’s Kevin Johnson enjoyed his first National Arenacross victory and Team Faith enjoyed it’s first victory at a National since our inception in 1994! Not only did we enjoy winning on Friday night, but KJ backed up by taking his second win of the season on Saturday night! WOW! What a weekend for Team Faith!
It certainly didn’t come easy though. All season long, Team Manager Robby McQuary has been diligently working hard to have Kevin’s bikes in the absolute best condition the ministry has ever been able to provide a racer. Thanks to generous support by Western Power Sports and FLY Racing, we have just about anything we need at our disposal to make the bikes perform to Kevin’s liking. WPS/FLY Racing’s owner Craig Shoemaker has supported the efforts of Team Faith for about 4 seasons now (IN A huge WAY) and it’s nice to be able to get FLY on top of the box!
It all came together this weekend after a seemingly rough start as Kevin was sick with the flu all week. He did not get to practice or train at all! He even felt bad as he arrived in Baltimore on Thursday. But when the gate dropped on Friday for the first Heat, Robby informed everyone on the team that Kevin looked like he had what it took to win that night. That proved to be prophetic if you will as he won his Heat and qualified for the Main with the fastest time. A descent start in the Main had him battling for the lead early with Jim Neese who was riding the wheels of his bike! But KJ put it to him early in the race and took the victory with a 15 second margin. The whole team erupted in joy at what had finally happened after so many years of trying. The first thing Kevin did when he got into victory lane was to grab Robby, Brian O and freestyle teammate Rob Lewis for a victory prayer. KJ proceeded to the podium celebration and gave glory to God over the PA in front of the whole crowd!
Saturday came and everyone was still high from the previous nights blessings! But ole KJ didn’t look so good in practice or his Heats for that matter.
In the US Air Force Freestyle Motocross Exhibition it was only Rob Lewis and Kevin Johnson jumping this weekend as teammate Willy Watts was out with a broken hand. The guys had done a fantastic job performing Friday, despite the very short run up to the take off landing and the rough and race deteriorated landing ramp. Then on Saturday night disaster struck. On the last jump of the show, Rob Lewis hit a divot in the landing and it threw him over the bars. He landed hard on his shoulder knocking him unconscious for about 15-20 seconds. KJ, who was directly behind him in a 2 man train barely missed him hitting Rob’s bike flying into the protective tough blocks. Rob slowly got up as they loaded the gate for the 250 Main, but he was dinged up pretty bad.
Kevin, visibly shaken and concerned for his fallen comrade Rob Lewis had qualified for 6th gate pick in the Main. Neese, however looked awesome, even opting NOT to run his Arenacross Lites (125cc) class to conserve energy for the Arenacross Class (250cc) Main. When the gate dropped it was Neese getting the holeshot followed by Greg Schnell, Brock Sellards and then Kevin. Brock, currently 2nd in points, got ahead of Schnell quickly, which wasn’t too great for KJ as Brock has won the last 4 out of 5 races prior to this weekend. But Kevin was skimming the whoops faster than anyone else which allowed him to get by Schnell and close the gap on Neese, who by this time relinquished the lead to Sellards. The 3 freight-trained it for a lap or two until Neese came back on Brock and KJ followed putting Brock back to third. It wasn’t over yet. As the guys got into lappers, KJ made his move after the whoops and passed Neese to take the lead with 3 to go! Neese, seeing what KJ did, decided to make his own move recapturing the lead with the 2 laps left. That just fired Kevin up and in one last ditch effort he passed again to take the lead with the white flag flying. Sellards made a move on Neese too putting himself in 2nd. When the checkered flag waived it Kevin Johnson taking his 2nd victory in as many nights, much to the roar of crowd who showed their appreciation for such an intense and entertaining night of racing!
