Race report: 2014 Garmin Arenacross Tour – Sheffield

It’s the richest prize in European indoor racing and the most intensive series outside of America – and at Sheffield’s amazing Motorpoint Arena on Saturday night over 7,000 fans saw Apico LPE Kawasaki’s Fabien Izoird lift the 2014 Garmin Arenacross Tour crown.

Heading into the sixth round of the seven-round championship in Steel City, Izoird was 17 points clear and he barely put a wheel wrong to win both his heats, top the Head-to-Head races and then rip to victory in the Main Event to nail the title.

“It has been a great night for me and I am delighted,” says Frenchman Fabien. “I won both heats and got a really, really good start in the Main Event. I knew the starts were very, very important today and I tried to give my best for the first lap and push very hard with no mistakes to pull out a good gap.”

It was a bad night for the best Brits. Dyer & Butler KTM’s Steven Clarke, winner of round one and round five, crashed out of the lead of his heat race and sustained a suspected broken wrist – but was later confirmed to not have broken. While MBO Sport ASA Yamaha’s Kristian Whatley blended speed with some seriously sketchy moments – so sketchy in fact that we haven’t got any photos of Kristian but we’ve got some great pencil drawings!

In their absence and with Elliott Banks-Browne missing the round with a wrist injury, the podium was an all-continental affair with Dave Thorpe Off-Road Centre Honda’s Italian Angelo Pellegrini and Izoird’s compatriot, Loic Rombaut joining his team-mate on the podium.

And there has to be a special mention for another Frenchman – SR75-Molson Suzuki’s Cyrille Coulon – who picked up the award for ‘Gros écrous’.

In the closing laps of his second heat race Cyrille was holding a comfortable lead but then planted himself into the face of a jump. It was a huge crash – big enough to earn a standing ovation from the crowd when he finally got to his feet (and to turn his tongue a bruised black) – and he then went out and battered his way to fourth in the Main Event.

Nice one Cyrille!

The riders now get their first weekend off since the tour started before the series showdown at Wembley Arena in London on March 1.