FMF KTM Factory Off-road Racing Team’s Dante Oliveira and Slam Life Racing (SLR) Honda’s Tallon LaFountaine didn’t wait until the final round of the FMF AMA National Grand Prix Championship (NGPC) Series to lock up their respective titles for the second year in a row. They did it at round nine of the 10-race series with runner-up class finishes, Oliveira repeating as the overall Pro champ and LaFountaine claiming his second consecutive Pro II number-one plate.
The Prospectors Motorcycle Club’s 36th Annual Prospectors Grand Prix saw the race for the day’s win go down to the wire with Rockstar Energy Husqvarna’s Austin Walton sending it on the final lap to banzai past Oliveira, claiming the day’s victory by just one second after the 90-minute thrash around the very sandy and rough course at Shorty’s Sports Park. Fast House/Team Green Kawasaki’s Trevor Stewart claimed third—his second straight podium appearance—while SLR Honda’s Cole Martinez saw his slim hopes of overtaking Oliveira for the title evaporate with a rare DNF after a timely triumph at round eight.
Oliveira put his Bobby Dawson-prepped Red Bull/Dunlop/Thor 450 XC-F out front immediately with Stewart, Walton, Jet World/Fast House Husqvarna’s Justin Hoeft, 3 Bros./Hatch Racing GasGas-mounted Giacomo Redondi and the rest of the Pros in tow.
Though Oliveira carried a 27-point lead over Martinez into the Prospectors race and didn’t have to win, the reigning series champ rode as if he did, especially after over-jumping one of the first jumps and almost crashing. “I closed my eyes! That definitely got me a little bit puckered up,” he said. That mistake allowed Walton a free pass to first, though Oliveira recovered quickly and stayed close.
Walton’s pace was impressive in his first race back after suffering a broken scapula at the ISDE in September, but Oliveira got around him about 35 minutes in and they went back and forth, though neither could pull any ground on the other. Concentrating on being smooth aboard his FMF/Motorex/Fly Racing-backed FX 450 helped Walton reel Oliveira in on the last lap where he saw his chance in the final corners: “I outdrove him into a corner,” Walton said. “I was going so fast; I didn’t even think I was going to make the turn! I dove from the outside in, took his line and made the pass. He didn’t just give it to me, by no means! “It feels really good to be able to do it that way.”
Walton added, “I’ve been cleared [to ride] for three weeks but on the bike, realistically, for two weeks, two and a half weeks. For me, I don’t expect anything less than winning. Still, to be able to knock it off right off an injury, to come back and win the first race back] is awesome. This is a gnarly track.”
Though he also hates to lose, Oliveira looked at the bigger picture: “I tried to get him back, but I played it smart and finished out where I needed to finish. I just needed to beat old Cole Martinez. [My team] said I could wrap it up this weekend so I went out and did what I could.”
For Martinez, too many things seemed to be against him, starting with catching the flu after winning round eight and staying in bed most of the time since then—likely a factor in his DNF for the day. “I’m really frustrated and disappointed, I guess, because I’ve really been looking forward to these last two rounds to close out the season,” he said. “We’ve shown some great speed and the bike’s been amazing.”
Oliveira now has 242 points with Martinez 52 back at 190.
Stewart was just over two minutes behind them on his Enzo/Dunlop/100% KX450X followed by Hoeft, Redondi and Pro II winner Mateo Oliveira, the FMF/Maxxis/RPM Racing KTM rider 38 seconds ahead of seventh-overall LaFountaine at the finish. 3 Bros./Kilmartin Racing KTM’s Colton Aeck—the Pro II winner at round eight—was 36 seconds farther back, which cemented LaFountaine’s class crown.
“I got a bad start—I spun pretty bad—so I just tried to get into second [place behind Mateo Oliveira] as quick as I could,” LaFountaine explained, and he accomplished that on the third time around.
“At that point, I just tried to be smart,” he said. “It was really important to me to back [my championship] up.” The SLR Honda champ has an unbeatable 40 points over Aeck, 220-180.
Elite Off-road KTM’s Brandy Richards topped Pro Women for the eighth time this season, finishing 18th overall. Johnny Campbell Racing (JCR) Honda’s Tarah Geiger claimed second as she continues to juggle motherhood and racing. FMF/Maxxis/RPM Racing KTM’s Kaitlyn Jacobs picked herself up from a first turn crash to round out the podium; she slipped to 18 points behind Richards with just the finale in two weeks left. CN
