Mark Kariya | November 1, 2021
It’s getting close to desperation time for those who want to dethrone FMF KTM Factory Off-Road Team’s Dante Oliveira. The reigning champ in the FMF AMA National Grand Prix Championship (NGPC) Series owned a 36-point lead coming into round eight of the 10-race series over his closest competitor, Slam Life Racing (SLR) Honda’s Cole Martinez, 196-160. With 30 points awarded to the winner of each round, that certainly puts Oliveira in the driver’s seat.
Thus, Martinez had to start winning if he wanted to unseat the current king and that’s just what he did at round eight, the Shamrocks Motorcycle Club’s Shamrocks Grand Prix, taking center spot on the podium at day’s end. This marked Martinez’s second win in his young off-road career, flanked by runner-up Trevor Stewart and third-place Oliveira. That cuts Oliveira’s points lead by nine points, the standings now 217-190.
The $8000, 90-minute feature race saw Fast House/Team Green Kawasaki’s Stewart get out front fast followed closely by Martinez, Oliveira, Jet World/Fast House Husqvarna rider Justin Hoeft and the rest of the field.
“I got a great start [then] hit a big kicker in the first turn and went WAY up in the [turn] and Cole was able to get by me,” Enzo/Dunlop/100% KX450X-mounted Stewart said. “Those first four or five laps, [between] me and him it felt like a moto race! Me and him were putting on a really hard sprint and we had Justin behind us. I knew Dante would be coming around; it looked like he got off to a slow start and was able to regroup. I just kept making little stupid mistakes and Cole kind of pulled away from me a little bit.”
While Stewart and Martinez traded the lead early on, Martinez officially led each time through the scoring chute aboard his Monster Energy/Lava Propane/Skechers CRF450RX, continuing his improved consistency since returning from the ISDE in Italy last month.
“Just using different lines, [being] smooth and a gear high, and really focusing on working with the bike instead of just smashing it like motocross or Supercross where we rev the [heck] out of it,” Martinez said.
“I’m hungry. I feel like a had a win last weekend and I made a mistake in the pit scenario. I want to try to close this championship [chase] down. It’s going to be tough; we’ve only got a couple races left and that’s a big gap, but anything can happen.”
Martinez took the checkered flag 13 seconds clear of Stewart with Oliveira 42 seconds farther back on his Red Bull/Motorex/Thor-sponsored 450 XC-F.
Oliveira downplayed rumors of him being less than 100 percent, saying, “It plays into it a little bit, but these guys are riding super-good. I’m a little sore here and there—I didn’t want to do anything too crazy; just heal up and get this WORCS title [Oliveira is tied with FMF KTM teammate Taylor Robert with just the finale left in that series]. I had a little bit of a points gap here so I didn’t want to do anything crazy. I went out and did my best and landed a third so…I’m just trying to finish out [the year] strong and get these two titles.”
3 Bros./Hatch Racing Husqvarna’s Dalton Shirey enjoyed his best GP weekend of the year so far, finishing seven seconds behind Oliveira and 28 seconds ahead of fifth-place Giacomo Redondi, the second-straight fifth-place finish for the 3 Bros./Hatch Racing GasGas rider.
3 Bros./Kilmartin Racing KTM-mounted Colton Aeck took sixth overall and the Pro II victory for only the second time in his career.
“In the NGPC I’ve been having kind of a rough year,” he admitted. “I’ve had a few podiums but was never quite able to get the win. Today was just a perfect day. I would’ve been happy with a podium today. This is not necessarily a track that I thought I would excel at, and it all just clicked. I got a good start and I had a really good first two laps—I think that made the difference. Me and [eventual Pro II runner-up] Mateo [Oliveira] kind of checked out and managed it from there.”
FMF/Maxxis/RPM Racing KTM rider Oliveira pushed Aeck hard and finished seventh overall, just one second behind the Pro II winner. Aeck’s win moved him into second in class points, unofficially, displacing Purvines Racing Yamaha-mounted Mason Ottersberg, who was third Pro II and 10th overall. Aeck now has 159 points with Ottersberg sitting at 152. The current class champ, SLR Honda’s Tallon LaFountaine, remains the points leader at 195 despite finishing fifth in class.
Hoeft ended up eighth overall followed by Carson City Motorsports/Kenda KTM’s Austin Serpa and Ottersberg.
In Pro Women, Elite Off-road KTM’s Brandy Richards chalked up her seventh triumph of the season over FMF/Maxxis/RPM Racing KTM’s Kaitlyn Jacobs. Purvines Racing’s Ava Silvestri appeared to be headed for third in the latter stages but reportedly ran out of fuel on the final lap, letting 3 Bros./Kilmartin Racing GasGas rider Lauren Woods take the final step of the podium. CN