| May 16, 2022
A new venue and a new contender saw the same close racing we’ve seen all year break out at the Bunker Hill Grand Prix, round six of the FMF AMA National Grand Prix Championship Series. Visiting Delta, Utah, May 14-15, and the famed Bunker Hill MX track for the first time, riders were greeted with a championship-caliber motocross track and miles of flowing sand in the off-road portion of the course.
Story by Trevor Hunter | Photos: Trevor Nelson
Fresh off his Supercross Futures National Championship, Factory Honda HRC’s Chance Hymas made his presence known in his 450cc class off-road debut, grabbing the holeshot against the fastest off-road racers in the west. Hymas capitalized on his good start and checked out early, building a 10-second lead by the end of lap one and slowly building from there. Rockstar Energy Husqvarna Factory Racing’s Austin Walton held tough early on, running in the runner-up position for nearly half the race before FMF KTM Factory Racing’s Dante Oliveira made the pass on his run up to the front after a mediocre start and first lap.
Holding a 23-second lead over Oliveira and nearly matching lap times, Hymas looked poised to take the win at one of his frequented tracks. As time wore on, so did Hymas’ hands and hanging onto the factory 450 became a bit of a chore in the deep, rough sand paired with high temps in the 90’s during the race. The young teen slightly dropped his pace, and the defending champ hunkered down to catch and pass the rookie late in the race. With just 20 minutes to go in the 90-minute feature race, Oliveira passed the young motocrosser after throwing down his two fastest laps of the race over one hour in. From there, Oliveira cruised into the finish unchallenged and with his fourth win of the season in the bag. Hymas hung on to second in his first foray in off-road racing piloting a 450cc machine—quite impressive for the young Supercross Futures champ.
Meanwhile, the battle for third raged all race long between Walton and SLR Honda’s Cole Martinez, both of whom have become quite accustomed to battling over the last few seasons. Martinez made the pass on Walton just over halfway through the race, and the two never got out of sight of each other with Martinez holding a slight advantage over the Husqvarna pilot. At the checkers, Martinez finished third with Walton hot on his heels for fourth. Utah local Tyler Lynn put in a signature ride, charging through the pack late in the race to secure another top five and matching the front-runners’ pace in the latter stages.
In the lightweight division, FMF RPM KTM Racing Team’s Mateo Oliveira left no doubt in who was the best 250cc rider on the day. Leading from lap one to lap 14, the younger Oliveira brother put time on the field every lap, amassing nearly two minutes on the next best Pro 2 rider at the finish on his way to the win and ninth overall.
SLR Honda’s Jack Simpson found himself in the Pro 2 runner-up position once again. The Aussie native has shown plenty of speed and consistency in his first year stateside, but Oliveira has shown to have just a tad more of that speed and consistency. 3Bros Kilmartin Husqvarna’s Kai Aiello rounded out the podium ahead of Purvines Racing Yamaha’s Thomas Dunn and Kawasaki rider Gavin Brough.
The Pro Women’s class podium has become somewhat of a familiar sight with KTM’s Brandy Richards atop the box and GasGas’s Ava Silvestri standing one step down in second. Richards led from start to finish and built quite the gap as she chased down as many Pro and Pro 2 racers as she could in favorable conditions for the Lake Havasu native.
Silvestri’s teammate Lauren Woods rounded out the Pro Women’s podium in third while nursing an injury sustained at round four just over one month ago.
Overall Pro
- Dante Oliveira (KTM)
- Chance Hymas (Hon)
- Cole Martinez (Hon)
- Austin Walton (Hus)
- Tyler Lynn (Kaw)
- Trevor Stewart (Yam)
- Dare Demartile (Bet)
- Giacomo Redondi (GG)
- Mateo Oliveira (KTM) Pro 2
- Cole Zeller (Kaw)