If anyone could be considered a favorite at the Sage Riders Motorcycle Club’s Desert Devotional National Hare & Hound, May 17, it would have to be Tyler Lynn, who lives maybe an hour away from the Little Sahara Recreation Area in Jericho, Utah. He won his first overall here in 2021, repeated that in 2023, and backed it up emphatically last year—all done as once-a-year visits into the series he grew up doing but now must be fitted in on weekends off from the GPs he was contracted to race.
Photos by Mark Kariya
And so it was at the latest edition, which served as round six of the AMA Hare & Hound National Championship Series, Presented by FMF, the last round before summer break.
The Slam Life Racing (SLR) Honda rider came, he saw, he conquered. In doing so, he stopped runner-up Dante Oliveira’s win streak at two, with defending champ Zane Roberts a fast-closing third.
Opting for his slightly nimbler GP-spec Monster Energy/Maxima/Fly Racing-backed CRF450RX instead of a Baja pre-runner CRF450X like he used last year, Lynn said, “I came out here, rode the same setup I’m comfortable with, and it paid off. I’m just more at one with that bike through the tight stuff and the rocks and the whole loop, honestly.”
He more than doubled his winning margin. Last year he led runner-up Joe Wasson by 23 seconds, while this year’s gap over Oliveira was a minute and 43 seconds.
Lynn added, “Obviously, I knew Dante was going to be tough. With him beating me all the time [in GPs], I wanted to try to beat him here, especially on my home turf.”
About the only time Lynn didn’t lead was off the traditional sprint start through the sand dunes, where Pro Vet 35+ racer David Kamo used his experience to grab an impressive holeshot, sailing through the flags on his Kamo Realty/PCI Race Radios/Kurt Caselli Foundation KTM 450 SX-F a couple of feet ahead of Lynn and the rest of the field.
“Smooth is faster for the dunes,” Kamo said. “I know riding the dunes and going with the flow of the dunes is always faster. All those kids are going to hit everything straight on, and I know when you hit dunes straight, you kind of lose some speed. I just knew if I could be up front, I could jump the [dune] double at the end if I holeshot.”
Though he ultimately yielded positions through the two loops (36 then 42 miles) and was ninth overall at the finish, his fourth-consecutive class triumph puts him fourth in class points with a realistic shot at the title.
It was a rare disappointing day for FMF KTM Factory Off-Road Racing Team’s Oliveira, not so much because of finishing second but due to how he felt he rode his Red Bull/Dunlop/Alpinestars 450 XC-F. “You win some, you lose some, but the effort I was able to put into the track—I was disappointed with it because last time we were here [last month for round four and his career-first Hare & Hound win] I felt great,” he said. “I lacked a lot of confidence and a lot of flow through a lot of sections.”
Though he had a decent start on his Bridgestone/Acerbis/Klim 480 RR, Liqui Moly Beta’s Roberts seemingly played catch-up all race long.
“The dunes are kind of scary to start in, but also at least if you crash, it’s in the sand, so there’s that,” he said. Settling into a top-six spot after the bomb, he found himself chasing Pro 250 champ Sam Pretscherer for a while until the Australian tipped over.
Next in his sights was Norman Racing Husqvarna’s Daemon Woolslayer, a riding partner of Lynn’s since they were on minis.
“I just spent that whole first loop chasing Daemon, riding in a lot of dust again. It felt like last weekend all over again!” Roberts said. “I managed to get to him on some of that grassy, virgin stuff on the second loop. Daemon and I battled for a couple of minutes; we were both going for a line, and he crashed going through the rocks.”
After looking back to make sure Woolslayer was okay, Roberts sprinted away. “I started seeing dust again, and I was like, ‘Well, I guess we’re not done,’” Roberts said. “I counted about 45 seconds back to Dante when I first started seeing his dust and probably got it down to five seconds there at the finish. I feel like I kind of ran out of time on that one, but I’m saying that every weekend. I just need to be better at the beginning and not make it so hard on myself at the end.”
Officially, they were one second apart at the finish, with Woolslayer picking himself up and taking fourth on his Seat Concepts/Kenda/Klim FX 450. With Lynn not in the points chase, Oliveira still leads with 160, 10 ahead of Roberts, while Woolslayer rounds out the top three in Pro points at 131.
While he missed an overall podium with his fifth-place overall finish, 3Bros/Hatch Racing Husqvarna’s Pretscherer stretched his Pro 250-win streak to six to maintain his perfect record for the season. After tipping over and yielding position to Roberts, the Precision Concepts/Golden Tyres/Troy Lee Designs FX 250-mounted champ said, “I lost that position to Zane and kind of held [fifth overall] for the whole race. As usual, I tried to ride into the finish consistently and just not make any mistakes—no directional mistakes. Just cruise it in, really.”
He now owns a healthy margin over class runner-up 395 Motorsports/MX Trophies Husqvarna-mounted Ryder Thomaselli, 180-124, with Dallas Chidester (DC) Racing Kawasaki’s DJ Weber third with 104 after earning his second podium and first third-place finish of the year.
Johnny Campbell Racing (JCR) Honda’s Preston Campbell rode consistently to finish fifth Pro and sixth overall, a few minutes behind Pretscherer and less than a minute ahead of Thomaselli.
Kayden Lynn made it a double victory for the Lynn family with his eighth overall in winning Open A for the second round in a row on his Purvines Racing KX450X. Kamo took ninth overall, just ahead of Pro 250 riders (and DC Racing Kawasaki teammates) Weber and Chance Fullerton.
The back-and-forth battle for supremacy in Pro Women shifted to Ava Silvestri’s favor in Jericho, the 395 Motorsports/Racer Decal GasGas rider trailing both defending champ Rachel Stout and Ty Woolslayer off the start.
But she didn’t stay there for long. “My jump off the bomb was actually terrible,” the FMF/Blud Lubricants/Troy Lee Designs EX 250F-mounted rider said. “Everyone took off, and I looked to the left, and me and Dante were taking off at the same time. When we got to the end of the bomb, Rachel and Ty were right in front of me, which is the first time I’ve seen Rachel at the end of a bomb in a long time, because normally she gets to the end of the bomb pretty good, and I don’t even see her.
“Once we got through the end-of-the-bomb flags and I still was able to see her, I was like, ‘Yeah, I think I can do it today.’ ”
When FMF RPM Racing KTM champ Stout tipped over, blocking Woolslayer, Silvestri hit a line around them and checked out, beating Stout to the finish by a little over three minutes, with Woolslayer a further three-plus minutes back for third on her Woolslayer Racing YZ250FX. Points-wise, Stout and Silvestri are tied at 165 apiece, while Woolslayer holds third at 126. Three rounds remain after the summer break.
2025 AMA Hare & Hound Round 6 Results
OVERALL (Top 10)
- Tyler Lynn (Hon) 2:13:08
- Dante Oliveira (KTM) 2:14:15
- Zane Roberts (Bet) 2:14:51
- Daemon Woolslayer (Hus) 2:18:25
- Sam Pretscherer (Hus) 2:19:22
- Preston Campbell (Hon) 2:22:54
- Ryder Thomaselli (Hus) 2:23:39
- Kayden Lynn (Kaw) 2:24:44
- David Kamo (KTM) 2:25:05
- DJ Weber (Kaw) 2:25:12
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