2025 National Hare & Hound Round 8 Results

Mark Kariya | September 29, 2025

Liqui Moly Beta’s Zane Roberts kept his title hope alive by holding off points leader Dante Oliveira to win the Desert Racer Classic hosted by the National Hare & Hound Association (NHHA) with assistance from the Lost Coyotes Motorcycle Club. It marked round eight of nine in the AMA Hare & Hound National Championship Series, presented by FMF, and came a week after round seven. Pro Vet 35+ winner David Kamo claimed third overall.

Zane Roberts at 2025 H&H Desert Racer Classic — **Defending series champ Zane Roberts got the holeshot and rebuffed several attacks from current series points leader Dante Oliveira, who had to settle for second place at the Desert Racer Classic.**

Story & Photos by Mark Kariya

Down 14 points going into the weekend, defending series champ Roberts knew winning the final two rounds was imperative if he wanted to hang onto that number-one plate, and it went according to plan.

“It definitely was [a do-or-die situation today],” he said. “I try not to get too emotionally invested in it; it’s just racing at the end of the day.”

A great start aboard his Bridgestone/FMF/Klim 480 RR saw him lead from the bomb with FMF KTM Factory Off-Road Racing Team’s Oliveira tucked behind him on his Red Bull/Dunlop/Alpinestars 450 XC-F. That set the tone for the day, with Roberts successfully repelling numerous attacks over the two loops of 38 and 28 miles.

“I had a pretty good holeshot there,” Roberts said. “It seems like all the races you don’t holeshot are the dustiest things ever, and the ones you holeshot aren’t that dusty. It wasn’t horribly dusty [today] so Dante was able to keep it close through that whole first loop!”

“Overall, it was a pretty good track to battle and have a good race [with others],” Oliveira said. “We were five to 10 seconds apart the whole race, so that shows you could go battle it.”

Sam Pretscherer at 2025 H&H Desert Racer Classic — **Sam Pretscherer’s seventh Pro 250 win of the season locked up the class championship for the second year in a row.**

And that battle got heated on the more technical second loop, with Oliveira finally getting around Roberts, who’d missed a turn, and Oliveira handing it back before long. And Roberts seemed to tease Oliveira when he slid out just before the finish, but Oliveira wasn’t close enough to take advantage, Roberts taking the win at the Spangler Hills Off-Highway Vehicle (OHV) Area in an hour, 52 minutes and 50 seconds. Oliveira finished 12 seconds later.

After battling eventual Pro 250 winner Sam Pretscherer on the first loop, Kamo put his Kamo Realty/Khlobe/Kurt Caselli Foundation KTM 450 SX-F into third to stay.

“I’ve been very consistent on having good starts throughout the year, and I think that’s helped me a lot, and it helped give me momentum to get on the podium [today],” he said. (An overall podium finish has been one of his goals this season.)

David Kamo at 2025 H&H Desert Racer Classic — **An excellent start helped David Kamo not only win Pro Vet 35+ for the sixth time in a row, it also landed him third on the overall podium.**

Pretscherer rebounded from a rare defeat last week to take the Pro 250 win once again aboard his 3Bros/Hatch Racing/Precision Concepts/Troy Lee Designs Husqvarna FC 250. His seventh victory of the season locked up the class championship for the second year in a row.

However, Pretscherer was only fourth physically. On adjusted time, AMA District 37 regular Caiden Fenstermaker’s overall time was actually fourth fastest overall, eight seconds quicker than Pretscherer. It gave the Kawasaki rider the 250cc A win with brother Greg Fenstermaker Jr second in class and sixth overall behind Pretscherer.

Tanner Williams took third 250cc A and seventh overall aboard his Moto One KTM, ahead of Pro 250 runner-up (and last week’s winner) Ryder Thomaselli. Dallas Chidester (DC) Racing Kawasaki’s Chance Fullerton was third Pro 250 and ninth overall—his second podium of the season—while Johnny Campbell Racing (JCR) Honda’s Nolan Cate overcame a few setbacks to round out the top 10 and earn third Open Pro aboard his CRF450RX.

Being a longtime resident of nearby Ridgecrest, former Pro Nick Burson is very familiar with the area and enjoyed a good start. But having adopted dad life, arm pump saw him slip back to an eventual 11th overall—still good for second Pro Vet 35+—with series regular Darrin Tuckett third in class.

Rachel Stout at 2025 H&H Desert Racer Classic — **Rachel Stout also benefited from a great start, and despite a big crash later, she held on to win for the fourth time this season.**

Defending Pro Women champ Rachel Stout started the Desert Racer Classic five points behind Ava Silvestri but got a much better start to head the class all day, despite a big crash.

“I think I had a pretty decent gap [over Silvestri] going into the second [loop], which is good because a few miles into the second loop on a fast road, I hit a rock going insane [speed],” FMF RPM Racing KTM’s Stout said. “I kind of didn’t even want to get up and finish, but I knew that the championship was on the line, so I knew I had to. It was kind of survival mode after that.”

Stout’s triumph erased the points deficit, and she heads into the finale next month tied with 395 Motorsports GasGas rider Silvestri at 220 points each. The day’s Pro Women runner-up had a couple crashes after having to replace the dialed-in unit after it blew up while riding on Saturday. Precision Concepts Yamaha-mounted Ty Woolslayer finished third and is a distant third in points at 147.

So, the series finale next month promises to be anything but boring, with several class championships still up for grabs.CN