Defending series champ Mateo Oliveira opened his 2026 campaign in an optimal way, edging Liqui Moly Beta’s Zane Roberts for the win at the second annual Rockstars Motorcycle Club’s Ram-Page Hare Scrambles.
Photography by Mark Kariya
The performance marked Oliveira’s first outing as the newest team member of the Rockstar Energy Husqvarna squad, and both men went one better than their results at this race last year.
However, both nearly took a back seat to Pro 250 winner Layton Smail. Despite that class starting a minute back on row two, last year’s class runner-up immediately jumped into the overall lead based on corrected time aboard his Canyon Excavation/Let’s Ride/FXR-backed KX250, stretching to nearly a minute in the latter stages. But a 30-second penalty for a course infraction meant he’d have to wait for a future race to snag the overall, though he was still third overall, six seconds behind Oliveira on adjusted time.
Most eyes focused on the battle at the physical front, though, with Oliveira and Roberts never more than a few seconds apart and swapping the lead a number of times over the two and a half hours on a course littered with fast sand whoops and sections of technical sandstone rock.
“He passed me on the first lap, and [that] kind of surprised me because normally Zane turns it on late,” the Dunlop/Motorex/Fly Racing FX 450-mounted Oliveira said. (Roberts did so at last year’s Ram-Page WHS when he sprinted the final lap and ended up just one second behind Oliveira for third overall.) “I got him back, and we were cat-and-mouse the whole time—he’d pass me, then I’d pass him. We were back and forth probably, I’d say, five or 10 times.”
Roberts, aboard his trusty FMF/Bridgestone/Klim 480 RR, said, “I think with the sand whoops and everything, it’s really hard to get away unless you’re exponentially fitter than someone else. I think it’s always going to come down to the wire here just because it’s so hard to get away; there’s so many technical sections, so many lines, and everything. It was just another long battle again today!”
He ended up six seconds behind at the finish—the largest gap they’d had all day.
Smail accepted his third overall with the same adjusted overall time as Roberts. “I got a pretty good start and worked my way into the lead pretty early and felt good,” he said. “Then I was finally starting to [physically] catch the 450 guys, and I finally caught up to Mateo. I knew I could stay behind him at a good pace, so I let him go in front a little bit and had a good time.”
Oliveira wasn’t the only one on a new bike and with a new team. After winning the Check Chase in AMA District 37 the week before, Dalton Shirey was anxious to make his series debut as a new recruit for the Pro Circuit/Precision Coatings/Team Green Kawasaki.
But a couple of spills prevented him from keeping them within range, and he ended up third Open Pro and fourth overall, a minute and a half behind Smail.
“My start wasn’t the greatest,” the Western Ag Insurance/Hatch Racing/Fasthouse KX450SR rider said. “I made some moves pretty quick and got right up behind Zane and Mateo and was sitting there not too concerned because I know we’ve got two and a half hours.
“But when I went into one of the Pro sections, I just laid an egg. After that, they put a gap on me, and that gap stayed.”
Fifth overall went to Lane Lorenzo, the scourge of the 250cc A’s the past few years, making his Pro-class debut and moving straight into Open Pro on his Hunt and Sons/Dunlop/Airoh Helmets GasGas MC 350F. The holeshot winner charged the entire time, gaining experience on his way to fourth in class ahead of Pro 250 runner-up Ryder Thomaselli.
Like Lorenzo, reigning Pro 250 champ Thomaselli got the holeshot but couldn’t hold off Smail and finished sixth overall on his 395 Motorsports/707 Suspension/Leatt FC 250, 24 seconds in arrears of Lorenzo and more than six minutes ahead of FMF/RPM Racing KTM’s Jaden Dahners, who was third Pro 250.
Cooper Abbott made his series debut as well, taking fourth Pro 250 and eighth overall on his CM Parts/Minero Trucking/FXR KX250, with Open Pro Justin Wallis and Pro 250 Ashton Wilkinson rounding out the top 10 overall.
A sizable contingent of Pro Vets 35+ lined up, with LPS Suspension Yamaha rider Justin Herman the winner over early leader Nick Saia on his The Pest Control Guy GasGas and Bower Contracting Husky-mounted Dave Bower.
The hour-and-a-half morning race saw former series Pro Women champ Ava Silvestri take the holeshot on her new Norman Racing/Racer Decal/Troy Lee Designs FC 250.
However, a crash handed the lead to defending series Pro Women champ Rachel Stout for a while before a respiratory issue made breathing—and pushing the pace—difficult. There was nothing the FMF/RPM Racing KTM rider could do to hold off Silvestri, who owned a two-minute lead at the finish. But the Mousse Balls/Cycra/Moose Racing 350 XC-F rider knows she can be more competitive when not sick.
Canyon Excavation/Let’s Ride/FXR KX250-mounted Ashlee Gage rounded out the podium.CN
AMA West Hare Scrambles Round 1 Results
OVERALL (Top 10)
- Mateo Oliveira (Hus)
- Zane Roberts (Bet)
- Layton Smail (Kaw)
- Dalton Shirey (Kaw)
- Lane Lorenzo (GG)
- Ryder Thomaselli (Hus)
- Jaden Dahners (KTM)
- Cooper Abbott (Kaw)
- Justin Wallis (Tri)
- Ashton Wilkinson (KTM)
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