Another race, another win for FMF KTM Factory Racing Off-Road Team’s Dante Oliveira. The 65th Cherry Creek Hare & Hound National, hosted by the Sugarloafers Motorcycle Club, served up extremely windy conditions for round four of the AMA Hare & Hound National Championship, presented by FMF. That added to the difficulty of the 58-mile first loop, which featured approximately 20 miles of whooped-out trail through the Little Sahara Recreation Area’s sand dunes and 38 miles largely spent threading through cedars in the hills.
Photos by Mark Kariya
And while it took Oliveira a few miles to work into the lead, once out front, he proved impossible to dislodge. Liqui Moly Beta’s Zane Roberts finished 38 seconds back for his fourth consecutive runner-up finish, and Norman Racing local fast guy Kayden Lynn powered his KTM 250 XC-F to third overall and the Pro 250 win—his second in a row.
But Lynn wasn’t the only standout in the Pro 250s. When the banner dropped for the dead-engine start, Simi Valley Cycles Yamaha rider Cody Simpson emerged from the immense dust cloud ahead of the pack on his YZ250, the first time a 250cc two-stroke has holeshot a National in many years.
“While sitting there waiting for the start, I just told myself, ‘This is your start! This is your start!’ over and over again. Sure enough, the YZ250 got off to a good start,” he said. “I held that inside really tight; I figured people were going to push wide rushing into that first turn. Luckily, I held the inside and looked to my right and didn’t see a single soul, and I was like, ‘Wow! I finally did it, I finally overalled a start!’ I was stoked, for sure!”
The underdog privateer kept his Wonder Electric Co./Gainslinger Human Performance/O’Neal Racing-backed two-stroke out front for an estimated four or five miles in the dunes before ceding his spot to several 450s and a couple of fellow Pro 250s.
Among them were Lynn and Ryder Thomaselli on their 250s, plus perennial front-running 450s ridden by Dalton Shirey, Daemon Woolslayer, Roberts and, eventually, Oliveira.
Lynn, whose older brother Tyler has won here in the past, credited more seat time lately for his inspired ride aboard his Precision Concepts/Dunlop/MSR-backed KTM, adding, “Racing in Baja helped with the whoops. That first loop with the whoops, I made a ton of passes, and the second loop just maintained and did as good as I could, and it just worked out. The confidence is up, so keep it rolling and keep doing my best at every round.”
Going hard in the sand-dune whoops may have worked for Lynn, but it backfired for others. Pro Circuit/Kawasaki Off-Road Team’s Dalton Shirey sprinted the section and made crucial passes, but the effort spiked his heart rate, and he found himself unable to recover, eventually finishing fourth overall.
Bridgestone/FMF/Moose Racing 480 RR-mounted Roberts admitted the dunes were his Achilles’ heel. “I actually had a great start and good first few miles,” he said. “It was just sand dunes. I always struggle with them. Those guys were just sending it through that stuff! I just got eaten alive in the sand dunes. But I’m happy with how I executed my start, and then everything after the sand dunes I rode well.”
“I think I got passed by, like, four people in the sand dunes,” Roberts added. “All of them except for Dante got to the end of the sand dunes and blew up [physically] and went backward. My heart rate was at 200, and apparently so was theirs!”
Unlike previous rounds, Oliveira and his Red Bull/Motorex/Alpinestars 450 XC-F weren’t up front after the start, forcing him to attack the race a bit differently.
“I didn’t get the bike fired up right away, but I made the best of it and came out in the eighth-to-fifth range,” Oliveira said. “A little bit of squirrelly passes, fighting through the dust the first mile, then I got some fresh air. The wind was blowing absolutely insane, so that helped out in my favor with my poor start.”
About five miles in, only Roberts and Norman Racing Husqvarna’s Woolslayer lay ahead, but not for long.
“We were going through the dunes, and I saw Daemon make a move on Zane, and I was like, ‘All right, it’s time to go!’ ” Oliveira said. “So I pinned it by and kind of sneak-attacked Zane and put the hammer down behind Daemon for about 20 miles, then he ended up having a little mishap.”
That was the opening Oliveira needed. Once out front, he relaxed a bit to recover from the effort and managed the race from there, sprinting away any time Roberts got close.
“Round four did not disappoint at all!” Oliveira exclaimed. “Kept the streak going.”
Behind him across the line were Roberts, Lynn, Shirey and Thomaselli, who brought it in for second Pro 250 and fifth overall, though the 395 Motorsports Husqvarna rider remains the class points leader over Lynn, 110-103.
Simpson was next with sixth and his third Pro 250 third-place finish so far this season, followed by Canyon Excavation Kawasaki-mounted Layton Smail (Pro 250), Edge Powersports KTM rider Jack Anderson (fourth Open Pro), Johnny Campbell Racing Honda’s Nolan Cate (fifth Open Pro), and fifth Pro 250 Ammon Pulsipher, the third Utah resident in the top 10.
NAB Consulting Husqvarna-mounted Logan Cleveland added his fourth Pro Vet 35+ victory of the season over fellow Utah competitors Shane Nerdin and Josh Lyman.
In Pro Women, defending champ Ava Silvestri delivered a standout performance to keep her win streak intact. The Norman Racing Husqvarna rider said, “I went pretty hard in the beginning in all the whoops, which originally I thought was going to backfire on me, but I think I built a good enough gap doing that that I was able to slow down and recover for the rest of that loop and cruise through the rest of the whoops. After the first 10 miles, I was like, ‘Oh no, I might’ve went too hard at the beginning!’”
Despite the wind making it hard to keep her Racer Decal/FMF/Troy Lee Designs FC 250 on the trail, especially on the taller ridges, she finished comfortably ahead of former champ Rachel Stout, the FMF RPM Racing KTM rider runner-up for the fourth time this season. Let’s Ride Kawasaki’s Ashlee Gage tallied her second podium of the season in third.CN
2026 AMA National Hare & Hound Round 4 Results
OVERALL (Top 10)
- Dante Oliveira (KTM) 2:48:01
- Zane Roberts (Bet) 2:48:39
- Kayden Lynn (KTM) 2:50:49
- Dalton Shirey (Kaw) 2:54:34
- Ryder Thomaselli (Hus) 2:55:46
- Cody Simpson (Yam) 2:56:07
- Layton Smail (Kaw) 3:00:33
- Jack Anderson (KTM) 3:01:26
- Nolan Cate (Hon) 3:01:46
- Ammon Pulsipher (KTM) 3:05:03
