2026 AMA Hare & Hound Round 6 Results

Mark Kariya | September 21, 2026

It’s been a frustrating year for Zane Roberts, with the Liqui Moly Beta rider seemingly staring constantly at the back of one Oliveira brother or the other, depending on which race he’s in. But for the second weekend in a row, Roberts on his Bridgestone/FMF/Moose Racing 480 RR found himself leading the way to the checkered flag, this time with Dante Oliveira in tow at the 15th annual Muley Run hosted by the Trail Blazers Motorcycle Club in Panaca, Nevada, on September 19. It broke the defending series champ’s perfect run of wins at the sixth of seven rounds in the AMA Hare & Hound National Championship, presented by FMF. Pro 250 winner Ryder Thomaselli finished third overall.

Zane Roberts at 2026 Muley Run Hare & Hound — **After a season of chasing defending series champ Dante Oliveira, former champion Zane Roberts took advantage of a rare Oliveira mistake and led nearly the entire way for his first win of the season.**

Photos by Mark Kariya

Oliveira, however, remains in control of the series points going into the finale at the end of October, leading Roberts by a comfortable 20 points, 175-155. Thomaselli’s second overall podium result sees him third in overall points at 109.

The Pro Women title is now locked up, with Norman Racing Husqvarna’s Ava Silvestri winning for the sixth consecutive round to defend her number-one plate over former champ Rachel Stout, the FMF RPM Racing KTM rider and runner-up for the fifth time this season.

The race at the front was actually determined within the first couple of miles. Oliveira got the holeshot and led the way to the bomb, followed closely by Roberts and Norman Racing Husqvarna’s Daemon Woolslayer, while his teammate Axel Pearson led the chase pack just out of their dust.

But leading a desert race isn’t easy. It’s easy to miss an arrow or ribbon if you’re looking too far ahead or not far enough.

Such was the case with Oliveira, and Roberts benefited. “We were kind of swapping lines, crisscrossing on the first [sand] wash there, and I got lucky that my line was showing me that we were going to turn right. I could kind of see the arrows from where I was at, and from where he was at, he couldn’t see them coming across,” Roberts shared. “He blew straight [through the turn] to continue in the wash and I could see we were turning right. That was maybe a quarter mile in or something past the bomb.

Ryder Thomaselli at 2026 Muley Run Hare & Hound — Despite riding a 250, Ryder Thomaselli seems to excel on the faster courses. He not only won Pro 250 for the fourth time this season, he was third overall, matching his result from 150-mile point-to-point round two.

“That was kind of the whole race right there.”

Oliveira hopped right back onto the trail and quickly took up position behind Roberts. Feeling even better on his Red Bull/Dunlop/Alpinestars 450 XC-F after two days of testing with the WP suspension earlier in the week, he spent the rest of the race basically glued to Roberts, able to reel the Beta in when hitting more technical, less dusty sections but having to concede ground on the faster, dustier open sections.

“I’ve just got to be on my A game and just be a little sharper, pick the head up a little more and not let those things happen,” he said. “The learning [hare and hound racing] was done last year. You can’t let those little things slip! Learn from the mistakes and don’t do it again.”

MX Trophies/395 Motorsports/Leatt FC 250-mounted Thomaselli said, “I knew the dust was going to be gnarly, but I knew I was going to be good here, so I just played it smart and waited for [the couple guys ahead of me] to make mistakes and capitalize and just make passes. I caught [Norman Racing KTM’s] Kayden [Lynn], and then I caught [Pearson Farms Husqvarna-mounted] Malcolm [Pearson, both Pro250s] probably four miles later. Axel tucked the front, and then Daemon crashed right in front of me! [Daemon Woolslayer DNFed with a suspected concussion.]

“Other than that, I rode smart. I knew [Roberts and Oliveira] were gone! I could tell they were battling just from their lines, and I knew there was really no point in me trying to bridge the gap to them, especially today with how fast it was.”

He finished about six and a half minutes behind Oliveira, with Malcolm Pearson less than a minute back and Lynn a further 12 seconds behind to join him on the Pro 250 podium. Thomaselli leads Lynn in class points, 170-149.

Though out with injury for much of the year, Axel Pearson rebounded from his spill with a hurt thumb, but adrenaline soon numbed the pain, and he took third Open Pro and sixth overall, followed by Johnny Campbell Racing Honda’s Nolan Cate. Pro 250 riders Layton Smail on his Team Green/Canyon Excavation KX250 and Rayce Jenkins aboard his RycoMoto/Malachi Construction KX250 were next to the finish, with former series champ Dalton Shirey rounding out the top 10 overall in a sample ride aboard a Norman Racing Husqvarna FE 450.

Ava Silvestri at 2026 Muley Run Hare & Hound — Ava Silvestri ate Rachel Stout’s dust for the 40-mile first loop and much of the 36-mile second loop. A banzai pass on a fast gravel road sealed her sixth straight Pro Women win, locking up the championship one round early.

After spending most of the season in Vet A, Jacob Nelson moved up to Pro Vet 35+ and took the win on his One Industries YZ450F. The new class champion skipped the Muley Run after wrapping up the title earlier.

Just behind Nelson in 22nd overall, Silvestri refused to accept anything less than a win in Pro Women to keep her perfect season alive. However, she had to work for it, chasing Stout for most of the race with dust as the limiting factor, until she made a banzai pass.

“There were a couple points where I was like, ‘I have the speed and I’m going faster today, but I can’t figure how to get around in the dust!’

“Maybe 10 miles into the second loop, maybe less, we got onto a two-track gravelly road, so the dust wasn’t super-bad. I just held it wide-open and hoped that was going to be the ticket to get around! It was a little game of chicken—she let up and I just held it on and was like, ‘I’m willing to die for it right now!’ It was a pretty ballsy move, but sometimes that’s what you’ve got to do to make it work on days like today where there’s not much breathing room,” the Precision Concepts/Racer Decal/Troy Lee Designs FC 250 rider said.

Stout was a minute back at the finish on her Gainslinger Human Performance/Dunlop/Moose 250 XC-F with Let’s Ride/707 Suspension/FXR KX250-mounted Ashlee Gage third. Silvestri’s perfect season to date puts her at 180 points, ahead of Stout at 146 and Gage third at 117.