Another For Oliveira At Ridgecrest NGPC
F
MF KTM Factory Off-road
Team's Dante Oliveira solidi-
fied his points lead even more
with his third win in a row at
the Viewfinders Motorcycle
Club's Joey Gardner Memorial
Ridgecrest Grand Prix, round
seven of the AMA National Grand
Prix Championship (NGPC) Se-
ries, October 2-3.
Slam Life Racing (SLR) Hon-
da's Cole Martinez was the only
rider to keep close tabs on him
for almost an hour of the 90-min-
ute, $8000 feature race, but a
small crash then cost him too
much time and he had to settle
for second. Martinez now trails
Oliveira by 36 points, unofficially,
196-160. Beta's Dare Demartile
landed on the podium in just his
second start in the series.
The defending NGPC champ,
Oliveira led from start to finish
aboard his Red Bull/Motorex/
Thor-sponsored 450 XC-F. "It
was a good race," he said. "I got
the holeshot and set the pace
early, so it was good and I got to
ride my lines. There were some
slick spots out there so in some
of the spots it was a little follow-
the-leader, so it was good being
able to get a good start."
Martinez lurked just a few sec-
onds behind for almost an hour
on his Monster Energy/Lava Pro-
pane/Fly Racing CRF450RX, but
a spill just before pitting spoiled
his plans. He ended up just over
a minute behind at the checkers.
"I'm a little bummed at the out-
come, obviously, but Dante rode
great," Martinez said. "I've just
got to bring the heat next time. I
think we had the wrong setup on
today; I think we were expecting
a little more sand than what we
had."
Oliveira said, "Yeah, when
Cole went down, I kept going,
IN
THE
WIND
P44
Another race, another win.
This is as close as the field
could get to Dante Oliveira,
who made it three in a
row with his victory at the
Joey Gardner Memorial
Ridgecrest GP.
PHOTOS: MARK KARIYA
