Surratt jumped into the lead for
good. "I rode my own race and let
them battle in the mud.
"I thought the off-road guys
would be a little quicker in the
mud because they talk bad about
us [motocrossers] in the mud,
but I think the moto guys showed
them who could ride in the mud
this weekend."
For DeMartile, his strong
runner-up finish—just two sec
-
onds behind Surratt at the finish—
made up for last year's DNF while
running third. The motocrosser
started off somewhat slowly as
he adjusted to the dead-engine
start and was eighth at the end of
the first lap.
DeMartile pitted early to get
fresh goggles. "After that, I really
put my head down and just got
some solid laps and worked my
way up to the front [pack] and
was running top three."
A couple laps later was the
scheduled pit to top off his Pire
-
lli/FMF/FXR 480 RR with fuel and
get a new set of goggles. That
allowed him to move into second
and chase the leader, but he ran
out of time.
Though not pleased with
third—matching his finish from
last year—Red Bull/Motorex/
Thor 450 XC-F-mounted Oliveira
played the long game, knowing
there are still nine rounds left.
"I tried to stay calm and stay
out of the way and let the race
fall into place if other guys went
down and whatnot," he said. "But
the top two guys were charging
so I had to start charging a little
more."
However, the mud apparently
accelerated chain wear and he
began hearing it skipping on
the sprocket. "It wasn't skipping
crazy dramatic, but you could
hear it, so I didn't want to have it
fall off and end the race." A quick
pit to tighten it saw him drop to
seventh, but he clawed his way
back to third by the white flag.
Slam Life Racing (SLR) Hon
-
da's Cole Martinez was unable
to duplicate last year's victory
and settled for fourth followed by
FMF KTM's Mateo Oliveira, Hoeft,
Babbitt's Kawasaki rider Lyndon
Snodgrass (the 2022 GNCC XC2
champ getting some 450 time in
VOLUME ISSUE JANUARY , P41
New team, new bike and
everything went to plan
for Jack Simpson who
holeshot the Pro II line
and led every lap for the
ideal start to the season.
