Surratt Wins Delano NGPC Opener
T
he previous weekend, Johnny
Campbell Racing (JCR)
Honda's Ryan Surratt won the
AMA District 37 hare & hound—
his first genuine desert race. This
weekend, January 14-15, he won
the opening round of the FMF
AMA National Grand Prix Cham
-
pionship (NGPC) Series—another
first for the former professional
motocross racer—in markedly dif-
ferent conditions.
"It's been a good first two
weekends of January for me!" he
said. "We're off to the right start,
for sure."
LiquiMoly Beta's Dare DeMar
-
tile and FMF KTM's Dante Olivei-
ra, the three-time and defending
series champ, rounded out the
podium on a very muddy week-
end at American MX, hosted by
the SoCal Motorcycle Club, in
Delano, California.
While several riders openly
dreaded the conditions, the win-
ners took them in stride with both
Surratt and Pro II winner Jack
Simpson insisting they loved rid-
ing in mud.
Off the start, Justin Hoeft ably
demonstrated he's still a mas-
ter starter, unfazed by both the
new-for-'23 dead-engine start and
his new Berkeley Yamaha/FMF/
Fasthouse-backed YZ450FX as a
member of the Purvines Racing
squad.
He led for about 45 minutes
though Surratt soon came up
to join him at the front, the two
going back and forth until Surratt
took the lead for good on his VP
Racing Fuels/Motion Pro/Fly Rac
-
ing CRF450RX about 50 minutes
in.
"Me and Hoeft went at it for a
good chunk of the race—going
back and forth, back and forth—
then I decided to pit early, get
some [fresh goggles] and try to
get away from just being roost
-
ed," Surratt said.
When his rivals pitted later,
P40
Ryan Surratt is off to a
great start this year, his
muddy NGPC win at Delano
following his AMA District
37 hare & hound victory the
previous Sunday.
