Dante Oliveira Wins Wild Taft NGPC
F
ollowing a personally disap-
pointing third-place finish at
the series opener a few weeks
ago, FMF KTM Factory Off-road
Racing Team's Dante Oliveira
bounced back at round two—the
Dirt Diggers Motorcycle Club's
Samantha Clark Memorial Taft
Grand Prix—and came out on top
of an action-packed round two
of the FMF AMA National Grand
Prix Championship (NGPC)
Series.
In doing so, the moved up to
second in points behind round-
one winner and round-two
runner-up Ryan Surratt of the
Johnny Campbell Racing (JCR)
Honda squad. Slam Life Rac
-
ing (SLR) Honda's Cole Marti-
nez rounded out the podium
on a day marked by a number
of come-from-behind rides as
well as spills on the 6.8-mile
course around the Honolulu Hills
Raceway property that provided
the best conditions seen at the
venue in years.
Former series champ Zach
Bell got his Chaparral Motors
-
ports/Precision Concepts Kawa-
saki's engine fired and launched
into the first turn at the head
of the pack followed closely by
Purvines Racing Yamaha-mount
-
ed Justin Hoeft and Oliveira.
However, it was Hoeft and his
Berkeley Yamaha/Dunlop/Fast
-
house-backed YZ450F in front at
the end of a lap.
Less than 30 minutes into
the 90-minute, $8000 feature
race, Oliveira and his Red Bull/
Motorex/Thor 450 XC-F had the
lead that he'd keep the rest of
the afternoon.
"Everybody goes and they
send it super-hard the first
couple laps," he said. "I don't
know what it is, but I don't feel it
sometimes, so I take a breather
myself and find my lines, get my
groove in and once it hits me, I'm
freakin' on."
Reflecting on his third place
at round one, he added, "It was a
good slap in the face and I need
-
P40
A good start put Dante
Oliveira in third right away,
but he let the leaders go
ballistic before making his
winning move.
PHOTOS: MARK KARIYA
