Ninth overall and first Pro
II went to SLR Honda's Kade
Tinkler-Walker. Five points
behind Purvines Racing Yamaha
rider Jack Simpson going into
the weekend, his class victory
combined with Simpson's runner-
up finish means they go into the
finale tied at 186 points. Basi
-
cally, whoever beats the other
wins the Pro II title.
"I've never been here before,
so I kind of tried to see how the
race would come to me," the
CRF250R-mounted Canadian
said. After sitting behind early
leader JP Alvarez and his FMF/
RPM Racing Team KTM, the
Honda Pilot moved into the lead.
"Normally, I'm not the great
-
est on wide-open tracks, but I've
been working on that a lot with
Ty [Davis]," Walker said. "I had
to win today—that was my sole
goal. When I saw I was catching
Jake [Alvarez] a little bit, I just
dropped the hammer, and I gave
it all that Honda 250 had."
Walker stayed two spots
ahead of Simpson throughout
the afternoon and ended up best
-
ing the Australian by 23 seconds,
with FMF KTM's Mateo Oliveira
splitting them at 10th overall.
In Pro Women, KTM's Brandy
Richards came out of the sum
-
mer break with a thumb injury
that's prevented her from train-
ing normally.
"I was out there hiking it
seems like 10, 15 miles a day,"
she said. "My fitness is very, very
good; I'm happy with where it's at
with all the cycling and stuff. The
riding, just not being on the bike
much lately, I felt a little bit un
-
comfortable at first but then kind
of got into it. The last half hour,
I was just trying to survive—my
thumb hurt so bad!"
Richards earned 36th overall,
while class runner-up Mikayla
Nielsen finished 41st, one min-
ute and 25 seconds behind on
her Dunlop/Piston Bones/Alpine-
stars KTM. Hatch Racing/3 Bros.
GasGas-mounted Ava Silvestri
claimed third for the day.
With just the finale to go,
however, Silvestri leads Nielsen
in points by a single point, 192-
191. Having missed four rounds
due to an early-season leg injury,
Richards holds fourth with 120
points, FMF/RPM Racing KTM
rider Kaitlyn Jacobs sits third
at 151 points after finishing a
mechanically slowed fifth on the
day.
Mark Kariya
PRO
OVERALL
1. Dante Oliveira (KTM)
2. Austin Walton (Hus)
3. Justin Hoeft (Yam)
4. Ryan Surratt (Hon)
5. Trevor Stewart (Yam)
6. Dare Demartile (Bet)
7. Cole Martinez (Hon)
8. Dalton Shirey (Hus)
9. Kade Tinkler-Walker (Hon)
10. Mateo Oliveira (KTM)
WIND
IN THE
P52
Brandy Richards
notched her fourth
Women's Pro win
of the year.
