pared to the rest of the field,
Mateo got the holeshot off the
start, followed closely by Dante
and Liqui Moly Beta's Joe Wasson
as the field set off for two and a
half hours around a fast, flowy
12-mile course at the Ft. Sage Off-
Highway Vehicle (OHV) Area.
After leading for the first
hour—with Dante, Wasson and
Roberts lurking right behind—
Dante grabbed the lead aboard
his Dunlop/Motion Pro/Trail
Jesters mount and steadily
inched away.
"They were going fast, but
in some of the sand whoops,
I could see I could inch closer
to them quite a bit, so I had my
spots where I was quicker, and
I'd push there to get closer and
use another spot to get around,
but it was a little tricky to make a
pass today with how fast it was
because we're all pretty much
wide-open," Dante said.
"I knew there probably wasn't
going to be a ton of separation,
especially those first couple
laps," Fiji Water/FMF/Klim 480
RR-mounted Roberts, said. "I
knew this course would be fast,
and as long as it wasn't too
dusty, we'd all be tight.
"I knew it was going to be a
long race, and I was trying to
save it for the end but also stay
in that group. We did two laps
there, and Dante kept pushing
behind me. He passed me so I
was getting a little excited and
pushing for Mateo. I think on the
third lap, I was kind of like, 'We're
40 minutes in, and we're going
just balls to the wall here. I'm go
-
ing to back it down a little bit, get
comfortable, and then we'll push
towards the end.'
"Unfortunately, I had a little
crash during that time, so that
kind of set me a little further
back than I would've wanted to
be, and I lost touch with those
guys. But on the last lap, I gave
it everything I had and came
in pretty close to Mateo there,
probably five or 10 seconds
there at the end."
After winning last year's
season opener as well as the
finale, Smail wasn't sure he was
going to be able to repeat that
feat when his Akrapovic/Flexx
Handlebars/Nu-Ray Metals 250
SEF refused to run properly, leav
-
ing him far behind.
"I did not know what was go-
ing on with it; I was dead last for
probably half the first lap, and
then I started passing people
despite it still running bad," he
said. "I pulled into the pits, and it
randomly started running good,
and I just started picking them
off. I pitted early, got passed,
and was able to push all the
way to the finish line and have a
pretty good lead at the end."
Ava Silvestri, the two-time
and current queen of WHS Pro
Women's, put it to the field in the
morning race. The 3Bros./Hatch
Racing GasGas rider dominated
over InnTeck/Full Factory Off-
Road KTM-mounted Rachel
Stout and Liqui Moly Beta-sup
-
port rider Britney Gallegos.
Though worried that she
might be too rusty following a
VOLUME ISSUE MARCH , P29
Layton Smail
picked his way
through the pack
to earn the
Pro 250 win.
