that resulted in them becom-
ing opaque, so he tossed them.
(Grabbing a new set about two
hours into what ended up being
a nearly three-hour race yielded
the same outcome, so he ended
up without eye protection for
most of the race, and with the
mud and spotty rain, he couldn't
respond when the Oliveiras duo
passed him, though he remained
only a few seconds back.
"I'm happy—the pace was
there. We did two hours with the
boys up front in the same pace
so I'm happy about it," Redondi
said. "It was a good bounce
back after the little mess-up on
round one—let's keep going!"
Mateo took over at the front for
about an hour, gaining valuable
experience leading overall with
Dante in tow. But he didn't stop
there. On the final lap, more than
two and a half hours in, "We were
playing cat-and-mouse a little bit,"
Mateo said, "and I made—not a
mistake—but [Dante] just railed
this outside [line to pass me]. I
hung in there, though.
"I think these conditions kind
of favored me a little bit because
they were technical, and you
were on your toes from rut to
rut smashing roots. It's going to
take a little bit more time to pass
him and drop him."
Only a second separated them
at the finish.
Dante has won two in a row
in the series and has won nearly
every time he's lined up for the
past couple of months. Even with
both Oliveiras running ISDE-spec
Dunlops in the mud on their VP
Racing Fuels/Motion Pro/Scott
350s, they turned the battle for
first into their exclusive realm.
As Dante put it, "It was so
much fun today! It was rooty, it
was rutty, it was slick in some
spots but then would be hero
dirt in other spots so all in all, an
epic race. I got to battle with Ma
-
teo so that was sick. We battle
during the week [while practic-
ing], but first time, I think, we've
battled on the race weekend, so
that was pretty cool."
He added, "I knew I wasn't do
-
ing anything special, but he was
riding great the whole time. Here
and there, I'd try to get away, but
he kept me honest, so I just tried
to ride strong. It's cool to have
him battle with me; I'd rather him
VOLUME ISSUE APRIL , P43
A disappointed runner-up in Pro
250 at round one, Jaden Dahners
made amends and led wire-to-
wire, finishing fourth overall.
