Oliveira Wins NGPC Round One
I
f the results of round one are
a reliable indicator, FMF KTM
Factory Off-Road Racing Team's
Dante Oliveira will face his stiff-
est challenge yet in his quest for
a sixth-consecutive title in the
Rocky Mountain ATV/MC AMA
National Grand Prix Champion-
ship (NGPC) Series, Presented
by FMF.
But he managed to stay one
step ahead of the competition at
round one—the So Cal Motorcy-
cle Club's American Grand Prix—
after fending off first his brother
and teammate, Mateo, and then
Liqui Moly Beta's Dare DeMartile,
who hounded him throughout
the latter stages of the $8000,
90-minute feature race. After
leading a few laps, DeMartile was
the runner-up, one second be
-
hind, while Mateo ended up third,
43 seconds behind the Beta pilot.
"You have to be on your A
game here; there's no slouches
here either," the Red Bull/Mo-
torex/Alpinestars 450 XC-F-
mounted winner said. "This was
a hard track to push it on, too,
with how slick it is on the insides
and the outsides. You've got the
marbly rocks from the track be
-
ing ripped earlier and the berms
going away, too. It kind of forces
you to move around the track
[looking for good lines during the
race]. It was a fun race! I got the
holeshot and put the hammer
down, but Mateo and Dare kept
me honest the whole time."
For DeMartile and his FMF/
Bridgestone/FXR480RR, it was a
bit of deja vu. "Last year, we also
had a good race. I was happy to
lead a couple laps. Unfortunate
-
ly, I had a little goggle mishap
during the pits—I tried to swap
some goggles and dropped
them, but it's the first round, and
we're working out the bugs. But
everything else went well!
"There were a couple of sec
-
tions where we'd play cat-and-
WIND
IN THE
P44
Eventual winner Dante
Oliveira (1) and runner-
up Dare DeMartile
(200) were about this
close the entire last
half of the race.
PHOTOS: MARK KARIYA
