mouse—a couple of sections
where I would be faster in, and
then there were a couple of sec-
tions where he would pull me in.
The nice part about being behind
him is you can see that and
gauge that. We came side by
side in one of the sections of the
track; a couple of times, we ran
side by side next to each other
for 50 or 100 feet! It was a great
battle between us."
The early going saw Dunlop/
Renthal/100% 450XC-F rider
Mateo Oliveira only one or two
seconds behind Dante, leaving
him vulnerable to considerable,
painful roost on the high-speed,
hard-packed circuit.
"I was like, 'I have to stay in
his roost. If I give him any room,
it's over—I've got to stay on his
wheel and stay in this battle!'
Definitely ate a lot of roost! It
was a good fight for the first 40
minutes for the lead, then I got
shuffled back to third and just
stayed there."
But on adjusted time, it was
actually Pro II winner Colton
Aeck who was third fastest on
the day.
Pushed from the outset by
defending class champ Mason
Semmens, their battle carried
them from the class's second-
row start to pass the majority of
Open Pros who start on row one.
FMF/RPM Racing KTM-mount
-
ed Semmens pulled the holeshot
on his Precision Concepts/Trail
Jesters/Moose Racing 250 XC-F
with Hatch Racing/McCarty
Electric's Aeck fifth.
But Aeck made passes quickly
aboard his Team Green/Hoosier
Tire/O'Neal Racing KX250X to
close on then pass the Austra
-
lian. Aeck reported, "I grew up
riding a lot of hardpack—that's
what I'm comfortable with. This
place is especially slick when it
dries out like this.
"It was interesting throughout
the race—you had to really be
conscious of the way the track
was developing because there
was quite a bit of traction at
the beginning, and as the race
developed, the moisture went
away, and so did the traction.
Me and Mason, we've had some
great battles [all last year] and it
VOLUME ISSUE JANUARY , P45
Colton Aeck has lots of
hardpack experience—
which came in handy in the
conditions—and not only
topped Pro II, but his overall
time was third-fastest of
the day, behind only Dante
Oliveira and DeMartile.
