match round one's, there aren't
bonuses for margin of victory,
so he was satisfied. In addition,
he strengthened his grip at the
top of the new Off-Road Masters
Championship, Presented by
FMF, which combines finishes in
both H&H and AMA West Hare
Scrambles (WHS).
Oliveira obviously has stellar
racing credentials but is still new
to the desert. However, he's now
committed to this series in ad
-
dition to the AMA NGPC, which
will be his primary focus. After
his NGPC victory last weekend,
he headed directly to the area in
order to get used to the terrain
while abiding by the rules that
prohibit riding the actual race
-
course, which has to be marked
well ahead of time.
It paid off.
"I felt a lot more confident
going into it and ready to go and
get after it," he said. "I burned
in a track just down the road. It
was good just to learn the desert
and see what's out here, but rac
-
ing's a whole different beast!"
Being unaware of how to save
his spot on the start didn't end
up penalizing him as he got a
great jump and trailed only Rob
-
erts and Woolslayer at the end
of the bomb aboard his Red Bull/
Dunlop/Alpinestars 450 XC-F.
"I got into a flow, then we got
into some technical stuff," Olivei
-
ra said. "I reeled in Woolslayer
real quick, got around him and
just tried to charge. Zane, he rode
great today. They put a hurting on
me in those sand washes, those
fast ones. I don't know—I'd rather
keep it on two [wheels] in there,
so I did back it down quite a bit,
but I'm going to have to figure
those out because I know a lot of
these races have them."
Trailing only Roberts at the
end of the bomb, Woolslayer and
his AHM Suspension/Seat Con
-
cepts/Klim-backed Husqvarna
FX 450 yielded only to Oliveira,
an improvement over his fourth-
place finish at round one. He
was 1:12 behind the KTM star
at the finish and just 10 sec
-
onds ahead of Rockstar Energy
Husqvarna's Dalton Shirey. The
three-time series champ had
a horrible start after his bike
balked at the start, relegating
him to an afternoon of riding in
near-whiteout conditions.
"The whole second loop I was
trying to get by [Woolslayer], but
the dust was so thick!" Shirey
said. "I just rode smart. Right at
the last little stretch, we were
going north towards the finish.
I popped out of his dust, and I
was in virgin terrain going across
the valley. I was like, 'This is
sketchy, but this is my only shot
if I can make anything happen
right now!' I got super-close, but
that dust got to me again."
Fourth overall after the first
loop, defending Pro 250 champ
VOLUME ISSUE FEBRUARY , P45
Unlike round one, reigning Pro
250 champ Sam Pretscherer
enjoyed a good start, leading
the class from the start to
make it two in a row while
finishing fifth overall.
Ava Silvestri has made strides in the
past couple of races and put it all
together for the Pro Women-class win
at the Wild West National.
