Drawn by the excellent con-
ditions, FMF KTM/Red Bull
Mexico's Ivan Ramirez made his
first series appearance in years
to claim third Open Pro at eighth
overall. (After comparing notes
with Oliveira, Ramirez discovered
the last time he won a WHS was
2016, and Oliveira was in the
Super Mini class at that race!)
"I was pretty confident yester
-
day that my hand would be okay
and even Friday, but then I woke
up this morning and one finger
was still stiff," Oliveira revealed.
"I was freaking out going up to
the starting line!"
But once the green flag waved,
he launched his Red Bull/Mo
-
torex/Alpinestars 450 XC-F off
the line and into the early lead
before Redondi swooped past
on his Team Green/Maxima/
Acerbis-backed KX450 after a
last-place start. The 2022 series
champ went on to lead the first
hour of the two-and-a-half-hour
contest before chain-guide woes
put him in the pits for repairs.
That put Oliveira out front with
Thomaselli and Dahners second
and third overall on adjusted
time, having started on the sec
-
ond row—Thomaselli near the
back of the row. It was an excep-
tional ride for 395 Motorsports/
MX Trophies/Fly Racing FX
250-mounted Thomaselli, who
shared, "This is what I love. This
is what I ride at home—just tech
-
nical stuff like that. I feel like I'm
really good at picking my way
through lines and bottlenecks
and stuff like that; it catered to
me. There was a bottleneck on
lap three or four, and I passed
almost everybody right there."
"That was a really tough race—
a lot of chaos, and I'm just happy
I made it through!" Oliveira said.
"I crashed probably like five times
[due to] awkwardness with hav
-
ing to regrip my hand differently
and stuff like that. It was uncom-
fortable the whole time—I did not
like it! From lap two on, I was, like,
'I want this to be done!' "
After throwing himself on
the ground several times on the
opening lap, Cole Zeller and his
Gainslinger Human Performance/
Precision Concepts/O'Neal Rac
-
ing Husqvarna FX 250 calmed
down and picked his way through
the pack. He held fourth overall
on time for much of the last hour
VOLUME ISSUE FEBRUARY , P51
A poor start didn't
hinder Ryder
Thomaselli, who went
to the front of the
Pro 250s. His class-
winning time also
netted him second
overall for the day
ahead of class runner-
up Jaden Dahners.
