Oliveira Takes Marysville NGPC Win
I
n a repeat of last year's inau-
gural MMX Racing Marysville
Grand Prix, FMF KTM Factory
Off-road Racing Team's Dante
Oliveira managed to keep Liqui
Moly Beta rider Dare DeMartile at
bay for basically all of the 90-min-
ute feature race serving as round
six of the Rocky Mountain ATV/
MC AMA National Grand Prix
Championship (NGPC) Series,
Presented by FMF.
Oliveira's six-second cushion
at the finish was greater than
the two seconds he'd enjoyed
at round five last month and
enables the future father to carry
a comfortable points cushion
into the summer break with 168
points. Runner-up for the third
round in a row, DeMartile now
has 133.
But the five-time series champ
confided the opening few laps
weren't his best as he tried to
find his flow around the course
aboard his Red Bull/Dunlop/
Alpinestars 450 XC-F, allowing
DeMartile to stay within a sec
-
ond—or three—for the first half
of the race: "I kind of figured out
where I was better and where I
wasn't so much better, so where
I was better I'd really charge
and get a nice little gap. Where
I wasn't better and they were
capitalizing a little bit, I would
just relax and just ride it smooth
and consistent."
With Marysville practically
being a home track for DeMartile
from nearby Lincoln, he was very
comfortable hounding Oliveira in
the first hour. It was in the latter
part of the race that he saw the
orange bike open up a gap on
him and his FMF/Bridgestone/
FXR-backed 480 RR.
"The unfortunate thing is
when Dante would get around
some lappers, I don't think the
WIND
IN THE
P44
Dante Oliveira (1) and
Dare DeMartile (200)
were side by side off the
start. Oliveira soon took
control to win it.
PHOTOS: MARK KARIYA
