because it was pretty one-lined
before," he said. "They killed it
for us and had a nice little line to
the top of the hill. It was a damn
freeway by the time they were
done with it, so that was cool
and funny!"
Still, it was by no means easy
and caught out several riders.
For a good portion in the
middle of the 90-minute feature
race, brother Mateo Oliveira held
second place, the Rockstar Ener-
gy Husqvarna rider aiming for an
Oliveira 1-2 astride his Motorex/
FMF/ Fly Racing FX 450, though
Liqui Moly Beta's Dare DeMartile
lurked just behind after an early
tip-over and clutch issue.
About an hour in, though,
DeMartile found the opening he
was looking for and snuck his
Bridgestone/ Acerbis/ Moose
Racing 450 RX into the runner-up
spot to stay.
"We pitted a lap early, which
was good for my [mechanic] dad
and me because I was able to
put a hard lap in and got Mateo
back in the pits, so that worked
out good," he explained. "After I
was in second, I wanted to put
down some hard last three laps
and caught the number one a
little bit and tried to stay with him,
but, unfortunately, the last lap he
snuck around lappers pretty good
in the Pro sections and I got kind
of stuck and didn't want to push
my luck too much being aggres-
sive in those rocky downhills."
DeMartile ultimately ended up
20 seconds behind Dante and 11
ahead of Mateo, who said, "An-
other third—three rounds, three
thirds—but I was a little closer
this time. A win was possibly
there, but I definitely should've
had second."
Fourth overall with his maiden
Pro II victory, courtesy of a last-
lap pass, Zeller confided that
he's been apprehensive about
even racing at Glen Helen in the
past due to how sensitive he
is to the poison oak along the
brushy single-track.
"It's an awesome facility oth-
erwise," the AEO Powersports/
Gainslinger Human Perfor-
mance/ Moose Racing 250 SX-F
rider said. "I think this last year
I've gotten so much better men-
tally that I'm just like, 'You know
what? It's just part of the trade;
it's part of what I do.' I just deal
with it, and I've found ways to
get around it better. I will never
let that be something that af-
fects my riding, although some-
times the next week is brutal! I
was riding tight those first few
VOLUME ISSUE MARCH , P57
Cole Zeller earned his first Pro II victory.
