"I was out in second and I hit a
fat mud puddle and a bunch of
water got on my air filter so my
bike wasn't really going and
a bunch of guys passed me
back.
"I was able to get the bike
cleared out eventually and I
got them all back.
"Ty Tremaine, his bike broke
so I was able to take over the
lead and stayed out front."
A record 754 riders showed
up for the weekend. Round
two will be in Central California
next month.
Mark Kariya
VOL. 53 ISSUE 2 JANUARY 19, 2016 P33
and I was running from first
to third for the first half of the
race.
"I ended up not pitting
when they did and it threw
me off. I lost the pace a little
bit and I was back so I just
rode my own race; I just tried
to flow and not make any
mistakes.
"I don't remember the last
time I did a three-hour race. I
was kind of stressing on that
part!"
Northern California native
Steven Godman rounded out
the podium with his third place
on his SRT/Mach 1 Motors-
ports KTM 250 XC, his first
series podium since 2014.
"Man, I just had a smile on my
face the whole race," he de-
clared. "It was Sloppy Joe-mud-
dy out there. It was super-fun. I
got to mix it up with factory KTM
guys; that was super-cool!"
Klim Yamaha-mounted Justin
Bonita and FMF/Maxxis/RPM
Racing KTM's Travis Coy round-
ed out the top five overall.
Fellow NorCal racer Dante
Oliveira dominated the FMF
250cc Pro class after his FMF/
RPM teammate, early leader Ty
Tremaine, DNFed on lap two.
Oliveira proved untouchable and
enjoyed a cushion of more than
three minutes over class runner-
up Max Parker with Jonathan
Godman almost two minutes
farther back.
"I got an alright start and was
able to pass a bunch of guys at
the beginning," Oliveira recalled.
While AMA Hare & Hound National
Champ Ivan Ramirez is more at home
in the desert, he proved able to get the
job done in the mud as well.
Two-time and reigning
series champ Cory
Graffunder was headed
for the win at Prairie City,
but a bike issue left him
walking back to the pits.