IN
THE
WIND
P28
OLIVEIRA SHINES AT ISDE QUALIFIER
T
he International Six Day
Enduro qualifying is now of-
ficially underway with round one
of the three-round AMA Western
ISDE Qualifier series kicking off
in Wickenberg, Arizona, January
19-20. Cool temperatures and
freshly watered single-track (from
rain leading up to the weekend)
were welcome treats as riders
took on over 100 miles of tech-
nical desert trails. The Arizona
Off-Road State Championship
series, AMRA and Fast'R MC
hosted the two-day Qualifier and
saw their largest turnout to date
at 315 riders, with more than 60
riders seeking to qualify for the
chance to represent the United
States this year in Chile.
Day one saw the return of
multi-time Baja Champion Ken-
dall Norman, who is now com-
mitted to a full season of racing
AMA National Hare & Hound, Big
6 Grand Prix and the ISDE Quali-
fier series among every other
race he can get entered in. He
would take the win by a single
second over Maxxis FMF/RPM/
KTM Racing's Dante Oliveira with
Redshift MX's Ty Tremaine com-
ing in third just ahead of DA8's
Destry Abbott and Six-Five-O
GasGas-backed Travis Coy. SRT
Off-Road's Trystan Hart raced a
non-qualifying class—being a Ca-
nadian citizen—and tied Kendall
for the overall with a time of 48
minutes and 29 seconds.
The qualifying riders would
finish the day, have a 15-minute
work period then impound their
bikes for the night. The follow-
ing day started with a 10-minute
work period and then it was
straight into the racing with four
tests right off the bat before
Dante Oliveira of
the FMF/RPM/KTM
Team topped the
field at the end of
two days of racing.
PHOTOGRAPHY
BY
MJS
MOTO
PHOTOS