2021 Napoleon Dynamite Grand Prix Results

Mark Kariya | August 24, 2021

Returning from summer break, a muddy and rutted course, and flying to Italy for the ISDE the day after didn’t seem to affect FMF KTM Factory Off-Road Team’s Dante Oliveira at the Napoleon Dynamite Grand Prix hosted by the Cache Valley MX Park.

Dante Oliveira at NGPC in Idaho — **Dante Oliveira got out front early then put it on cruise control to win the Napoleon Dynamite GP in Idaho—his fourth win of the season.**

The reigning champ in the AMA National Grand Prix Championship (NGPC) Series simply picked up where he left off and led from start to finish at the race serving as round six of the 10-event series to extend his points lead over Slam Life Racing (SLR) Honda’s Cole Martinez who finished third on the day. Splitting them on a very challenging, rutted, five-mile course was 3 Bros./Hatch Racing GasGas rider Giacomo Redondi, his runner-up finish his best result of the season to date.

However, second overall on elapsed time belonged to Idaho native Chance Hymas, the Team Green Kawasaki/Monster Energy motocrosser claiming the Pro II victory in the process.

Storms in the week leading up to the race as well as on Saturday night introduced a new element for competitors to deal with and made conditions quite unlike last year’s debut visit to the facility. The rain turned the normally hard-surfaced clay beneath the alfalfa and corn fields into a veritable skating rink for both morning’s events. Though it dried considerably for the 90-minute, $8000 feature race on Sunday afternoon, deep ruts in nearly every turn tested everyone’s ability and bike prep to the utmost.

Oliveira got the holeshot with Fasthouse Kawasaki’s Trevor Stewart, Beta’s Dare Dimartile, 3 Bros./Hatch Racing Husqvarna’s Dalton Shirey, Rockstar Energy Husqvarna’s Austin Walton and the rest of the Pro gate in hot pursuit.

Asked if his bosses asked him to take it easy before heading to Italy where he’ll be on the U.S. Junior World Trophy team, Oliveira replied, “Surprisingly not. They just wanted me to do my thing, I guess.”

And that would be winning races on his Red Bull/Motorex/THOR-sponsored 450 XC-F.

Oliveira continued, “I got off to a great start and just put her in cruise control [and] tried to keep it on two wheels. It was super-sloppy everywhere, so it was so easy to just toss it away and get your gloves muddy and everything.”

The early going saw Martinez staying closest to Oliveira, trying to repeat his round-four triumph on his Monster Energy/Skechers/Lava Propane-backed CRF450RX. Like Oliveira, Martinez had to catch a flight to Italy on Monday morning, but he saw this as a good chance to tighten the points chase where he’s second to Oliveira.

Unfortunately, he was unable to capitalize; his pit crew noticed the bike begin to smoke after about an hour. “We just tried to manage, to save it,” he said. “They actually told me I had a big gap over third. Then that same lap after I pitted, Redondi came out of nowhere and was charging hard. I’m just really frustrated and kind of bummed. Personally, I feel like we had a [potential] win today.”

Redondi, on the other hand, was pleased with his day. The Givi/Acerbis/Seven EX 450F-mounted rider said, “Finally, after the bad injuries last year and also an injury at the first round this year, I’m finally back on the podium! Today was a good race for me. Actually, I made a really good comeback because on the first lap I was dead last because I crashed in the mud, so I needed to stop in the pits, change my goggles. But after that, I tried to do my own race and tried to keep the flow. I liked the track [and] the conditions so I was enjoying the ride.”

Breaking up the Open Pros were a pair of chargers from the Pro II line that started about 30 seconds later. At first, FMF/Maxxis/RPM Racing KTM’s Gus Riordan led the way with Hymas lurking close behind, though he didn’t stay there for long.

The second time around, Hymas and his Pro Circuit/RMX/Fly Racing KX250X not only had the Pro II lead but sat in second overall based on time. Not satisfied with that, the teenager kept charging and worked his way to second overall physically as well, which caught Oliveira’s attention—“I didn’t want to get beat by a 250!” he declared.

Hymas reported, “I crashed a couple times at the beginning and had to pass Angus Riordan; me and him had a good battle for a couple laps then I think he had a couple bike problems. A lot of guys were having bike problems so I kind of started going through the pack. I think some of the 450cc guys were just trying to save their bikes. I wasn’t necessarily trying to save my bike, which probably wasn’t the smart thing, but my Kawasaki was on point.”

**Robby Bell (32) and Justin Seeds (213) may have put on the best race of the weekend as they battled for Vet Pro supremacy. Bell ended up winning by a slim one-second margin.**

Walton claimed fifth overall followed by Stewart, Purvines Racing Yamaha’s Tyler Lynn, and then a trio of Pro II riders: Purvines Racing Yamaha-mounted Mason Ottersberg, Carson City Motorsports GasGas rider Mason Olson and Kilmartin Racing/3 Bros. KTM rider Colton Aeck. Ohio resident and GNCC regular Tanner Collins made his NGPC debut, putting his Chidester Transport/Buchanan Trucking Yamaha into 11th overall for the Four-stroke A victory. (The week before, he’d raced Vegas-to-Reno with the Chidester group that earned eighth Open Expert for his desert debut. All of this followed his first-ever airline trip.)

The next NGPC round, the Viewfinders GP, is scheduled for October 2-3 at Ridgecrest Motorsports Complex in California.