Mark Kariya | August 22, 2022
After the AMA Amateur National Motocross Championship at Loretta Lynn’s Ranch, Idaho’s Chance Hymas decided he wasn’t 100 percent ready to ride the Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship just yet. So instead of making the trip to round 10 at Budds Creek, Maryland, he drove less than two hours to the Cache Valley MX Park to do some high-intensity endurance training by racing the Dynamite Grand Prix (a reference to the Napoleon Dynamite movie which was filmed primarily at Preston High School), round seven of the FMF AMA National Grand Prix Championship (NGPC) Series.
It turned out to be a good decision, as the teenager led all 90 minutes on his HRC Honda/Monster Energy/Fly Racing-backed CRF450R to win $2000 of the $8000 purse over LiquiMoly Beta’s Dare Demartile and Chaparral Motorsports/Precision Concepts Kawasaki’s Tyler Lynn. Hymas is the first non-regular participant to win in several years.
Series points leader Dante Oliveira got an uncharacteristic mediocre start, with the FMF KTM Factory Off-Road Racing Team star finishing off the podium in fourth for the first time this season. However, he still fared better than title rival Cole Martinez, the Slam Life Racing (SLR) Honda rider also recovering from a bad start to finish sixth and dropping a further three points behind Dante, the standings now 180-163. Rockstar Energy Husqvarna’s Austin Walton split them with his fifth-place finish and holds third in points at 143.
“This was good; I felt really good,” Hymas exclaimed. “I’m going to race the Combine at Ironman next weekend, so this was a good confidence-booster for me.”
Anyone who thought the motocrosser wouldn’t last 90 minutes was proven wrong as Hymas set an unmatchable pace, though there were some slight weak spots in his game.
“Honestly, my goal was to sprint the whole time. My first lap, I wasn’t riding great—I was trying to push,” he admitted. “I’m a moto guy so I like ruts. I’d get out to the hard-packed [flat turns], and I couldn’t figure out how to turn, so those guys got up on me. I was making a lot of mistakes, but I got back to the moto track, and I knew I could make a gap there, then the corn [field section] started rutting up, so I started not losing as much time as before.”
At first, Lynn stayed in striking distance aboard his Dunlop/Maxima/Leatt KX450X, though he yielded to Demartile on the third lap and stayed there for the remainder. Still, Lynn was pleased with his best NGPC finish to date, saying, “It’s exciting! I just got off to a good start. Starts, I’ve struggled with all this year, and I’ve been working on it. I put in a good first lap then kind of got a little pumped up after that, but I was able to put on a good charge the second half.”
For Demartile, the Dynamite GP marked one year since his first NGPC and reinforced his affinity for the venue’s mix of MX, flat alfalfa fields and cornfields. While his bike suffered a technical failure when running in third last year, he put that behind him this weekend, relying on the work he and Beta did during the summer break.
“I did some moto racing and worked on sprint speed. We did some testing on the bike and got some better parts,” he said. “It was a really good break so I was happy and I was ready. I really like this place.” It showed, as he ran in second aboard his Beta 480 RR, ultimately finishing 40 seconds behind Hymas and 16 ahead of Lynn.
After Oliveira, Walton and Martinez, Ryan Surratt finished seventh in his first race for the Johnny Campbell Racing (JCR) Honda team, followed by 3 Bros/Kilmartin Racing GasGas rider Giacomo Redondi, 3 Bros/Jet World Husqvarna-mounted Justin Hoeft and SLR Honda’s Tallon LaFountaine.
In Pro II, FMF/RPM Racing KTM’s Mateo Oliveira appeared to be headed for his seventh-consecutive class victory of the season until a technical issue ended his race prematurely. That was all that Kai Aiello needed to notch his first NGPC Pro II triumph aboard his 3 Bros/Kilmartin Racing Husqvarna FC 250.
“It’s not the way I wanted to take it, but it’s nice to see that [my] pace was a lot better after the summer break,” he said. Mateo still leads Pro II points over Aiello, 180-151, and both planned to fly to France on Monday to join the rest of the U.S. ISDE team.
Aiello’s KTM-mounted 3 Bros/Kilmartin Racing teammate Colton Aeck was 14 seconds behind for the runner-up spot with SLR Honda’s Evan Stick returning to action in fine form, his third in class his best result to date.
Speaking of Six Days, current Pro Women champ and points leader Brandy Richards is already in France with much of the team, leaving the class up for grabs.
JCR Honda’s Tarah Gieger was only too happy to grab the holeshot and lead a majority of the way, but the former champ got out of shape two laps from the end. That allowed 3 Bros/Kilmartin Racing GasGas charger Ava Silvestri to nab her first-ever Pro Women win with Gieger holding onto second and Silvestri’s teammate Lauren Woods third.
Second in points going into the round, Silvestri’s debut victory sees her match, Richards, at the top of the points table with 180 apiece going into round eight in October.
Mark Kariya
OVERALL PRO RESULTS
- Chance Hymas (Hon)
- Dare Demartile (Bet)
- Tyler Lynn (Kaw)
- Dante Oliveira (KTM)
- Austin Walton (Hus)
- Cole Martinez (Hon)
- Ryan Surratt (Hon)
- Giacomo Redondi (GG)
- Justin Hoeft (Hus)
- Tallon LaFontaine (Hon)
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