Cycle News Staff | October 31, 2022
FMF KTM Factory Racing Off-road Team’s Dante Oliveira and Elite Off-road/Fly Racing KTM’s Brandy Richards clinched their third-straight championships in the FMF AMA National Grand Prix Championship (NGPC) Series by winning their respective classes at the 31st Annual Prospectors Grand Prix hosted by the Prospectors Motorcycle Club. Not to be outdone, FMF RPM Racing KTM’s Mateo Oliveira won the Pro II class for the eighth time this season to wrap up that class championship after coming agonizingly close for two years, making it a banner day for the KTM-mounted trio.
“It feels great!” Dante said after his sixth triumph of the season aboard his Red Bull/Dunlop/Thor-sponsored 450 XC-F. “I got the WORCS championship [locked up a couple weeks ago] so now I’m a two-time WORCS champion and three-time National Grand Prix champion. I had an awesome season this year. I started off a little slow, a little off pace, but my fitness was there, and I worked my way up. By round three I was charging and riding up front where I should be and how I should be every weekend.”
Mechanic Bobby Dawson gives Dante Oliveira a champagne shower as soon as he finished, the race winner now NGPC champ for the third year in a row. Photos: Mark Kariya
Oliveira’s closest rival in points—Slam Life Racing (SLR) Honda’s Cole Martinez—sat this one out due to injury, but several others tried to keep Oliveira from the top step, a poor start by Oliveira giving them extra hope. Among the early front-runners who led at one point, Rockstar Energy Husqvarna’s Austin Walton ended up second with his Motorex/FMF/Fly Racing FX 450. He said, “I knew he was definitely back there, and I know Dante—he’s going to charge to the front—so I just said, ‘All right, let’s just focus on [me]. I know where the field’s at and I know what I can do.’ So, I just focused on myself and just made a bad line selection in the Pro section.”
While Oliveira has the title sewed up with his 222 points, Walton has a chance at second since Martinez has 172 with Walton sitting in third at 168. After getting the holeshot and then forfeiting it by hitting a false neutral in the second turn, SLR Honda’s Tallon LaFountaine ran in the lead pack all afternoon and earned his first Open Pro podium with his third-place finish.
Two-time Pro II champ Tallon LaFountaine’s first year racing 450s full-time has been trying—mostly due to injury—but he had a good ride in Blythe with a holeshot and eventual third place for his first big-bike podium.
“It hasn’t even been a year since I’ve been in the class,” the SLR CRF450RX rider and 2020 and 2021 Pro II champ said. “I came in behind the eight ball with an injury on a new bike in a new class so there was a lot going on—and I missed half the year [with injury]. It feels good; it feels really good to get on the podium!”
Early leader Justin Hoeft of the 3 Bros./Kilmartin Racing Husqvarna team battled hard with LaFountaine for much of the race and ended up fourth, just ahead of 3 Bros./Hatch Racing Husqvarna rider Dalton Shirey while Purvines Racing Yamaha’s Trevor Stewart rode a solitary pace to sixth.
450 Podium. L-R Austin Walton, Dante Oliveira, Tallon Lafountaine.
Mateo Oliveira got a better start than his brother when the Pro II line took off and he quickly worked his way into the class lead, his new goal to pass as many 450s as possible with his Cobram Estate/DA8 Training/Klim 250 XC-F. By the end of the 90-minute, $8000 feature race, he’d done an admirable job, finishing seventh overall over SLR Honda teammates Jack Simpson and Parker Ross to lock up his first NGPC Pro II crown.
250 Pro Podium. L-R Jack Simpson, Mateo Oliveira, Parker Ross.
After two years of being denied, he said, “This year, everything fell into place super-well. The whole program I was on, the bikes, all the mechanics helping me out—it was meant to be, honestly. I was fit and I was strong and just ready from the beginning; I knew I could fight for this championship. I didn’t want to fall short this time; I knew this was the year I was going to get it done—probably my last year on 250s—so I knew I had to do it and I charged hard every race and put myself in good positions and stayed out of the chaos. It’s long overdue. I should’ve had it one of the last two years, but now that I’ve got it, it feels that much sweeter.”
The undisputed queen of racing on the West Coast, Brandy Richards notched her eighth Pro Women’s victory of the season, finishing 22nd overall. Since the start of the 2020 season, she’s won every round she’s entered, an unprecedented accomplishment that has her and her CST Tires/Hinson/Fly Racing 350 SX-F looking to new goals.
Women’s podium. L-R Tarah Geiger, Brandy Richards, Kaitlyn Jacobs.
“I don’t think winning ever gets old, but I’m always looking for new goals,” said Richards who will be upping the ante next year by competing in five GNCC races. “I’m super-excited about next year; it will be super-challenging for me. I’m always looking to push myself and find new ways to keep moving forward, keep getting better. I’ll be racing NGPC again along with WORCS; in WORCS I’m going to race 250cc Pro and they’re also starting a 125cc Pro which is on Saturday, not in the Pro race [on Sundays]. So, I’ll be racing 125cc Pro, Women’s Pro and 250cc Pro, so I’m excited!”
Johnny Campbell Racing (JCR) Honda’s Tarah Geiger—the 2019 Pro Women champ—was runner-up with FMF RPM Racing KTM’s Kaitlyn Jacobs claiming third. CN
The 2022 NGPC Pro Champions, Richards, Oliveira, and Oliveira.
OVERALL RESULTS
1. Dante Oliveira (KTM)
2. Austin Walton (Hus)
3. Tallon LaFountaine (Hon)
4. Justin Hoeft (Hus)
5. Dalton Shirey (Hus)
6. Trevor Stewart (Yam)
7. Mateo Oliveira (KTM)
8. Jack Simpson (Hon)
9. Parker Ross (Hon)
10. Giacomo Redondi (GG)
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