Mark Kariya | May 9, 2023
Dante Oliveira made it three wins in a row after topping Outlaw Racing’s 5th Annual Desperado Hare Scramble at Flying Blind Dirt Park, May 6-7, which was round three of the AMA West Hare Scrambles Regional Championship Series, Presented by MojoMotoSport. And for the third round in a row, 3 Bros./Hatch Racing GasGas rider Giacomo Redondi—the defending series champ—had to settle for second behind the FMF/KTM Factory Racing Off-Road Racing Team star, while LiquiMoly Beta’s Zane Roberts rounded out the podium in third.
Missing his number plate after some bar banging, Dante Oliveira took firm control of the Desperado Hare Scramble for his third-straight win.
Photos by Mark Kariya
Oliveira led all five laps of the approximately 16-mile hilly and diverse loop that started out extremely sloppy after overnight rain but tacked up nicely and drew widespread praise for how fun it became. But in the early going, Oliveira and his Red Bull/Motorex/Thor 450 XC-F faced strong challenges, with LiquiMoly Beta’s Joe Wasson grabbing the lead after a pit, though he was unable to hold it, eventually finishing fourth.
“Three in a row—I’m stoked with it!” Oliveira said. “Super-fun course today, the way the track was the dirt was unreal. You could actually charge.
“Joe rode good for a while. Giacomo rode good. I battled with Joe a little bit after he passed me [for the lead] then I got back out front and just started charging.”
Though he’d guessed wrong on suspension setup and found the rebound too speedy on his FMF/Acerbis/Seven MC 450F, Redondi soldiered on, aware he needed to ride a bit more conservatively in order to stay on the often-rocky trails—something he discovered after losing the front and careening into a bush while running second on the second lap.
“Then I regroup and say, ‘Keep calm; we have three hours of racing so don’t go too crazy!’” he said.
Redondi worked his way back into second and inched closer to Oliveira as the race wound down, but found himself in the bushes once more near the end when working past lappers.
“[After that], I was fine again with second place, but I think we had a good pace, finishing less than 30 seconds between me and Dante after almost three hours, so I’m really happy and looking forward to the next round.”
Tyler Vore claimed his very first Pro win, topping the 250cc class.
For Roberts, the Desperado was something of a rerun of round one where he had to come from behind to eventually finish third on his FMF/Pirelli/Klim-sponsored 480 RR.
“I miss the days when I’d come to a hare scramble and it was fairly easy to win one of them,” Roberts said. “We’ve got good competition out here. I was making a joke last night there are more factory guys finishing races here than a Supercross right now!
“The competition’s gnarly and those guys just have a good pace in the beginning, which is something I struggle with. I struggle to find the balance between pushing it and I’ll go down in the beginning—that’s been my problem a lot this year, going down on the first lap. Really, maybe rode just a little too conservative there in the beginning. I don’t know—in the second half, for some reason I always come alive and can start bringing those guys back a little bit.”
Roberts ended up 46 seconds behind Redondi for his second podium of the season. He was just four seconds ahead of teammate Wasson, whom he’d stopped to check on when Wasson went down hard on the last lap while pushing to claim his first podium. Roberts, himself, survived a late crash that put him into a barbed-wire fence (luckily, with minimal damage).
Ava Silvestri won the Pro Women class for the second time in three rounds.
Fourth on the opening lap, Rockstar Energy Husqvarna’s Austin Walton found himself unable to keep the leaders in sight and finished a lonely fifth aboard his Motorex/Rekluse/Fly Racing FX 450.
While the Open Pros mixed it up a bit, the Pro 250s put on a proverbial barnburner with a number of lead changes. In the end, East Coast transplant Tyler Vore edged his way past Clayton Gerstner on the final lap to claim his very first Pro-level victory.
“I’m slowly starting to adjust and make the change [to the faster courses here out West],” he said. After getting the holeshot on his Enduro Engineering/Mobile Powersports/MotoSport Hillsboro GasGas EX 250, he stayed a couple seconds ahead of Anthony Ferrante and Layton Smail while working through some arm pump.
“Once I pitted I saw how fast they were going, I knew I had to turn it up quite a bit. Once I realized the pace, I started clicking it off. I think my last two laps were the fastest of the race.”
Carl’s Cycle/707 Suspension Husky-mounted Gerstner finished second Pro 250 and seventh overall followed by defending class champ Mason Ottersberg on his DC Racing Sherco 250 SEF, Smail on his JMC Motorsports/Just 1 GasGas and MojoMotoSport/Six Five O GasGas rider Ferrante.
The Youth races on Saturday enjoyed much drier conditions with Lowe Lord earning his first Big Wheel triumph of the season over Jett Lessing and Landon de Vall.
The morning race was far sloppier, but current Pro Women champ Ava Silvestri thrived in the conditions on her 3 Bros./Hatch Racing GasGas EX 250F, topping Full Factory Racing KTM’s Rachel Stout—the AMA Pro Women Hare & Hound National Champion—and Alpinestars/Piston Bones KTM’s Mikayla Nielsen.
“I would say, yeah, I know how to ride mud well,” Silvestri admitted. But after tipping over on the penultimate lap and seeing Stout uncomfortably close, she continued, “On the last lap, I threw down the hammer and just hoped for the best. Obviously, this year I’ve been getting second a lot [in other series]. In my opinion—at that point—I’d rather crash and get straight up passed [than lose while playing it safe].”
Tied for the class points lead with Nielsen coming into the Desperado, Silvestri left with sole possession of first over newcomer Nielsen, 85-76, with Stout third at 61.
