Mark Kariya | October 24, 2023
Rockstar Energy Husqvarna Factory Racing Off-Road Team’s Dalton Shirey capped off his Championship-winning season by winning the sixth and final round of this year’s AMA Hare & Hound National Championship Series, Presented by FMF, the 100s Motorcycle Club’s 56th Annual California National Hare & Hound. LiquiMoly Beta star Zane Roberts and S.W. Roberts Construction GasGas-mounted privateer Clayton Roberts (no relation and on a 450 for the first time) rounded out the podium.
Dalton Shirey (1) won the final AMA National Hare and Hound of season, but third-place finisher and Pro 250 champ Clayton Roberts (199) had a better podium burnout in his first race aboard a 450.
Photos by Mark Kariya
Having successfully defended his title at the previous round last month, Shirey had nothing but pride on the line as he began the three-loop (40, 35 and 25 miles long), 100-mile race at North Anderson Dry Lake in the Johnson Valley Off-Highway Vehicle (OHV) Area.
Champions, however, don’t slack off and Shirey treated this like any other race—he was in it to win it aboard his Motorex/Dunlop/Fly Racing-backed FX 450.
However, he took a back seat to AHM/Motorex/Acerbis KTM 450 XC-F rider Carter Klein off the start. It wasn’t too long before both Shirey and Zane Roberts got by Klein who held third until conceding that spot to Clayton Roberts on the fairly technical second loop.
“I kind of sat in his dust for a while, then eventually he fell over,” Shirey said. “I got by him and just rode from there a smooth and collected race. I didn’t want to make any stupid moves today.”
That set the finishing order with Shirey winning in two hours, 39 minutes and 49 seconds, Zane Roberts 51 seconds back on his FMF/IMS/Klim 480 RR, which clinched second in series points for him, 171-117.
“It was a good day for me,” he said. “I wish I’d got a little better start. Dalton got around Carter quicker than I did and got a little bit of a gap there. Once I got around Carter, the gap to [Shirey] stayed roughly the same the whole day. This was probably my favorite Lucerne course yet.”
Nic Colangelli coaxed his KTM 250 XC to one last finish, winning Pro 250 for the first time.
As he’d wrapped the Pro 250 championship at round five, Clayton Roberts wanted to get a head start on prepping for his move up to the Open Pro division next year, thus the fairly late decision to race his Blud Lubricants/Kenda/Fasthouse EX 450F.
“I got an okay start—I kind of missed the line I was shooting for. I think I might’ve been fifth or sixth at the end of the bomb, made a couple passes, and then came into the pits at the end of the first loop in fourth and set out to try to catch Carter,” he said. “Once I got around him, I focused forward and am happy to be up on the podium.” He finished in 2:50:26.
Klein kept it rolling the rest of the way to earn fourth on the day and third in final Pro points.
Nic Colangelli enjoyed one last outing on his 3 Bros./TBT Racing KTM 250 XC, which has just over 450 hours. That gave him the Pro 250 win (the class admittedly somewhat decimated by injury and Clayton Roberts moving to the big bikes) and locked him into second in final class points behind Roberts, 150-110.
Dale Fenton claimed a career-best sixth overall and first 250cc A aboard his MotoWorld of El Cajon KTM 250 XC followed by Red Bull/FMF/Troy Lee Designs KTM-mounted Ivan Ramirez who earned fifth Open Pro in his first National since 2016, the year after his historic championship. (Since then, of course, he’s fought a long battle with Lyme disease and his goal was simply to finish and enjoy himself.)
Ty Woolslayer finally got that first win in Pro Women’s.
D&K/Sunny Offroad Beta rider Brian Whiteside was eighth overall and sixth Open Pro followed by newly crowned Pro Vet 35+ champ Andrew Puckett who made a clean sweep of the series with his sixth class victory aboard his Enerlon/TBT Racing/Simi Valley Cycles YZ450FX. NitroMousse/VP Racing Fuels/FXR YZ250-mounted Matthew Combs was the 250cc A runner-up and 10th overall.
Third in Girls 12-15 behind Hayley Fleming and Brooklyn Caudillo was enough to give Charlie Nute (pictured) the class championship.
After a long string of lesser podium finishes, Ty Woolslayer took her first Pro Women triumph, finishing 26th overall on her Reflex Racing/Fasst Co./Pure Adrenaline YZ250FX. With early leader and class champ Rachel Stout taking a DNF after suffering a knee injury, that put Woolslayer close in final points, 145-140. Let’s Ride KTM’s Ashlee Gage finished second—her best Pro Women finish to date—about six minutes back.
OVERALL
- Dalton Shirey (Hus)
- Zane Roberts (Bet)
- Clayton Roberts (GG)
- Carter Klein (KTM)
- Nic Colangeli (KTM)
- Dale Fenton (KTM)
- Ivan Ramirez (KTM)
- Brian Whiteside (Bet)
- Andrew Puckett (Yam)
- Matthew Combs (Yam)
