2024 River Front Grand Prix Results

Mark Kariya | December 3, 2024

Hunter Smith added his name to the list of Pro winners in capturing the 30th annual SPR Suspension & Repair River Front Grand Prix (RFGP), Presented by Ajax Motorsports, November 30-December 1. Rider Vrzak and last year’s champ, John Gentry, rounded out the podium.

Hunter Smith at 2024 River Front Grand Prix — **Hunter Smith won both Saturday’s Short Course and Sunday’s feature race at the River Front Grand Prix in Oklahoma.**

Photos by Mark Kariya

For the second year in a row, the Lost Lakes Adventure Park in Oklahoma City hosted the Thanksgiving-weekend race, which previously ran for 28 years in Ft. Smith, Arkansas. Unlike last year, though, the weather and dirt were prime, leading to ideal conditions on all of the weekend’s courses, including the approximately 13-mile loop (all within city limits) for Sunday’s main event.

“I’m from Gainesville, Texas, so I’ve been home for the holidays and hanging out with my family,” the GNCC regular and two-time ISDE Club rider said. “There was nothing else going on, so I decided to show up and have some fun.”

And, of course, it’s always more fun when you win, raking in $1000 of the $3200 Pro purse. The Bonecutter Off-Road/XC Gear/Moose Elite GasGas MC 250F-mounted winner added, “I was second off the start, but before we got to the third corner, I got to first and kind of rode my own race from there.”

Rider Vrzak at 2024 River Front Grand Prix — **Rider Vrzak also tuned up for Sunday by racing the Short Course contest on Saturday, where he finished second. He was second on Sunday, as well.**

The only thing that slowed him down was an unexpected pit stop to tighten the rear axle. He completed five laps of the loop in two hours, 19 minutes and three seconds, putting him 28 seconds ahead of runner-up Vrzak.

Vrzak said, “[Last year] I was busy on Saturday, so I couldn’t race the [one-hour] Short Course [race], so I went into it completely blind. I made sure this year to come up [from Texas] on Saturday!”

The Cycle Center of Denton/Fast Track Home Services/Fly Racing KTM 350 SX-F rider added. “I had a third-place start behind Hunter, and then I had a good battle with Kobey Dearing—I was able to pick him off and rode my race and focused. John and I started playing yo-yo a little bit until we ended up getting to our pit stops; then we started spreading out after that.”

John Gentry at 2024 River Front Grand Prix — **Defending River Front champ John Gentry had to recover from a bad start and climbed up to third at the end.**

Gentry made it an all-Texas podium (the second time he’s podiumed here) and said, “I got a last-place start, so that didn’t help, but I started picking them off. I got a few passes on the first lap, which helped, and then slowly caught up. Me and Rider had a good battle, but Hunter was long gone!”

The TJ’s Cycles/MG CycleWorks/B&B Off-Road MC 250F racer, Gentry, finished in 2:20:59, 24 seconds shy of Vrzak.

KTM-mounted Riley Johnson, Harrison Gafford (Oklahoma City resident and the first Oklahoman in the top 10), Logan Adams (Husqvarna), Lane Morrison (KTM) and Dalton Young (KTM), Dearing (Beta) and Jacob Franklin (KTM), all in the Pro class, rounded out the top 10.

Scott Ridgeway at 2024 River Front Grand Prix — **The final race for Youth motorcycles on Saturday ran to just after sunset, though Scott Ridgeway powered through for the win a lap ahead of everyone else.**

Brandon Atchley aboard a GasGas took the 20-29 class and was 11th overall a lap down, with 15-19 winner Madden Jones 12th overall on his KTM. Other class winners included J.D. Reed (30-39), Dusty Melton (40-49), J.D. Walker (50-59) and Bobby Southard (Masters 60+). Southard is especially noteworthy, not only as a class winner but for being the Pro overall victor of the very first RFGP and riding all 30 to date.