Liqui Moly Beta’s Zane Roberts led from the bomb to the checkered flag at the 100s Motorcycle Club’s Fast Times at Johnson Valley National, the ninth and final round of the AMA Hare & Hound National Championship Series, presented by FMF.
Photos by Mark Kariya
That brought his season total to five wins—a career best—but it wasn’t enough to hold on to the number-one plate, as FMF KTM Factory Off-Road Racing Team star Dante Oliveira did exactly what he needed to do. In finishing second on the day, his consistency over the course of the season provided enough points to claim the championship in his first try. Thanks to a remarkably consistent season that found him atop the podium twice, he was runner-up seven other times, while the defending series champ’s five victories, three thirds and a fourth left him four points shy of Oliveira, 235-231.
Three-time series champ Dalton Shirey made his first series appearance since round two—it’s been a rough year with injuries—and earned third in his final ride for Rockstar Energy Husqvarna.
“Even if I got paid for 10th, I want to win!” Oliveira said. “It’s great to go out there and put a good effort in and get consistent seconds and win the championship, but the confidence you have from finishing first, it’s nice; it’s a good feeling when you know you’re doing something right.”
The Red Bull/Dunlop/Alpinestars 450 XC-F rider added, “I wanted to go out there and get this win, and I had a great start to put me there, but I had a little too much tunnel vision and missed my line right at the end of the bomb where I had to cut in to go through the flags, so I gave up a few seconds.”
Heavy dust made passing risky, and with Roberts setting a pace that saw him and Oliveira draw gradually away from the field, Oliveira decided wrapping up the championship was better than risking a crash in the many rocks littering the two-loop (36 and 35 miles) course at North Anderson Dry Lake in the Johnson Valley Off-Highway Vehicle Area.
For Roberts, his only hope was winning and depended on someone finishing between him and Oliveira, as a third-place finish for Oliveira would see them tie on points and the Beta ace would keep the championship due to more wins.
“I did my part. I can’t be too upset,” Roberts said. “I went and did what I could today and executed that.”
The Bridgestone/FMF/Klim 480 RR-mounted 2025 champ went on to say, “It’s pretty crazy to win five out of eight or nine races, or whatever, and lose the championship. Either way, it’s been a great season and I’m proud of that, proud of myself for winning five of these things. Prior to this [year], I’d won three races in my whole career so it’s almost double in one season what I’d won in my whole career!”
Unofficially, though, Roberts did top the Pro division of the new Off-Road Masters Championship, which combines finishes of both the H&H and AMA West Hare Scrambles (WHS) Regional Championship Series. It is not an official AMA Championship, but it was instituted this year to recognize those who compete in both series.
While former series champ Joe Wasson came out of retirement in a bid to assist his Liqui Moly Beta teammate, he couldn’t quite match the pace of the front two and physically settled for third.
However, he received a penalty for a scoring-chute incident, promoting Shirey and his Motorex/FMF/Fly Racing FX 450 to third in his final race for the team, with Wasson placing fourth.
“Man, I wish I had a couple more races before this race because my fitness level wasn’t quite where I’d like to be at,” Shirey said after finishing about seven minutes behind the first two, his ride marred by one crash on a rocky downhill.
As he’d done at all but one round this season, reigning class champ Sam Pretscherer ran away with the Pro 250 victory (having locked up the class title for the second year in a row at the previous round) and finished fifth overall, Shirey passing him on the second loop. The 3Bros/Hatch Racing Husqvarna rider revealed he’d hurt his foot by hitting a rock while training in the area the week before, though it didn’t slow him down much.
The Precision Concepts/Blud Lubricants/Fly Racing FC 250 rider shared, “I had a good line picked out and got a bad jump. It wasn’t too bad to pick my way through; in the end I got up to where I needed to be and just kept pushing.
“All in all, it was a good day and a good way to finish off the year like that.”
Pretscherer was a little over three minutes ahead of class runner-up and sixth overall Chance Fullerton, the Dallas Chidester (DC) Racing Kawasaki rider earning fourth in the final Pro 250 points. Third Pro 250 and seventh overall—six seconds behind Fullerton—went to Simi Valley Cycles Yamaha YZ250-mounted Cody Simpson, who ended up fifth in class points after missing four rounds.
AMA District 37 regular Nic Colangeli took fifth Pro and eighth overall on his O’Neal Racing KTM ahead of another D-37 star, Greg Fenstermaker Jr and his SoCal MC KX250. Fenstermaker was also the top A rider overall as well as the 250cc A winner. Air Cleaning Technology KTM-mounted Brandon Krause rounded out the top 10 about 13 hours after returning from the Morocco Rally.
Third overall at round eight, Kamo Realty/Khlobe KTM’s David Kamo had a rough go at the series finale. He crashed heavily in the early going, landing on his head after hitting a boulder in the dust, hurting his back and neck, though he credited his Alpinestars airbag system for potentially preventing worse injuries.
He still won Pro Vet 35+ for the seventh-straight time to wrap up the class championship, finishing 12th overall.
The Pro Women’s crown was guaranteed to be a barnburner with rivals Ava Silvestri and three-time champ Rachel Stout tied at 220 points each at the start. As they’d done all season, they quickly found each other in the dust and began to battle, with FMF RPM Racing KTM’s Stout leading the way aboard her Dunlop/AEO Powersports/Moose Racing 350 XC-F.
Silvestri came into the pits at the end of the first loop three seconds behind despite losing her front brake when she got lost and tipped over at the end of the bomb. While her crew was unable to fix that, they did get her out barely ahead of Stout and that was the race. Silvestri managed to pull away on the second loop aboard her 395 Motorsports/Racer Decal/Troy Lee Designs GasGas EX 250F to win by over four minutes. Stout held on for second, with Ty Woolslayer third on the day and in final series points on her Precision Concepts YZ250FX.
“I basically tried to stay as close as possible on the first loop because I assumed the first loop was going to be a lot more fast-paced,” Silvestri confided. “I got lucky in the pits—my pit was faster—and I got out in front of her and tried to maintain [the lead] the second loop.”
Final points saw Silvestri on top with 250, Stout at 245 and Woolslayer on 168.
A three-time AMA WHS Pro Women champ, this marked Silvestri’s first H&H Championship after coming close three years ago. She said, “Honestly, ever since I lost it in 2022 in a very similar situation, it’s kind of been a nagging thing in the back of my head, something that I’ve wanted to come back and, I guess, settle for myself regardless of who I was racing against. Also, it’s very special, too, because it’s a National Championship.”
The second annual year-end awards banquet for both H&H and WHS will take place on December 6 at Glen Helen Raceway, immediately following the 12th annual Kurt Caselli Ride Day.CN
2025 AMA National Hare & Hound Final Round Results
OVERALL (Top 10)
- Zane Roberts (Bet) 1:59:28
- Dante Oliveira (KTM) 2:00:10
- Dalton Shirey (Hus) 2:07:56
- Joseph Wasson (Bet) 2:07:57
- Sam Pretscherer (Hus) 2:08:33
- Chance Fullerton (Kaw) 2:11:39
- Cody Simpson (Yam) 2:11:45
- Nic Colangeli (KTM) 2:13:07
- Gregory Fenstermaker Jr (Kaw) 2:13:40
- Brandon Krause (KTM) 2:15:25
Click here for all the latest Off-Road Racing news.
