e are now 38 years into the grand motocross experiment that started in 1982 with the first starting-gate drop at Loretta Lynn Ranch in Hurricane Mills, Tennessee. The AMA Amateur National Motocross Championship is the only dirt bike race held here. For the rest of the year, the track is completely off-limits to motorcycles. It can’t be rented for practice or testing or motocross schools or anything else—a nod to the original concept of building a level playing field for everyone. That means that every single lap raced here matters during the AMA Amateur National.

The very first moto at Loretta Lynn’s way back in ’82 was the Open A class. The leader at the end of the first lap was Fairmont, West Virginia’s Dave Scott, riding the #36 Honda CR480. Since then, this track has seen more than 1.5 million competitive laps, as every class, every year, runs three long motos (except the two occasions when severe weather cut the race down to two motos). Championships have been won by riders from all over the country, as well as the occasional international visitor.

For instance, the surprise winner in this year’s 250 Pro Sport class, Hardy Munoz, lists his home address as Culloden, Georgia, where he trains at Matt Walker’s MotoX Compound, but he’s actually from Chile. The Husqvarna rider topped 41 other finalists with a steady 3-4-3 tally. Afterward, he admitted that he was helped in part by being familiar with the track—or at least its general design. Turns out MotoX Compound has its own version of Loretta Lynn’s.

“The Loretta track replica built by my coach Matt at MotoX Compound helped me a lot to feel comfortable in the real competition at the Ranch,” Munoz says. “It was crazy how similar it was to Loretta’s.”

The Open Pro Sport class also had international elements to it, with the presence of Amsoil/Factory Connection Honda riders Jett Lawrence of Australia and Jo Shimoda of Japan. They found themselves mixing it up with Rockstar Husqvarna’s Jalek Swoll of Florida in all three motos, the first of which ended with the closest finish in Loretta Lynn’s history, as Swoll flashed across the finish line .066 seconds ahead of Lawrence.

Swoll would go on to win the title with a steady 1-3-1 score, and with it the AMA’s Nicky Hayden Horizon Award as the outstanding rider of the week. Swoll at first seemed indifferent about the honor, but then later posted on social media, “Not very big on awards or anything like that so at first I wasn’t too sold on the hype of the @ama-racing Horizon Award but once I actually thought about the names associated with the award and all of the cool things those names went on to do I’m happy and thankful to have won the award.”

Among those names are a few you might also recognize: Travis Pastrana, James Stewart, Ryan Villopoto, Jason Anderson. . . .

Despite having three strong prospects in the Pro Sport classes—Lawrence, Shimoda, Mumford—the GEICO Honda team could not secure either Pro Sport title. In fact, Honda as a whole was nearly shut out of the winner’s circle. Only 450 B Limited rider Hunter Yoder of Menifee, California, could hold it together over all three motos to net the Red Riders a class title. How bad was Honda’s week at the Ranch? The long-struggling Suzuki picked up two titles, one less than Michigan-based minicycles-only maker Cobra.

Once-mighty Kawasaki won a total of five titles, but when you drill down more, it wasn’t exactly a great year for Team Green. Four of the championships they won came in Vet 30+ (Nicholas Hayes), Senior 45+ (John Bowlin), Masters 50+ (John Grewe), and 250 C (Dylan Cunha). Their only marquee win would come in 250 B by way of Bakersfield, California’s Stilez Robertson.

And speaking of Bakersfield, Stilez’s neighbor Ryder DiFrancesco had a week he’d mostly rather forget. The Kawasaki Team Green standout had a run of bad luck that started when he reached into the bucket of starting-gate chips and pulled a high number for his first Mini Sr. (12-14) moto. He was forced to line up on the far inside gate. Despite being a strong starter, DiFrancesco did not get the jump expected of him, and the probable reason quickly became apparent as he struggled to move forward—his KX85 was having electrical problems and kept misfiring. He finally had to pull out, which meant he would face a similar challenge to start the second moto—only this time he was on the far outside. All told, Ryder won two of his six motos, but he could not add to the six career championships he had previously won here.

As a matter of fact, Ryder D. wasn’t even the most successful California-born Ryder there. Instead, it was the much younger Ryder Ellis who swept all three motos in the 51cc (7-8) class aboard a Cobra. He was a runner-up in the smaller 51cc class two years ago, but this time he was unbeatable.

California continues to churn out super-fast minicycle talent, as another Golden State rider, Husqvarna-mounted Landen Gordon of Atascadero, won two of three motos in the 65cc (10-11) class. The only moto Gordon dropped—the final one—went to Visalia, California’s Alvin Hilian, who ended up third overall.

All told, Husqvarna had a banner year at the Ranch, with a record five titles. They also swept the two Pro Sport classes with Swoll and Munoz. But their most successful rider of the week was New York’s Nick Romano, who swept both of his 85cc Mini Senior classes. Romano first got into the record books way back in 2014 with a 51cc win, which helped land him a Team Green ride, but the years since have been lean. Before the ’19 season, he switched over to Husqvarna in an effort to reignite his career, and it worked.

“I’ve worked so hard coming into this year and I am beyond stoked walking away with [two] National titles, and I got four out of six moto wins,” Romano posted to social media on his way home.

Jett Reynolds, Seth Hammaker, Nate Thrasher, and Chase Yentzer are some of the biggest current names in amateur motocross, but all of them sat out Loretta Lynn’s this summer due to injuries. Their absence opened up more opportunities for others to shine. For instance, Maximus Vohland lost both Supermini classes to Thrasher last time at the Ranch. On this visit, Vohland was perfect, winning all six of his motos. He was also much taller than he was a year ago, so after the final moto, his father, Tallon—himself a former factory rider—put “for sale” signs on all of their KTM minicycles.

Speaking of minicycles, some of the most interesting back-and-forth battles of the week were between 85cc (10-12) KTM riders Haiden Deegan and Daxton Bennick. Rivals on the track and best friends off of it, they would split moto wins and titles. Dangerboy had a shot at taking both titles for himself, as Bennick was struggling with some arm-pump issues, but he crashed on the first lap of the final Limited moto and could only stand helpless alongside the track and watch three dozen other kids jump over his minicycle as it lay in between jumps.

Vohland and Deegan weren’t the only sons of pro-level winners to take amateur titles this year. Jeremy Ryan’s father, Ricky, famously won the 1987 Daytona Supercross as a full-on privateer—the one and only time that has ever happened in AMA Supercross. Ricky was on hand to watch Jeremy top a highly competitive 125cc Schoolboy class with 4-1-3 moto scores. He topped fellow Californian and fellow KTM rider Josh Varize, whose middle-moto seventh offset his two wins in the other motos. Varize also came close to winning the other 125cc class, only this time his foil was Georgia’s Gage Linville, who topped him with 1-2-2 moto scores.

Looking for a local-interest story? Spencer Winter is a KTM rider who lives near the Walmart in Waverly, just seven miles away from Loretta Lynn Ranch. He has no local advantage—as per the rules, the only laps he’s ever turned on the track are the ones that have come as a qualified competitor. No matter, Winter finished seventh overall in the College (18-24) class. He also finished ninth in the 450 B class, with a high moto score of fifth the second time out.

Just finishing in the top ten in any B class at Loretta Lynn’s is a serious accomplishment, so winning those classes is almost as important as the A classes. Louisiana’s Matthew LeBlanc (450 B), Florida’s Mason Gonzalez (250 B Limited), Maryland’s Jarrett Frye (250 Schoolboy B), and the aforementioned Yoder and Robertson are all poised to ascend to the Pro Sport classes in 2020.

One of the fiercest showdowns of the week went down in the Women’s class. Jordan Jarvis and Hannah Hodges took time off of their shared pursuit of becoming the first woman to qualify for a Lucas Oil Pro Motocross race in order to compete for an AMA Amateur National Championship. At the Ranch, they found out that the competition can be just as cutthroat as it is at the pro level, as Jazzmyn Canfield toppled both to win the first two motos. In the final moto of the week, with two laps to go, North Carolina’s Jarvis was leading Hodges and Canfield, which meant the math was working in her favor for the title. But Hodges suddenly had bike issues and dropped back, and then out altogether, handing Canfield the runner-up position she needed to clinch the championship. There was no love lost; these girls are such bitter rivals that they won’t even say the others’ names on the podium, let alone on social media.

There was also drama in the Pee-Wee class, and more specifically, the 51cc (4-6) Shaft Drive Limited class. Moments after the second moto was complete on Thursday afternoon, the parent of a rider (who shall remain nameless to protect the innocent) whipped out his wallet and began protesting those who finished ahead of him. He posted nearly $5,000 in protest fees in what was essentially a fishing expedition. Race officials were forced to impound all five protested bikes and establish a chain of custody, as the teardowns would not take place until after Friday’s third and final moto. They also impounded his bike, since a retaliatory protest was filed by one of the protested parents.

No sooner had the checkered flag fallen on Friday’s third and final moto than the little bikes were pushed down to a trailer to be torn down by race officials. They were checked for any and all modifications, and it turned out that two of the five protested bikes were found to have illegal modifications, so the riders were disqualified. The three that were legal—Braxton Baldock, Bryson Howell, and Storm Kelly—not only got to keep their finishing positions, but they got to keep the protest money posted against them.

Oh, as for the sixth bike—the one ridden by the child of the mass-protesting parent—it turned out that the cylinder head had been modified. He was summarily disqualified too.

Finally, after nearly five full days, 106 motos, and all those laps—every one of which was run under the sun—a storm began brewing just as the second-to-last moto of the week was going off. Maryland Kawasaki rider John Bowlin, who is known to train in a rubber body suit, didn’t let a little rain bother him and stayed perfect for the week. The 65cc (10-11) class that followed was not as lucky, as the skies opened up while the kids were sitting on the starting gate. Once it passed, the 108th and final moto of the week jumped off the gate and into the mud. The leader and eventual winner was Luke Fauser, a KTM rider from Pennsylvania who also won the first two motos, which were run in the dry. Some three and a half minutes later came the last rider to finish all seven laps, Tyler Mollett of Port Saint Lucie, Florida.

So ended another 2019 AMA Amateur National. The tractors came out, the banners went down, and the track began its annual process of transitioning back into a typical Tennessee ranch, albeit one owned by a famous singer who has made a lot of motocross friends over the years, one lap at a time.