With the 41st edition of the Monster Energy AMA Amateur National Motocross Championship at Loretta Lynn’s Ranch approaching, we will spend the next few weeks running through some of the names you might not know raced Loretta Lynn’s. Of the thousands of people who have raced at the Ranch, not everyone has gone on to race at the professional level. But several are industry members, the parents/siblings of current pro racers, and people who became well-known outside of the motocross industry. So, in this year’s countdown we are going to highlight some names that make you say, “Wait, they raced at Loretta’s?!”
By this time in our list, we have seen quite a few off-road riders, proving that some guys can go just as fast over jumps and whoops as they go through trees. Five-time GNCC Champion Scott Summers is one of those guys. Summers, the AMA Hall of Famer who won all of his championships on a Honda XR600, preferred the power of a four-stroke in the woods long before companies started making a competitive four-stroke race bike. XR’s were considered trail bikes, and you could even get a license plate for it and ride it to work. No one thought of the 290-pound XR’s as competitive when it came to racing GNCC’s, but Summers proved them wrong.
Apparently, Summers could even ride one well on a motocross track! We confirmed that when Summers lined up at the ranch in 1987 (250/Open Pro/Am, Open A) and 1990 (Open A) he did so on his beloved XR600. Head light, hand guards and all! His best finish was 15th overall in 1987 in the Open A class. Fifteenth overall in the A class at Loretta’s is incredible but doing it on a “grocery getter” makes the feat even more impressive.
Summers was a trend setter and in 1990 was not the only one to line up on an XR600, read about Robert Pastrana’s time at the ranch here.
We reached out to Fred Bramblett, Summers’ long time mechanic and agent. Bramblett told us:
“I was helping Scott for the week as his mechanic. Naturally one of the items I was handling was taking Scott's bike to the starting line. My limited big-event moto knowledge was shown when I unknowingly stepped on the dirt in front of the gate with one foot while removing loose dirt from the rut at Scott's gate pick [working on the dirt in front of the gate is illegal]. Some of the others on the starting line started to complain to anyone and everyone that would listen. If I remember right, it was Bill West at the starting line that year. Bill started in giving me a butt chewing! I explained to him that Jesus Christ could not get a good start on the XR 600 compared to the 500 2 strokes. I told him even if I used a skid loader to groom Scott's line to the first turn, he would not have any advantage. Later I ran into Big Dave [Coombs], and he had already heard the story and was laughing and giving me a hard time about it.”
We are unsure if Summers just loved abusing his body riding the ol’ XR on a motocross track or if he used the race to get more practice on the course, as the GNCC series also stops at the ranch. Not much of the track is shared between the two events, but in 1987 Summers won the Four-Stroke A class at the Loretta Lynn GNCC and in 1990 he won the race overall, as well. Still, 1990 was the year when Summers scored his first GNCC championship. So, to come out and race a completely different form of racing, just for fun, in the middle of a championship season deserves a lot of respect.
Main image courtesy of Racer X Archives
