Main image from Loretta Lynn's in 2022, photo by Align Media
Welcome to the off-weekend, welcome to Loretta Lynn’s, welcome to Triumph Day, and welcome to Racerhead. The AMA Pro Motocross Championship is taking a well-deserved couple of weekends off after a sprint through July, while the amateur motocross community gathers here in tiny Hurricane Mills, Tennessee, for the 2023 Monster Energy AMA Amateur National Motocross Championship at Loretta Lynn’s Ranch. The Ranch is already filling up, despite the fact that the motos don't actually start until Tuesday morning at 7:30 a.m. sharp. There's quite a buzz here already, I can tell you that!
If you're a motocross fan you can watch almost all of the motos stream live beginning on Tuesday on racertv.com which plans on going on-air every day next week by 9 a.m., and featuring the voices of Jason Weigandt, Kevin Kelly, Kellen Brauer, and many more. (And with Daniel Blair here as KTM amateur team manager, maybe we can get him up there in the brand-new announcer's tower, which was built by Loretta Lynn's alumni David Eller—Classes of '92, '95-'98—of the Phoenix Honda team, to call some races). We are also expecting a whole starting gate full of LLMX graduates to stop by sometime next week and you will no doubt be hearing from many of them as well on RacerTV.com.
Also making a return next week is the old Radio Fox Show, only now it's in the capable hands of Vurbmoto's merry band of moto media men. The first show will air/stream Monday night, and it will be hosted by Weege, Kevin Kelley, Wes Williams, Chase Stallo, and more. If you've never heard of Radio Fox that's understandable, as it came along one evening in the early nineties and was only played over the loudspeakers here at the ranch. Fox Racing was looking for an interesting new way to announce their initial sponsorship of the race and the Fox brothers and I came up with the idea of a talk show in the old announcer's tower where we would talk to some of the up-and-comers (Robbie Reynard, Ricky Carmichael, James Stewart, etc.) and also use our phone books (remember those?) to call current pros and then put them on speaker phone and then over the PA system so everyone could listen (if anyone was actually listening). That's how we talked to people like Jeremy McGrath, Doug Henry, and infamously and accidentally woke Greg Albertyn's mom up at 4 in the morning in South Africa. And when Yamaha sent Jeff Emig to show off the new YZs—the ones that they have patterned their 50th Anniversary Editions from—we invited him to join the Radio Fox lineup as weatherman. Every report was something to the effect of, "Feels hot there."
And of course, it will be hot, as this is central Tennessee, at the end of July and early August, also it's almost always a scorcher, though this year may be particularly hot. If you're unlucky enough to be in one of the areas of the country that are absolutely baking right now, you know how it feels here. The competitors who made the final 42 in each of the 36 classes are in for a long, hot week of motos (three per class) before we start crowing champions next Friday. Here's wishing all of the championship finalists good luck and safe racing,
If you want to take a stroll down memory lane—or maybe just go down a rabbit hole of results and stories about amateur and minicycle motocross—check out the Loretta Lynn's Vault, which has every result from every class from every year, going back 1982. You can also check out this year's event program below.
If you want to read the story about how the race came to be in the first place, check out the 1982 intro here: https://llvault.racerxonline.com/1982/intro.
And if you want to take the podcast route and listen on your drive, Brett Smith of We Went Fast did a podcast about the origins of Loretta Lynn's AMA Amateur National a few years back that's a great listen or even just a refresher:
Here's a few scenes so far from the Ranch, courtesy of Tony Camaioni:
Mega Matchups (Jason Weigandt)
In the original The Great Outdoors video, Ricky Carmichael pulls off the first perfect season, and the video then throws out the ultimate teaser at the end. Kevin Windham, who was slipping into retirement at that point, was seen down at the beach just hanging out. The narrators (including our own long-time contributor Eric Johnson) all theorized that if there was anyone who could end Carmichael’s streak, it would have to be Windham. But would he return? That set up an amazing sequel for next year’s TGO, because Windham did return, and he and RC battled that summer. Yeah, Carmichael was still dominant, but Windham ended the moto and overall win streak. It was great theater, waiting a year for the battle. That was followed in 2004 when Carmichael went perfect again while James Stewart went 23-1 in the 125 class. But what would happen when Ricky finally raced Bubba? Back then the fictitious bench racing was as good as the real stuff.
That’s where we are now that Eli Tomac has announced his intention to return to racing in 2024. Yes, Chase Sexton is trying as hard as he can to end Jett Lawrence’s win streak, but the world really wants to see Tomac v. Lawrence. Sadly, it seemed like we weren’t going to get it, but luckily for everyone, it’s not over. Not sure if we’ll see ET3 outdoors next year, but in Anaheim, it’s on. Can you imagine how loud the crowd is going to get for Tomac at A1 in January?
I've got another tease, but this one won’t happen. Jeffrey Herlings is back to action in the FIM Motocross World Championship (MXGP) action this weekend. He’s out of the title hunt after missing a bunch of races, but he is still in pursuit of race wins. Hey, since points don’t matter, why not take the risk of showing up for a Pro Motocross race during a break? Ironman once again doesn’t conflict with the MXGP schedule. Can you imagine if Jett is sitting on 20-0 heading into Indiana and Herlings says he’s coming to race? I threw that out on twitter this week, and most fans just responded that Herlings isn’t the same racer he used to be, and Jett would smoke him. I was surprised at that reaction, I’d like to just say Herlings v. Jett would be very, very interesting. If we’re lucky, they’ll both race the FIM Motocross of Nations (MXoN) later this year, but you never know who will be healthy and ready by then. Let’s just do it now!
Okay, I’m off to Loretta’s, see you on RacerTV.com for live motos every day, starting on Tuesday. As I always say, this is the hardest and most fun week of the year. IYKYK!
- MXGP
MXGP of Finland
Sunday, July 30
OFF WEEK (Matthes)
Rest up everyone for the interesting three-week race to the finish in Pro Motocross, we got three points between Hunter Lawrence and Haiden Deegan, and we have the "will he or won't he go undefeated" question for The Jett. Should be fascinating to watch and when he hit the track at Unadilla in two weeks, we should see the #94 Ken Roczen on the line as well.
I went from thinking the Jett was going to lose a moto to Chase Sexton at Washougal and thinking that his chances to win out were about 40 percent (totally unscientific BTW) but with the Washougal sweep, I think I'll bump that up to 60 percent chance Jett wins the last six motos of the year and joins James Stewart and Ricky Carmichael as the other riders to sweep a Pro Motocross season. Only they weren't 19 years old! Incredible story and after riding his bike the day after Washougal, I get it. That thing was awesome.
Weege and I did a Leatt Re-Raceables this week and we wanted to focus on Loretta's. So Weigandt picked his favorite year of Loretta Lynn's, which surrounded the Mike Alessi and Ryan Villopoto rivalry. That was good, but please stay for the part where Mike Alessi somehow got both James Stewart and Ricky Carmichael involved before his pro debut story as well. Listen below:
We all know the Lars van Berkel's story: he did Southwick National and Gopher Dunes Canadian pro national on back-to-back days. Well, he also did Lommel just two weeks after the Dunes. The guy is a sand master and asking for punishment. I caught up with him for part two of the Privateer Island podcast. Listen to that here:
HERLINGS RETURNS (DC)
While the AMA Pro Motocross regulars are getting a two-weekend break, MXGP is grabbing another gear and running their third race in as many weekends. After races in the Czech Republic and then Lommel, Belgium, the series travels to Vantaa, Finland, for the 14th round of the 2023 FIM World Motocross Championship. Spain's Red Bull/GasGas rider Jorge Prado has a commanding lead in MXGP, though Kawasaki's Romain Febvre, a former MXGP Champion, is on a four-race winning streak. And in the MX2 class Belgium's Jago Geerts had a perfect home-Grand Prix weekend in Lommel, sweeping Saturday's qualifying race and both of Sunday's motos for the maximum haul of 60 points. He's now within 13 points of series leader Andrea Adamo of the Red Bull KTM team. Geerts fractured his wrist in qualifying at the French GP earlier this summer and scored zero points, then had to sit out Latvia completely, and then DNF'd the first moto of his return ride in Germany. To now be just 13 points off the leader is impressive. (And you may remember that the Italian Adamo came to Loretta Lynn's to compete in the 250 B and Schoolboy B/C classes in 2018 and grabbed a couple of top-ten finishes.)
The series gets a big boost this weekend as well with Jeffrey Herlings, who fractured his neck back in early summer, returning to the starting gate (as Weege mentioned.) Herlings, who now holds the all-time record for Grand Prix wins with 103, has no chance to win the '23 title but is hoping to get up to full speed soon and maybe add to his career wins' haul. He also makes the Dutch team much better going into the FIM Motocross of Nations in October. You can watch his return motos as they stream live at MXGP-TV.com on Sunday.
And if you're wondering about U.S. rider Jack Chambers, who is riding for Steve Dixon's Kawasaki team in MX2, he's still on the mend with that broken ankle and is actually coming to Loretta Lynn's to watch. There is a feature about the Floridian's career in the brand-new issue of Racer X Illustrated, check it out when you get the chance.
The September 2023 Issue of Racer X Illustrated
The Road Less Traveled

Riding The Factory Hondas (Keefer)
Factory bike tests used to happen more back in the day but these days they are few are far between. However, Matthes and I had the chance to ride not one, but ALL THREE factory Honda HRC bikes the day after the Washougal National. Getting to dissect each factory Honda and think about each rider's technique while I was riding them was something that you'll want to watch. Kellen Brauer put up the video yesterday, so relax for 20 minutes and enjoy the breakdown with team manager Lars Lindstrom, Matthes, and I. Thanks to Team HRC Honda for allowing us to do this. WHAT. A. DAY!
Hey, Watch It!
Vision to Reality: The Development of Triumph's Motocross Chassis
Six-Time South African Motocross Champion Caleb Tennant Reviews Rawrr Mantis Electric Dirt Bike
Comedian Bert Kreischer ("The Machine") receiving a couple Greenger Powersports Honda CRF-E2s':
Head-Scratching Headline/s of the Week
“Brotherly Love: Popular manatee dies after bizarre sex accident in aquarium”—Fox News
Random Notes

Check out this remarkable piece of property that is for sale in Idaho.
Thanks for reading Racerhead. See you at the races.