This year marks the 42nd running of Loretta Lynn's and it got started with a bang. Families started pulling in early last week, and the place was full by Saturday. Opening ceremonies took place on Sunday night with a huge drive-in party and concert with Craig Morgan (a caution flagger here growing up, turned country music superstar, and now re-enlisted in the U.S. Army at the age of 57!) followed by practice all day long on Monday. It was hot and muggy, and the track was rough as hell, just the way it's supposed to be. Racing got started on Tuesday morning and the goal was to run 7:30 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. every day, and then the crowning of 36 different 2023 AMA Amateur National Motocross Champions. What could go wrong, right?

Weather is always the great equalizer in motocross, but we're past that right now. I've been to some mudders in my lifetime. For instance, there was the '98 MXoN at Foxhills, '97 High Point National (won by Damon Bradshaw and the late Scott Sheak), the Ironman National round of AMA Motocross every other year, Loretta Lynn's '85 and '95 when we had to go down to two motos, and the second Loretta Lynn's Pro Motocross national in 2020, the last big rain we had here at the Ranch during a race). All were struggles for the riders, the parents, the mechanics, the officials, the media, but it's the nature of the sport. Everyone loves the occasional good mudder, but they also can become true slogs—especially when the track becomes impassible. We're almost at that point right now, as the rain continues to fall. It wiped out seven hours of motos yesterday, stopped long enough to get 11 motos in before dark, having cut them down to 15 minutes each. Last night we had the proverbial cats-and-dogs level rain, with thunder and lightning, and we were waiting once again this morning. Everyone is studying the weather radar, waiting for the right time to pierce the rolled-in seal that was put on it last night with tractors, because we are expecting more rain tomorrow morning. If we're lucky, we will get in all of the second set of motos today, including the four Junior Mini classes (51cc and e-Bikes). Tomorrow, weather permitting, everyone will get in their third moto, but they will be shorter, and they will also be run under the threat of more rain. And racing on Sunday is really not an option—a lot of people have very long trips to get home for work/school/life...

So the decision was made to cut the Pee-Wee classes down to two motos, by the AMA and MX Sports, with input from the folks at Cobra, Yamaha, and the KTM Group, who worried that they would not have the spare parts to get all of 168 kids over those four classes to the gate for the third moto, after what everyone expected to be a very difficult second moto. Plus, it's calling for rain again tomorrow morning. Needless to say, that did not go over well with many of the parents. A meeting was called by the Pee-Wee parents for everyone to gather at the MX Sports trailer at 11 a.m. to voice their displeasure with the decision, their suggestions in figuring out a different schedule, and their hopes that everyone reconsider and try to get the third set of Pee-Wee motos in. Some very good points were made (and some rather abrasive comments as well) and ultimately the decision was made to try to get a third moto in for those four classes at the end of the program tomorrow. (Why the end, you ask? With the soil being so loamy and wet, deep ruts form here even in moderately wet conditions. When it's a true mudder, you can expect it to be downright impossible for the little bikes without taking time to smooth things out in the trouble spots.) That's the way things work here-lots of passions, lots to consider, lots of unexpected weather, be it super-hot, super wet, or just super—and everyone wants the chance to do their best in the biggest race of all in amateur motocross. Ultimately motos are shortened across the board, so it's an equal give-and-take for all of the riders, regardless of their class, age or level.

Finally, around 1 p.m. local time today, we got the bikes out on the track again after the track crew did a remarkable job of moving mud and water off of it after another night/morning of heavy rain. As a matter of fact you can watch it right now on racertv.com on our YouTube page. Most of our Racer X staff are here working in some capacity of another (well, except for Steve Matthes, who doesn't really do amateurs, but he did spend some time this week talking to Eli Tomac, as you will read below). Weege and Kellen Brauer are helping out in the announcers' tower, Tommy Tenders is filming, Matty Rice is running around doing social media, and I am mostly stuck out on the infield helping out, so forgive us for having a shorter Racerhead than normal during this slight summer break for AMA Pro Motocross, but a huge week for amateur motocross. We'll be back at full force for Unadilla next week as Jett Lawrence continues inching towards that perfect summer (six motos to go) and his brother Hunter tries to hold off Haiden Deegan... Hard to believe Deegan was a Schoolboy/B rider here just one year ago.

Check out our race recaps from each day below:

Check out some video recaps from so far this week:

Tune in to today's racing live to see the conditions everyone at the Ranch is dealing with.

TOMAC BACK (Matthes)

"I was very close to hanging it up. Very close. At first I was totally pissed, and then I was just angry at the world, angry at everything. That was my first thought. Then it was disbelief. Then I was kind of over it. I accomplished a lot of things, and do I really need to do any more? That’s what was going through my head. Then it turned into, I don't want to end my career like this. I feel like I still can do this, and I have the confidence and I have enough time to get back to being healthy to try to make another run at what I had going, which was leading a series. So, what it really came down to was I just did not want to finish my career rolling off the track with my foot hanging off the side of my bike."

That was the reason Eli Tomac gave me as to why he was coming back in 2024 and what a win it is for the fans of SX to see him back after his disastrous injury at the Denver Supercross. Eli confirmed that it's a SX-only deal with a MX/SMX option like he had this year (and one he was going to exercise before the injury). There's nothing left for Tomac to prove in the sport, he's an all-timer if he didn't come back and anything he does or doesn't do in 2024 isn't going to change that. But having said that, Eli told me that he thinks he can get right back to his old level and this injury isn't as devastating for a dirt bike racer as it would be for a basketball player for example. He is going to get back on a bike November 1st which is a bit later than he usually would, one would think, but it's also the time that Aldon Baker begins his bootcamp time with his guys. 

You can listen more about what Eli thought about what caused his injury, thoughts on Jett Lawrence's MX season, and more in the podcast.

Hey, Watch It!

Vital MX did a cool video on the Keefers ahead of Loretta Lynn's:
What Does Loretta Lynn's Mean to You | Aden and Kris Keefer

GoPro: Loretta's is THIS ROUGH Last Moto of the Day

Dave Thorpe was one of the top Grand Prix racers of the 1980s, as well as the last of the great 500cc riders in the FIM Motocross World Championship. Here's a video on a his career, which saw him notch three 500cc world titles:

2023 Loretta Lynn's Thursday Mud Motos Raw | Racer X Films