Welcome to the Scott Sports 20-Day Countdown to the 2024 the Monster Energy AMA Amateur National Motocross Championship at Loretta Lynn’s Ranch. This will mark the 43rd year that the world’s biggest amateur motocross race takes place in Hurricane Mills, Tennessee, and while the sport and the event itself have evolved considerably since that first year in 1982, the one thing that remains is the fact that a win at the ranch makes each rider a true AMA Amateur National Motocross Champion for that year. Over the course of the first 42 years of this competition, there have been 1,337 different championships claimed, across all categories. There are many ways to categorize all those championships—by individuals, by brands, by two-strokes or four-strokes—but for the Scott Sports Countdown this year, we’re going to do it by states.
It’s probably no surprise that motocross-rich states like California, Florida, Texas, Michigan, etc.—have the higher numbers here, but what about the smaller, less densely populated ones? And what about other countries’ riders that show up in the winner’s circle? Using the Loretta Lynn’s Vault of Results, we are going to begin by listing the states with less than five total LL titles to their credit.
We will start at the very bottom, and work our way up. There are six states that have yet to win a title at Loretta Lynn’s: North Dakota, South Dakota, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Maine and Vermont. All are in the northern part of the country, all are on the lower counts in population.
There is one state with just one Loretta Lynn’s championship: Delaware. This needs some qualifying though as longtime Loretta Lynn’s contender Katie Benson was born there but eventually moved to South Carolina, but we’re going to list her 2020 Girls (11-16) title as Delaware’s one and only!
There are five different states with two titles to show: Alaska, Arkansas, Hawaii, Mississippi, and Montana. We’ll start with the most remote of those states: Hawaii’s two titles came in 2022 when Haiku’s Ryan Bell swept the 250 C classes, while Alaska goes back to the early ‘00s when Anchorage’s Ben LaMay won a 65cc and an 85cc title. As far as Arkansas goes, their titles were earned by Ashdown’s David Mitchell (’88 250 C) and Bentonville’s Terren O’Dell (’03 Supermini). Montana’s titles were claimed by Whitehall’s Levi Newby (’15 250 C) and Bozeman’s Cameron Horner (’20 350 C).
As far as Mississippi goes, one would imagine new AMA Motorcycle Hall of Famer Kevin Windham’s eight titles coming up would count, but K-Dub was living in Louisiana growing up. (Hopefully, his Farm 14 riding facility in Centerville will produce some homegrown titles in the near future.) So the only two for Mississippi are Picayune’s Ashley Wheat (’00 Girls 12-15) and Purvis resident Glen Myatt (’09 Vet B/C +30).
Despite having produced AMA Supercross winners like Justin Brayton, Chad Pederson and Cameron McAdoo, Iowa has just three LL titles: Two by Fort Dodge’s Pederson (’88) and one by Cody Gilmore (’03).
Wisconsin also has three AMA Amateur National Motocross Championships from Loretta Lynn’s, posted by three different riders: Kenosha’s Kody Kamm (’04 65cc), Beldonville’s Wyatt McGrath (’14 51cc 4-6), and most recently Appleton’s Carter Biese, who topped the 125cc B/C (12-16) in 2017.
Wyoming is next on the list with three titles: Sundance’s Gracie Van Horn captured the Women’s 14+ class in 2015, and more recently Alpine’s Sawyer Gieck won the 51cc (7-8) Limited in ’21 and the 65cc (7-9) in ’22.
Finally, there are two states with four titles to show over the years, Connecticut and Nebraska. Gene Naumec may have moved to Florida to pursue his professional racing career but he hailed from Columbia, Connecticut and won two Open A titles (1990, ’91) as an amateur. New Canaan’s Wilson Fleming relocated to Cairo, Georgia for training but got his home state a 450 B title in 2016, and two years later Wilton’s Joe Tait topped the College (18-24) division.
As for Nebraska, three of its four titles came from one Denny Stephenson, one of the top prospects in the country in the 1980s. Riding for Kawasaki Team Green he won two in ’86 (125 Schoolboy Stock and Mod) and one in ’88 (250 A Modified), then went onto to become a Suzuki factory rider and the 1990 AMA 125 East Supercross title. Nebraska’s other champion? Blair’s Brody Jones, who just last year won the Micro 1 (4-6) Shaft Drive class.
Those are all of the states in the U.S. that have less than five total titles over the years at Loretta Lynn’s. In tomorrow’s Scott Sports Loretta Lynn’s Countdown, we will be looking outside these 50 states for the next batch of champions.
