The Scott Sports Countdown to Loretta Lynn’s AMA Amateur National Motocross Championships just grabbed another gear and a couple more tear-offs. We’re climbing up through the states with the most titles ever at the ranch, and today we’ve reached another interesting tie between states on opposite sides of the country, New Jersey and Arizona, each with 28 championships at the ranch going back to 1982.
With Raceway Park at Englishtown at its center, New Jersey has been a strong producer of fast talent across the board. Maple Shade’s Jordan Jarvis is the Garden State’s most prolific winner at Loretta Lynn’s with six championships over the years. Then, as a pro, she’s also gone on to get into the show against the men in AMA Pro Motocross, making her one of the fastest females of all time. There’s also Hewitt’s Luke Rezland with three titles, and more recently Shamong’s Klark Robbins with two, as well as Vorhee’s Pasquale Morrocco and Woodland’s Robert Weiss.
Back in the day Vineland’s Brian Carroll took the Four-Stroke title while racing in an American flag jersey. More recently there is Egg Harbor Township’s Canyon Richards, now a top GNCCer as well, and recent pros Brandon Hartranft of Brick and Joey Peters of Asbury. And way back in 1983 Gillette’s Ray Sommo snagged a title in the highly competitive 85cc 14-15 class before embarking on a long professional career.
The most famous—or infamous—of New Jersey riders is of course Jason Lawrence, the living, breathing cautionary tale of moto. If you know J-Law, you know he’s a good guy who got a little lost on the way to the top; if you don’t know J-Law, you think he’s the poster boy for someone who had talent to burn, so he went out and burned it. Either way, you have to be stoked with the comeback he’s made this year to line up once again at the ranch, albeit on the backside of a coulda/woulda/shoulda professional career. Jason Lawrence should be one of the more interesting stories of LLMX ’24 and we wish him well, we’re glad he’s back.
As far as Arizona goes, they too have produced fast talent across the board as well as the years. Phoenix native Jimmy Button was prolific as a young man at the ranch, winning six titles on his very cool Honda support 65s, 85s, and 125s. As professional career did not quite work out the way many thought it would, but he did win AMA 125 SX races as well as a 250 National at Washougal in ’99, and raced all over the world before a serious neck injury at the ’00 San Diego SX cut his racing career short. But in his post-racing career he and his good friend Bob Moore, himself a Loretta Lynn’s alumni and the 1994 FIM 125cc World Motocross Champion, started Road 2 Recovery, a charitable foundation that continues to help their fellow riders in their time of need.
Future ’93 AMA 125 Supercross Champion Jimmy Gaddis also hailed from Phoenix and won as a kid at Loretta Lynn’s, as did future multi-race 125 SX winner and title contender David Pingree (though he also had roots in Montana). And like his friend Button, Litchfield Park’s Shaun Kalos had a Honda factory ride as a kid and posted a couple of Loretta Lynn’s titles himself in 1984.
More recent prospects from the Grand Canyon State with LLMX titles include current Red Bull KTM factory racer JuJu Beaumer and Brandy Richards, both of Lake Havasu City, Scottsdale’s Jeremy Fappani and Clarksdale’s Cole Martinez. There’s also Surprise’s Jon Ames and Scottsdale’s Chase Haynes, who each have two titles. And here’s a shout-out to longtime pro and forever fast guy Michael Blose, another Phoenix resident with multiple Loretta Lynn’s titles.
