In today’s Scott Sports’ Countdown, we reach the ninth-best state ever at Loretta Lynn’s Ranch when it comes to titles earned in the annual the AMA Amateur National Motocross Championship. We’ve been going through all 50 states (and some other countries and territories) adding up which ones have the most championships at the ranch, going back to 1982. All told, there have been 1,336 championships won at the ranch, and today we reach the state with a hefty haul of 35 total titles, Pennsylvania.
Kittanning’s Broc Hepler and Fombell’s Branden Jesseman each grew up riding Suzuki RM80s and 125s for Johnstown-based Jeff Cernic’s Cernic’s Racing. Each won multiple titles at the ranch—four for Hepler and two for Jesseman—and they even each won 85cc titles in the same year (1997), and their teammate from Maryland, Travis Pastrana, also won a title that same race! All three went straight to factory Suzuki rides, and all three won 125SX races, with Pastrana (2000) and Jesseman (’03) winning 125SX East Region titles. Hepler did not win a title, but he did win a handful of Pro Motocross nationals in both classes as well.
Before that group emerged in the late ‘90s, there was Duncansville’s Jeff Glass, Slatington’s Dag Boysen, and Kutztown’s Fred Vertucci, who all went pro for many years, then returned to Loretta Lynn’s to race in the vet classes, where all three contributed titles to the Keystone State’s overall haul. So did Jimmy Evans of Elizabeth, who won a pair of Junior +25 titles in the early ‘00s. And afterwards came Darryn Durham of Butler. He won the 250 A/Pro Sport title in 2008 and would eventually land a ride with Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki, for whom he would win the New Orleans SX one year.
Wait, there’s yet another SX winner from Pennsylvania that also won a title at Loretta Lynn’s growing up—Bainbridge’s Seth Hammaker—and ended up winning as a pro, and with Mitch Payton’s Pro Circuit team as well. Hammaker won the Supermini title in 2016 and then in ’21 won one of the Arlington 250SX rounds in Monster Energy AMA Supercross. (Hammaker is still on the team, but out with an injury most of this summer.)
Another Cernic’s Racing Suzuki kid was Gene Stull of Gibsonia. He won a 65cc title in ’95 (aboard a Kawasaki) and then got on his RM80 and won another in ’98. Also, Mifflinburg’s Damien Plotts took a couple of A class titles in the ‘90s, both before (1992) and during (’99) his time racing on the professional circuit. And we absolutely cannot forget the “Marlboro Man” from Pittsburgh, Ray Niebel, who on the Senior +40 class in 2007.
Stefy Bau actually hails from Italy, but at the time she won her WMX title in 2001, she had moved to the U.S. and was living in Broomall, Pennsylvania. And here are some honorable mentions to local friends Shannon Rhoades of Washington, Pennsylvania (’92 Open B/C) and Brock Papi of Venetia (450 B in 2017).
Looking at more recent winners from Pennsylvania, there’s Midlands’ Luke Fauser, who has four titles between 2016 and ’20) and Gavin Towers, also from Venetia, won the 250 Pro Sport just last year. Fauser and Towers used to train together and then landed on the Foxborough SX Futures podium together a few months back in April.
Next, it’s time for another tie between neighbors: North Carolina and Tennessee!
