In the second part of our Before Loretta’s project, we look at the uneven history of the AMA Youth/Minicycle Nationals in the 1970s and early ’80s

WORDS: DAVEY COOMBS
PHOTOS: RACER X ARCHIVES

SINCE THE SUMMER OF 1982, the AMA Amateur National Motocross Championship has brought together the nation’s best amateur, youth, and vet riders at Loretta Lynn Ranch for a weeklong competition that usually runs like a well-oiled machine. But in the years before Loretta Lynn’s, the youth and amateur classes were split into different programs, each of which held a championship final at a different track each year. The races were fun, though they weren’t always successful.