The 2023 Monster Energy AMA Amateur National Motocross Championship at Loretta Lynn’s Ranch may have run under mostly gloomy conditions, but that didn’t stop everyone from shining.

COMPILED BY DAVEY COOMBS
PHOTOS: ALIGN MEDIA

If there’s one thing we’ve learned in the 42 years since the AMA Amateur National Motocross Championship started being held each summer at Loretta Lynn’s Ranch in Hurricane Mills, Tennessee, it’s that in all likelihood there will be a day or two of rain and mud. The first week of August in that part of the country makes even the most optimistic of weather-watchers ready to reach for their umbrellas. The ’23 version of this week-long race saw not one or two rainy days, but almost all of them. After a dry start for Monday’s practice and Tuesday’s early motos, rain clouds started gathering west of Memphis and were soon dumping rain on the Ranch, turning the normally hot and rough track into a mostly muddy mess. After several delays to a program that normally works like clockwork, the starting gates started dropping (and splashing) again. In the end all 36 classes got all three motos in, albeit slightly shorted (and, in the case of the four 51cc minicycle classes, an abbreviated track).