Photography: Kenny Lau

The 28th Annual South Central AMA Loretta Lynn Regional was hosted at Freestone Co. Raceway this past weekend. With the Lucas Oil Outdoor Championship making its way through the facility only one short week ago, rough track played a vital role in running up front all three motos this weekend.

The 250A class started off with Michael Wagner pulling a holeshot. In hot pursuit of Wagner, Sean Lipanovich quickly made the pass for the lead. As Lipanovich started to pull away out front, Minnesota’s Cody Lackore was making ground on Wagner, later securing a safe spot in second. Ryan Eppers put in a solid ride to earn third, while Wagner would take fourth in the first moto, but would later suffer a concussion during his other moto. Lipanovich took a three moto sweep, with Lackore going 2-3-2 for second overall and Eppers taking third. Kurtis Manderscheid, Tucker Saye, and John Hooper would round out qualifying position.

Domination. That would describe Honda of Houston’s Lance Vincent’s performance in the 250B classes. Vincent started off the 250B Stock class by pulling a holeshot, one of six for the weekend. Jason Langford made a hard charge to the front, picking off riders to finish the moto in second. The second moto would see Raimundo Trasolini, Jake Loberg and Edward Allingham in a three way battle. Trasolini would end up taking second, followed by Loberg in third. After Vincent holeshoted the third moto, the race was red flagged and restarted. Justin Summers, who had been around qualifying position both motos, went down hard before the sand whoops and was carted off. While he was unable to finish out the weekend, we are happy to report that he is O.K. and will be back in the saddle next weekend at Lake Whitney. The restart would be the first time Vincent had not pulled the holeshot but he would quickly make the pass on Allingham. New Mexico’s Coby Adair would run in the third position, battling with Allingham most of the race. The overall went to Vincent, followed by Trasolini, Adair in third and Loberg in fourth.

Oklahoma’s Johnny Marley showed he still has the speed to run out front in Texas as well. Marley, who has always gone fast, won five out of six motos, two of which where of 450A/Pro Sport. Ryan Eppers would catch Marley late in the first moto when Marley started to fade, while California’s Joey Rossi would take third. Second moto would be a different story. Marley would get out front early and never look back. Rossi settled into second and Vernon McKiddie would finish third. Convincingly, Marley took the overall, followed by Rossi in second, Mckiddie in third and Eppers in fourth.

Marley and Mckiddie also took the top two spots in the Junior 25 Plus class, followed by Ryan Haring and Chad Cook.

When Jacob Blomfield does not get a good start, he works his way through the pack with ease. That’s what took place in moto one of 4 Stroke. Jeremy Domingue holeshoted while Blomfield worked his way from just under the top ten to finish third. Meanwhile, Caleb Dowell, who has been under the radar lately, rode a strong race to finish second. The next moto would see the opposite. Blomfield would grab the holeshot, with Domingue in second. Dowell was not far behind. Domingue and Dowell would swap positions, but when the checkers flew, Blomfield would take the win, followed by Dowell, and Domingue in third. Beau Bentley, who stayed consistent, earned a third overall by staying top five in each moto. Nicholas Fisher put in a good effort to make qualifying position by getting third the last moto, with a sixth overall.

Jeremy Domingue, Jacob Blomfield and Coby Adair all shared positions in the 450 B Mod class. The first moto started with Blomfield smooth as glass and out front. Radford Mansfield followed in second, but was passed by Domingue and Adair later in the moto. They would finish in this order. Next moto, John Pauk ran in second, until Adair made a pass on him. Domingue would get around Pauk and Adair took advantage of Mansfield’s mistake in the sand whoops. With one lap to go, Blomfield would get around Mansfield, who was unable to finish, which we found out later in the day was due to bike issues. Mansfield’s day was cut short after a scary get off in a different moto, which destroyed his other bike. Domingue, who took the overall in 450B Stock, would finish second overall in 450B Mod. Adair took third and Pauk followed in fourth. Blomfield won the overall with a 1-3-2.

Standing on the infield of a Loretta Lynn Regional may have not been quite as exciting as watching the pros turn laps one short week ago, but when put into perspective, these are the stars of tomorrow and we feel honored to have been present to mark this day into the history books. Loretta’s is only a few short months away and we can’t wait to see how it all plays out.

Until then…