This weekend Ohio’s Crow Canyon Mx Park in the beautiful Mountains of Ohio hosted the last Mid East Loretta Lynn Qualifier. This meaning the last chance in the Mid East to have a shot of making it to the big show in July at the ranch. With over 400 riders in attendance it was a great weekend of racing with great battles and hardships. It rained real early Saturday morning, but not enough to cause any damage as it actually helped the track conditions. We had a near perfect track all day Saturday because of all the rain that morning the track didn’t start drying out until the end of the day. Saturday evening a quick storm came through for about an hour giving us some good rainfall, but we weren’t complaining because we knew it was only going to help the track on Sunday and that it did. With the track workers disking the track and watering every few moto’s it gave us a nice track with some gnarly ruts at the end of the day. With some of the biggest names on the circuit showing up it was an awesome weekend and this is how it all went down.



Florida’s own Justin Starling made the trip up to Ohio to get qualified in the Mid East. His mom Stephanie drives, cooks, and signs Justin up but since it’s just the two of them Justin goes to the line solo, but he seems to have no problem with it. Saturday was the Starling show in the Intermediate classes. Justin won all four moto’s he raced in and he didn’t just win them. He dominated them. At the end of each moto he had a big gap in between him and second place. Justin has really stepped it up since we last seen him and I am sure he will be bringing his A game to the national this summer. 

When you look at the number 95 on a Suzuki in the pro class this weekend you would have thought that for a second that it was Darryn Durham. However, his younger brother Shane Durham has taken over Darryn’s spot on his Suzuki’s since he went pro. Shane reminds you of a younger Darryn in his riding style and his personality. He’s not afraid to take risk and lay it all on the line, yet he has fun while doing it.  Shane pulled the holeshot in the first pro moto of the weekend in the 450 A class on Saturday and never looked back. He had some of the fastest names on the circuit chasing him: Lowell Spangler, Mike Mcdade, Drew Yenerich, and many other fast local guys but that didn’t bother Shane one bit as he rode a solid race to the finish. In the second moto he didn’t get the holeshot and had to come threw the field, which he did very well, passing Lowell Spangler for second on the last lap giving Shane the overall for the day with a  1-2. Shane is getting faster everyday and I wouldn’t be surprised to see him open up a lot of eye’s come time for Loretta’s in July. 

On Sunday the pro class was all about Twin County’s Mike Mcdade and Team Green’s Lowell Spangler. These two had some great battles every moto. Lowell won the first 450 A/Pro Sport Moto, but after that Mike and his flannel shirt decided to lead the way in every moto. Lowell put on some hard charges though and in the last moto of the day, 250 A/Pro Sport, they battled the entire race. Right at the end when you thought Mike had it in the bag, on the last lap, Lowell got a burst of speed and pulled up right beside Mike going up the huge step up right before the finish. Lowell couldn’t quite pull it off though as they went over the finish line side by side with Mike’s front wheel crossing the checkered first. Both guys were great sports about it all and they gave the crowd some good clean racing. We can’t wait to see these two square up with all the other big boys in July at Loretta’s.

Pennsylvania’s Ryan Clites made the trip over to Ohio to take home a 1-1 in the 85 (12-13) Stock class. Him and his bright yellow Suzuki were railing this Ohio track like it was their own. I have never seen this kid before, but he showed some great speed and skill on the track Saturday. It will be fun to see how he sizes up to everyone at the Regional.

“Lil Donkey” is what he goes by but his real name is Tyler Kirschner from Columbia, Maryland. Tyler is one of the coolest ten year olds you will meet and he’s got some good skills on a dirt bike too. He won every 65cc (10-11) class this weekend going 1-1 in every race. He also ride’s an 85 in the 9-11 class and even though he’s small on the bike he can muscle it around pretty good. On Saturday he took the overall in the 85 (9-11) Stock class with a 2-1 over Alexander Frye’s 1-3.

Alexander Frye is making quite a name for himself in the motocross world and he continued to do so this weekend. He only raced a few classes at this qualifier, but the motos he did race he won all except one. Sunday he rode a near flawless race in the 85 (9-11) Mod class when he went 1-1 for the overall. This kid has four national championships under his belt and as the years go on I’m sure he will have many more titles to his credit.

The number 14 Yamaha of Kameron Paige, and the number 38 Ktm of Michael Mahaffey traded wins in the Super Mini 2 (14-16) class. Both fairly local boys they knew the track very well and it showed as they battled it out. As Kameron had a bobble and went down in moto 1 Michael took advantage of that and took an easy win. But in moto two it was battle as they both started out front and battled till the end. But it was Page who took the win, but it didn’t get him the overall since Michael finished second and Kameron had a third in moto one. However, Kameron rebounded in the Super Mini 1 (12-16) class and took the overall with a 1-1 moto finish. Kameron also got the overall on Sunday in the Schoolboy 1 (12-16) class.

The number 144 machine of Brock Papi from Pennsylvania had a solid weekend. He rode great and showed great potential as he took the win in the 51 (7-8) Stock 2 class. He was followed by Shawn Rothstein in second and JD Myers in third.