Brandon Clarke
Welcome to Thursday from the 2026 AMA Amateur National Motocross Championship at Loretta Lynn’s. We will be providing updates from the first day of racing all day. Will we have every class? No, no we will not. Will we have a bunch of classes? Yes, yes we will.
You can follow live timing and scoring on the Vurbmoto Prospect app (it is free, go download it). Download on the App Store or Google Play.
Note: This post will continue to update throughout the day.
250 B
If you thought the 250 B title fight was starting to sort itself out… think again.
Caleb Wood ripped the holeshot and wasted no time throwing down with Tristan Prueitt in the opening laps. The two traded blows early, but once Prueitt found his way to the front, that was pretty much all she wrote. He dropped the hammer and rode off into the distance, eventually taking the win by nearly eight seconds.
Behind him, the real fireworks were just getting started.
Dane Papas finally found himself digging out of another less-than-ideal start. After spending most of the week making life harder than it needed to be off the gate, Papas charged from seventh all the way to second. He inherited the spot after Brennan Harrison, who had been running P2, hit the ground. Harrison’s would go down again which was costly dealing a serious blow to his overall championship hopes.
The battle for the final podium spot belonged to Ryder Skodras and Tanner Dorman. The two went at it until Dorman finally found a way around late in the moto, stealing third while Skodras settled for fourth. Even with the loss of a position, Dorman leaves the day sitting atop the overall standings heading into the final moto.
Tomi Doble quietly put together another solid ride, bringing it home in fifth.
Unfortunately, the biggest storyline of the moto wasn’t about who finished, it was about who didn’t.
Championship contender Grayson Townsend went down hard and appeared to suffer a shoulder injury. He was taped up afterward, but all signs point toward his 2026 Loretta Lynn’s Amateur National coming to an early end. It’s a brutal way to see one of the class favorites exit the week.
Womens
Piper Bell grabbed the holeshot, but it didn’t take long for Jordan Jarvis to make her move. Jarvis worked her way into the lead within the opening laps and once she got there, she was gone. She put on another dominant ride, checking out on the field and never looking back.
Behind her, Hannah Hodges was on the charge. After starting fourth, Hodges methodically picked riders off and worked her way into second.
Moto 1 winner Mayla Herrick looked like she had the pace to battle for another podium, but early in the race it became obvious something wasn’t right with her bike. She appeared to have issues with ther throttle allowing Lilly-Ann Pettus to get around her and set her sights on Hodges.
Pettus closed the gap and the two battled for a few corners before lapped traffic became the deciding factor. That’s always one of the challenges in the Women’s class, where the open format means plenty of traffic late in the moto. Pettus got tangled up with a lapped rider, tipped over in a rut, and handed third place right back to Herrick.
Despite nursing a bike that looked down on power for much of the moto, Herrick was able to get around Hodges who got her back right at the line with a photo finish, salvaging a third at the checkers, while Pettus regrouped to finish fourth.
Jarvis took the Moto 2 win over Hodges, with Herrick hanging on for third and Pettus finishing fourth.
Heading into the final moto, Herrick sits second overall, Hodges moves into third overall, and Pettus finds herself sixth in the championship despite showing podium speed. If today’s moto proved anything, it’s that behind Jarvis, this class is anything but settled.
Supermini 1 (12-15)
There was no shortage of drama from the drop of the gate. Easton Graves grabbed the early lead and looked ready to disappear, but a small mistake in line selection ended with him tipping over and nearly going over the bars. That was all the invitation Jackson Vick needed as he slipped into the lead.
Graves wasn’t done, though. He immediately turned the pressure back up on Vick, and while those two were busy battling, Maddox Temmerman quietly closed the gap and made it a three-rider fight for the win.
The trio traded momentum all moto long, each taking turns looking like the fastest rider on the track. Another mistake from Graves allowed Temmerman to slip into second, and before long he and Vick were throwing haymakers at each other for the lead.
Then came the ultimate equalizer: lapped traffic.
Vick got held up first, opening the door for Temmerman to sneak by. It looked like Temmerman had timed it perfectly and was about to ride off with the win. But just a few corners later, he found himself bottled up behind another lapped rider, caught a rut, and tipped over.
Just like that, Vick inherited the lead once again. This time he made it count, keeping his composure over the final laps to ride away with the Moto 2 victory.
If Moto 2 taught us anything, it’s this: nobody has this thing locked up. With everything still on the line, Moto 3 has all the ingredients to be one of the best races of the week.
65cc (7-9)
Gage Villopoto ripped the holeshot, and for a brief moment it felt like that famous last name was right back where it belongs, out front at Loretta’s.
That lead didn’t last long. Kameron Buckman wasted no time making the pass, and setting the fastest laps of the race, and from there put together a calm, controlled ride all the way to the checkered flag.
Behind him, though, the opening laps were absolute chaos.
Robert Fender went down whole in the top 3 hunt and found himself buried all the way back in 20th. Crashes, stalled bikes, and constant position changes had the leaderboard looking like a slot machine. If you were following live timing, there was a good chance you ended up dizzy trying to keep track of who was where.
Once the dust finally settled, Buckman had control of the race with Boone Lloyd and Barrett Counts in pursuit. With two laps to go, Counts got aggressive, knifing across the ruts to make the pass on Lloyd and steal second.
Meanwhile, Fender was putting together one of the rides of the moto. After his early crash, he absolutely hit the turbo button, charging from 20th all the way to eighth before giving up one position late to finish ninth. It wasn’t the result he wanted, but the comeback was enough to salvage fourth overall.
Dillon Chipman and Rylie Gall rounded out the top five, while Buckman leaves Moto 2 looking every bit like the rider to beat.
Schoolboy 1 (12-17)
For the first half of this moto, it felt like déjà vu.
Noxx Lewin grabbed the early lead, with Chase Moynihan tucked into second and Hudson Vagele running third, which was the exact same order as Moto 1. It looked like the script had already been written. But just as the race started to settle in, Lewin went down, handing the lead to Moynihan and moving Vagele into second.
Vagele wasn’t interested in riding home for another runner-up finish. He went on the attack.
Vagele closed the gap, made the pass on Moynihan, and never looked back, riding it all the way to the checkered flag for the Moto 2 victory. Moynihan settled for second, while Lewin recovered from the crash to salvage third.
The ride of the moto, however, belonged to Gauge Brown. After starting dead last, Brown absolutely “dodge, duck, dip, dive, and dodged” his way from 38th making 34 passes through the field to finish fourth. It’s a comeback ride that shows exactly how much speed he has.
Unfortunately, a DNF in Moto 1 means he’s out of the overall picture, but don’t be surprised if he’s the wildcard in Moto 3 that shakes up the results for our contenders.
Open Pro Sport
More drama than an episode of The Real Housewives.
It looked like we were about to get a repeate of the classic old-school showdown between Phil Nicoletti and Zach Osborne. They put on a clinic out front in the opening laps. Behind them, though, riders were dropping left and right, and the race was already turning into survival of the fittest.
Then the script flipped.
Nicoletti spun out on the backside of a double, coming to a stop right in the middle of the racing line. As riders flew toward him, he was waving his arms like an airport marshaller, trying to keep everyone from turning him into a speed bump. Not sure if his bike survived, but a few moments later we saw Nicoletti getting towed back to the pits after his bike called it a day.
With Nicoletti out, the attention shifted to the charge coming from Ryder Malinoski.
After starting deep in the pack, Malinoski put on a passing clinic, slicing by 14 riders on his way to third. His charge included passes on Carson Wood and Kade Johnson, turning what looked like a forgettable moto into a podium finish.
Up front, however, Landon Gibson had other plans. After catching Osborne, Gibson wasted little time making the pass and then absolutely disappeared. Once he got clean air, he dropped the hammer and rode away to a dominant Moto win.
Girls (11-16)
This one was Hannah Jamison’s from the moment the gate dropped… although she gave everyone a little heart attack on the final lap.
Jamison was in complete control, stretching her lead to more than 16 seconds before tucking the front in the closing stages of the moto. It was one of those moments where your heart rate spikes, but she was back on the bike in a hurry, still crossing the finish line with an 11-second cushion.
Behind her, Tinley McCoy put together exactly the kind of race championship contenders love. She got a great start, stayed out of trouble, and rode a smooth, mistake-free moto to second.
Zoe Moore crossed the line in third after riding her own race, while Jasey Rae Jones and Kelsey Harris rounded out the top five.
One thing that’s become pretty clear in this class: consistency is king. The top eight riders have been remarkably steady, and after Moto 2, the finishing order is exactly how the overall standings stack up heading into the final moto.
