PRENTISS, MS

The famous line from the 1989 film Field of Dreams - "If you build it, they will come" - may be true for baseball, but in motocross a more appropriate phrase would be, "If you build it and add a Loretta Lynn Regional Championship, they will come." Riders flocked to small, quiet Prentiss, Mississippi, to find a beast of a motocross track. One rider was overheard saying, "We thought we were coming to a regional track, not a National track."

Mother Nature unleashed some heat and humidity, pushing the heat index into triple-digit territory. Then she threw in a nasty dose of rain on Saturday afternoon to make Sunday morning's motos a mudder. At the Loretta Lynn Ranch, you're usually guaranteed a mud moto, a great-track moto, and brutally hot temperatures, so what better way to prepare for the 29th annual Loretta Lynn AMA Amateur Motocross Championship than tackling the same three variables at an Amateur Regional?

Riders from the deep South were well represented (considering this was their back yard), but so were riders from the Midwest, East Coast and West Coast.

New Mexico's Jason Anderson (above), Oklahoma's Robbie Reynard, Georgia's Gannon Audette and Louisiana's Lance Vincent were all on hand. Reynard pulled the trigger in 450 A Pro Sport contest, though Anderson won two of the three motos. Anderson swept the 450 A class, winning all three motos. But of these four riders and the four A classes, Audette was the only one consistent enough to capture two overall victories, in the 250 A and 250 A Pro Sport classes. The clash of the weekend was in the 250 A Pro Sport class, which pitted Vincent, Anderson and Audette together, and they dogged each other throughout all three motos.

Of the B-class title contenders, the name that bubbled to the top the most was that of Oklahoma' s Justin Bogle (891, above). He topped nine B-class motos, winning the 250 B Stock, 250 B Modified and 450 B Stock classes. The three 450 B Modified motos were swept by Floridian Justin Summers.

In the C division, Taylor Bassham won both the 250 C Stock and Modified classes, while his fellow Oklahoman Cody Conner won the 450 C class.

The South Central region has a handful of very strong Vet contenders, including Reynard, Trampas Parker and Bobby Handy. Reynard swept the Junior Over 25 class going away. Multiple-time World Champion Trampas Parker did the same in the Vet Over 40 class. There was talk during staging of a mandatory fuel stop for Trampas, just to level the playing field, but that was before everyone realized that he was racing his cross-country bike equipped with narrow bars, bark-busters, and an oversized gas tank. Other winners included Tennessee's Brandon Powers, in the Vet Over 30 B/C class; Texan Don Bisceglia, in the Vet Over 35 class; Scott Fredericksen, in the Senior Over 45 class; and Louisiana's Handy, in the Senior Over 50 class.

This was a sizzling prequel to what will surely be an outstanding August come Loretta Lynn time.

Results

250 A/PRO SPT: 1. Gannon Audette (Suzuki); 2. Jason Anderson (Kawasaki); 3. Lance Vincent (Honda); 4. Caleb Bertrand (Honda); 5. Michael Mims (Yamaha).

250 A: 1. Gannon Audette (Suzuki); 2. Lance Vincent (Honda); 3. Alex Millican (Yamaha); 4. Jesse Braden (Kawasaki); 5. Russell Potter Jr. (Yamaha).

250 B STK: 1. Justin Bogle (Kawasaki); 2. Zachary Jaynes (Yamaha); 3. Dawson Draycott (KTM); 4. Derek Ledbetter (Honda); 5. Jeremy Martin (Suzuki).

250 B MOD: 1. Justin Bogle (Kawasaki); 2. Jeremy Martin (Suzuki); 3. Dawson Draycott (KTM); 4. Krae Weldon (KTM); 5. Vann Martin (Honda).

250 C STK: 1. Taylor Bassham (Kawasaki); 2. Gilson Machtolff (Kawasaki); 3. Jaden Weisenberger (Honda); 4. Jordan Martin (Kawasaki); 5. Wiley Kinggard (Kawasaki).

250 C MOD: 1. Taylor Bassham (Kawasaki); 2. Jonah Cormier (Honda); 3. Wiley Kinggard (Kawasaki); 4. Jaden Weisenberger (Honda); 5. Tyler Juarez (Suzuki).

450 A/PRO SPT: 1. Robbie Reynard (Yamaha); 2. Jason Anderson (Kawasaki); 3. Alex Millican (Yamaha); 4. Caleb Bertrand (Honda); 5. John Moeller (Yamaha).

450 A: 1. Jason Anderson (Kawasaki); 2. Alex Millican (Yamaha); 3. John Moeller (Yamaha); 4. Michael Mims (Yamaha); 5. Nicholas Fisher (Honda).

450 B STK: 1. Justin Bogle (Kawasaki); 2. Sam Landry (Honda); 3. Zachary Jaynes (Yamaha); 4. Vann Martin (Honda); 5. Gregory Gehrer (Kawasaki).

450 B MOD: 1. Justin Summers (Kawasaki); 2. Brandon Glenn (Kawasaki); 3. Kyle Swanson (Yamaha); 4. Chad Crawford (Kawasaki); 5. McCoy Oldenburg (Yamaha).

450 C: 1. Cody Conner (Kawasaki); 2. Seth Beavers (KTM); 3. Gilson Machtolff (Yamaha); 4. Rob Copple (Kawasaki); 5. Jack Sigismondi (KTM).

CLGBY 17-24: 1. Kyle Swanson (Yamaha); 2. Brandon Glenn (Kawasaki); 3. Sam Landry (Honda); 4. Sean Sattanno (Honda); 5. Brendan Harp (Yamaha).

JR 25+: 1. Robbie Reynard (Suzuki); 2. Blake Keeton (Kawasaki); 3. Jason Doyle (Honda); 4. Glenn Hebert (Kawasaki); 5. Cory Brantley (Yamaha).

VET 30+ B/C: 1. Brandon Powers (Kawasaki); 2. Kevin Seamans (Kawasaki); 3. Robert Crews (Yamaha); 4. Cary Helton (KTM); 5. Aaron Barnes (Kawasaki).

VET 35+: 1. Don Bisceglia (Yamaha); 2. Glen Myatt (Kawasaki); 3. Brandon Powers (Kawasaki); 4. Aaron Barnes (Kawasaki); 5. Kerry Wisdom (Kawasaki).

SR 40+: 1. Trampas Parker (Yamaha); 2. Glen Myatt (Kawasaki); 3. Don Bisceglia (Yamaha); 4. Kerry Wisdom (Kawasaki); 5. Cary Helton (KTM).

SR 45+: 1. Scott Fredericksen (Kawasaki); 2. Jerry Ray (Kawasaki); 3. Stuart McAvoy (Honda); 4. Michael Blissard (Suzuki); 5. Bill Di Giorgio (KTM).

MSTR 50+: 1. Robert Handy (Suzuki); 2. Johnny Borders (Kawasaki); 3. William Perry (Yamaha); 4. Eddie Gentry (Honda); 5. John Huffman (Yamaha).