Welcome to Weekly Dirt, where the Dirt Rider staff brings you the latest in news from the world of off-road. This week we’ve got news from Ponca City, Loretta Lynn’s and from the world of EnduroCross!
Justin Bogle is just one of many amateurs to gradate from the Ponca City ranks and graduate to the Pros. Photo by Shan Moore.
For the next two weeks, hundreds of amateur racers will be going bar to bar in two of the biggest amateur motocross races on the planet: the Ponca City Amateur Nationals (Oklahoma) and Loretta Lynn’s Amateur Championships. Ponca is in full swing this week, and at the same time another amateur race, the NMA Grand Nationals, which used to run at Ponca, is running just about a 100 miles south in Norman, Oklahoma. It’s a long story, but basically the NMA event, which was the original Ponca City race, decided for whatever reason to move to a new track south of Oklahoma City. Well, the local AMBUCS organization in Ponca City, which helped run that race for years, didn’t want to lose the revenue that the race generated for the community of Ponca City, so they brought in a race promoter from Texas to run a competing championship on the old track. The Ponca City race is now AMA sanctioned, while the Norman race (the old Ponca promoter) is sanctioned by the NMA. Whew! The new Ponca race now wraps up on Thursday, instead of Saturday, so that the racers have a little more time to get to Hurricane Mills, Tennessee, for the start of the Loretta Lynn’s race.
Ricky Carmichael will be throwing a leg over a bike next week, competing in the 25+ class at Loretta Lynn’s. Photo by Shan Moore.
Speaking of Loretta Lynn’s, Rick Carmichael will be race Loretta’s this year in the 25+ class, which should be interesting. Even though this is considered amateur racing, the 25+ class at Loretta’s is serious business, with a lot of very capable guys competing for the honors. RC is fresh off of his RC University in England and he says he is excited about racing Loretta’s in a “no stress” situation. We’ll see just how laid-back Ricky is once he hits the track.
Of course, Loretta Lynn’s is the granddaddy of amateur motocross, and over the years it has been the launching point of many illustrious Pro career, and this year’s event should be no different. Dirt Rider’s Shan Moore will be at LL this year to bring you updates on all the action.
Do you want to get riding tips from the Factory KTM EnduroCross Riders? Last year, KTM introduced the KTM EnduroCross Experience and Taddy Blazusiak and Mike Brown provided hands on lessons for amateur riders on how to tackle the gnarly obstacles that make up a typical GEICO EnduroCross course. For both the Denver, Colorado and Boise, Idaho events, the first 20 KTM riders to enter the amateur classes will receive a FREE one hour riding session courtesy of KTM on the Friday before the race.
“Watching Mike Brown and Taddy Blazusiak break down each section of the track for the KTM riders was really cool” stated Lance Bryson, Director of Sales and Marketing for EnduroCross. “The feedback from the riders that participated last year was amazing so we really want to thank KTM for offering this up at two new cities for 2012” Bryson continued.
You can find out more at www.EnduroCross.com. Follow the links to register for the race and then click the KTM EnduroCross Experience button. You do need to be entered in one of the amateur classes to be eligible.
For more information on the TV Coverage, check your local listings or www.motorsportshour.com.
For more information on EnduroCross, go to www.EnduroCross.com.
Mike Alessi finally got a moto win in Washougal. Photo by Shan Moore.
The Lucas Oil AMA Pro Motocross series is now on a two-week break before resuming action at Southwick, Massachusetts, on August 11th. Last weekend’s round at Washougal was an interesting one, with Mike Alessi finally getting a moto win on his MotoConcepts Suzuki after holding off current points leader Ryan Dungey at the finish in a very exciting opening 450 moto. Roger DeCoster must have lit a fire under Dungey before the second moto, because the Red Bull KTM rider grabbed the second moto holeshot and took off like a scalded cat, leaving Alessi and the rest of the troops behind.
As usual, the 250 class provided the most exciting racing, with Blake Baggett having a rougher-than-usual time of it in the first moto, eventually settling for a sixth place finish. The Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasaki got his act together in moto two, however, and ran down GEICO Powersports Honda’s Justin Barcia to take the moto win. Barcia still walked away with the overall win and inched closer to Baggett in the overall standings. For sure, this class is going down to the wire and it will be interesting to see how it plays out.
For more on the Washougal race, check out the video highlights on Motocross.com at http://www.motocross.com/features/washougal-video-highlights/ —Shan Moore
That’s all for this week, check in next week for more off-road news.
