The first two days of the Rocky Mountain ATV/MC AMA Amateur National Motocross Championship, bring hot weather, heavy rain and intense competition.
The 2015 Rocky Mountain ATV/MC AMA Amateur National Motocross Championship officially got Tuesday at the historic Loretta Lynn Ranch in Hurricane Mills, Tennessee, and the action has been intense through the first two days of racing.
The first official gate drop on Tuesday was for the College (16-24) where Justin Cooper from Cold Spring Harbor, New York, became the week’s first winner. In the ensuing Junior (25+) moto, reigning class champion, Ricky Renner had to battle to defend his title from former World Champion Sebastian Tortelli, but Renner crossed the finish line for the win.
A crash in the in 250cc B first moto claimed several riders. Tanner Stack claimed the Bell Holeshot Award, but Team Green Kawasaki’s Austin Forkner roared into the lead. Behind him there was a battle brewing for the remaining podium positions. Josh Mosiman and Stack both made mistakes that cost them a shot at the podium. Forkner claimed first moto win, with Chase Sexton second and Sean Cantrell third.
The Open Pro Sport first moto featured many of the biggest names in amateur racing. Shelby Peterson jumped out to the early lead in the moto, but Chase Marquire quickly passed Peterson to move into first place. Egan Mastin, Jerry Robin, Ricky Renner and Cody Chisholm were all contenders in the moto, and Mastin actually took the lead and crossed the finish line first, only to be docked one position for jumping in a section where the red cross medical flag. Marshal Weltin was credited with the moto win, with Mastin and Benny second and third respectively.
Rodney Smith and Earl May picked right back up where they left in 2014 during the first 50+ Masters class moto. The pair fought neck-and-neck followed by Barry McCarty, Raymo0nd Niebel and Mark Harshman. May prevailed for the win, followed by Smith and McCarty.
The 65cc (7-9) Limited class proved to be exciting as Ryder Difrancesco pushed his way to the front after Chance Hymas claimed the holeshot. Nicholas Romano was also in the hunt, and he took over the lead when Difrancesco bobbled and crashed. Difrancesco was able to remount and make his way back into the lead, taking the win by two seconds. Romano was second, and Hymas was third.
Kai Mukai from Hawaii took the holeshot and early lead in 450cc B Limited, but he was quickly passed by a hard-charging Brandon Hartranft, who led the rest of the 20-minute moto and scored the win. Mukai was second, and Sam Wise was third.
The brand new Womens All-Star (16+) division made its debut at this year’s event with Kylie Fasnacht pulling the first-ever holeshot in the class. Multi-year National Title holder Jessica Patterson quickly moved upfront to lead the pack until Taylor Higgins was able to catch and pass Patterson. The lead then changed hands multiple times with the top names in female motocross vying for a place on the podium. When the smoke cleared, Australian star Mackenzie Tricker collected the win with Kirsten Raemisch second and Brandy Richards third.
Day two on Wednesday presented a challenge for the track crew after heavy rain on Tuesday night left the track a muddy mess. However, the crew was able to pull it together and create a racy track that upheld to Loretta Lynn’s standards.
By the time the 450cc A division made its way to the starting gate the track had really shaped up. Bradley Taft netted the Bell Holeshot Award, but Honda’s Tristan Charboneau quickly moved into the lead. Charboneau maintained a consistent gap over the field for the rest of the moto, coming home first ahead of Taft and Darian Sanayei.
The 450cc B class got underway with Austin Toskov leading the field through the first turn, but Jon Ames quickly took the lead. Richard Jackson moved into second place, but Jackson would make some mistakes, allowing Brandon Hartranft to capitalize and move into second place. Ames crossed the finish line 15 seconds ahead of Hartranft with Jackson hanging on for third place.
The future stars of motocross made their first appearance at the 2015 National in the 51cc classes with Haiden Deegan taking KTM to the top of the podium in the 51cc (7-8) Limited division, but Casey Cochran charged hard in second attempting to catch up but was unsuccessful and walked away with the next position. Parker Constable and Krystian Janik swapped positions constantly until the last lap when Janik fell back to seventh. In the 51cc (4-6) Limited William Canaguier stood on top of the podium, the Special Limited Mason Raynor and the Shaft Drive division was Canyon Richards.
The first set of motos wrapped up today, but the action continued through the start of the second motos and the athletes in the blank class brought it all to the table. In the Mini Sr. 2 (12-14) Pierce Brown hopped out front early, but Ty Masterpool put up a fight and quickly took the lead. Brown and Masterpool continued swapping first and second positions during the first few laps of the race. Eventually they would settle into their prospective places, but Carson Mumford wasn’t ready to give up and he continued to push, but in the end he couldn’t pull off the pass for second and the race eventually ended with Brown in first, Masterpool, and Mumford.
The Open Pro Sport got off the line for round two of the three-round race format today. Yamaha’s Benny Bloss jumped to the front of the pack and never looked back and lead with a huge gap over second place for majority of the second moto. Marshal Weltin continued his podium finishes by hanging in for second place and Mark Worth improved from a fifth place in the first moto to rounding out the podium in third.
The second-moto racing action resumes Thursday, July 30. RacerTV continues with live streaming coverage, beginning at 9:30 EST/ 10:30 CDT.
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