2019 Loretta Lynn’s Amateur Motocross | Day Four Race Report

2019 LORETTA LYNN’S AMATEUR MOTOCROSS | COMPLETE COVERAGE
2019 LORETTA LYNN’S AMATEUR MOTOCROSS | FULL RESULTS

PHOTOS | Christian Munoz & MX Sports

The first championship number one plates were awarded on Friday afternoon at the 2019 Loretta Lynn’s Amateur Motocross. Going into the week at the Ranch, only a few riders were expected to take home the top honors in the most prestigious classes and that was pretty much the case through the first two races. But Friday’s title-deciding laps wound up having some of the most unpredictable moments we’ve seen in years and the final results were drastically changed at the checkered flag.

250 PRO SPORT | MOTO THREE
1:06.00 mark in the video

The last 250 Pro Sport race of 2019 will go down as one of the wildest races in LL history. Coming into the week, five factory-backed riders were seen as favorites for the win. Jalek Swoll was one of them, but things started poorly for the Rockstar Energy Husqvarna Factory Racing rider with 13-6 scores in the first two races; with a shot at the title gone, he sat out the final moto to nurse a groin injury enough to race the Open Pro Sport class. 

With 1-2 finishes through the first part of the week, Jett Lawrence seemingly had a hand on the 250 Pro Sport title. The AMSOIL Honda rider had been impressive in his first visit to the event, and when he got into the lead in the second turn of the opening lap, it looked like he was going to ride off to an easy win. 

Jo Shimoda’s win in Moto Two put him back in contention for a podium overall finish and even a chance at the title, so the AMSOIL Honda rider knew that a strong finish in the final moto was going to make a difference. A sixth-place rank on the opening lap put him in a great position to make a charge, but disaster struck on the second lap when the bike experienced a mechanical issue and stopped him on the track. Shimoda was credited with 17th overall in the class.

Pierce Brown came into the week far from full health due to a recent shoulder blade injury, but the Troy Lee Designs/Red Bull/KTM rider was determined to end his amateur career at the Ranch. Unfortunately, Brown went down in the early moments and pulled off two laps in. He was ranked 15th overall with 4-3-DNF results on the week.

2-8 finishes in the first part of the week put Carson Mumford in line for a solid result and the AMSOIL Honda rider worked from 13th place at the opening lap to fifth place by lap five. This push put him in a key position for the later stages of the race, when things went sideways for the front-runners.

On lap five, Lawrence held a five-second advantage over second-place runner Jesse Flock, a rider that didn’t have a perceived chance at the title due to 5-11 finishes in the first part of the week. Just when it seemed like Lawrence was in for the win his AMSOIL Honda let go with a mechanical problem that brought his race, and title hopes, to a sudden end.

With Lawrence out, Flock went on to take the stunning moto win and launched to third overall in the final results. On the podium, the Oklahoma teenager said, “I got the holeshot and Lawrence got around me really quick, but I thought to myself, ‘I’m not going to let him go that easy.’ I pushed him, made some mistakes, let Marcus (Phelps, a rider that finished eighth in the moto) get by me, but I passed Marcus back.” Flock’s equipment was not quite on the same level as those around him in the results, something he humbly brought up on the stage. “Half these kids have factory rides and I just have my dad and that’s it. I’m just grateful for the opportunity.”

But Flock was not the big winner; that honor went to Hardy Munoz, a rider that had been steady throughout the entire week and quietly benefitted the most when Lawrence/Shimoda/Brown/Swoll all scored DNF-DNS results. 3-4 finishes in the first two motos showed Munoz had consistency few in the class could match, and he started the final race in fourth place. When Lawrence went out, Munoz moved to third place and clinched the title by two points over Mumford. Like Flock, Munoz’s bike and support system was a step off of the others in the field, but his results proved it was more than enough the Ranch. “I got a good start and was trying to do the best I can, trying to be consistent in the top-10 and top-five,” he said on the podium. Unaware of the championship standings when the track, the South American-import explained that he rode the last moto like it was any other race. “I didn’t know, it was just push and push trying to do the 20-minutes as fast as I can without a crash or mistakes. I didn’t know until Matt Walker (riding coach) came to hug me and said, ‘You won!’ I was so happy, I cannot tell you.”

MINI SR. 2 (13-15) | MOTO THREE
5:35.30 mark in the video

Ryder DiFrancesco and Nick Romano leave Loretta’s as the dominant riders in the mini-cycle ranks. The two split wins in the classes and their rides in the final moto of Mini SR 2 should be talked about for months, if not years, to come. 

For DiFrancesco, the class was his last chance to leave the week with a title (a bike issue in Moto One of Mini SR 1 kept him from defending the number one plate) and he started the race well with a massive holeshot. But as the filed funneled into the first series of high-speed sweeping turns, DiFrancesco experienced a rider’s worst nightmare when he tucked the front-end and went down ahead of the entire pack. He quickly remounted and put in a charge that would give him hero status if it happened in the pro ranks. 

With DiFrancesco down, Romano soon slid into the top spot. 1-4 scores in the first two races had put Romano in the mix for the title, but the New York native had to win the moto to clinch. That win or lose it all pressure came from Mark Fineis, a rider that was second in the running order of both the moto and the overall results. Fines’ 3-3 results in the first two races put him one point down to Romano, but if he managed to win the moto, the two would tie on points and Fineis would take the overall for his final moto score. 

All three knew what was on the line and it showed in their riding; Romano held down the led, Fineis applied pressure in second, and DiFrancesco put him laps that were two to four seconds faster than those ahead and reached third place. When Fineis passed Romano for the lead on lap seven, all were tied at seven points. DiFrancesco was the first to falter and a mistake on lap eight took him from third to fifth, and out of the running. 

The last two laps were incredible, with the top two less than a second apart. Romano ramped up his intensity then made a forceful pass in the sandy sweeper turn just before the white flag flew, which Fineis tried hard to counter. Instead, a mistake in the braking bumps sent Fineis over the handlebars and allowed Romano to ride to the win unchallenged. The overall results had Romano win the title with 1-4-1 rides, Fineis second with 3-3-2, and DiFrancesco third with 2-1-5.

OPEN PRO SPORT | MOTO THREE
8:39.00 mark in the video

After the madness of 250 Pro Sport, anything was expected in the last Open Pro Sport race of the week. For Swoll, Lawrence, Shimoda, and Mashburn, it was the last chance to leave their amateur career with a number one plate.

Determined to put the troubles of the 250 class behind him, Swoll snagged the lead at the very start and instantly put distance between himself and the pack. His lead was inadvertently aided by Parker Mashburn, as the KTM rider ran in second early and put up a fight against Shimoda that prevented the AMSOIL Honda rider from making a full run at the leader.

Lawrence, miffed by the mechanical issue that killed his chance in 250 Pro Sport, took out his frustration on those in the pack. The AMSOIL Honda rider was eighth in his first run over the scoring loop and picked off four riders to reach fourth-place by the start of the second lap. Lawrence’s lap times were the fastest of the 40-rider pack (a 1:51.153 was his best) and he reeled in the leaders about a second every lap.

Swoll seemed unfazed by the way everything unfolded behind him, and even when Mashburn got within less than a second of him on lap five, the Florida native upped the pace again and pulled back away. At the finish, Swoll was nearly three seconds clear of Shimoda and clinched the championship with 1-3-1 scores. On the podium, he explained that the leg injury and what it took to come out for the last race. “To be honest, I was in pain all the way from the sighting lap. Not to make it a big deal, I just dug deep. The whole Husqvarna crew was behind me, they told me to dig deep, and I believed in everything that they said and it brought me here,” he shared. “I knew that depending on who was behind me, I was going to be able to settle in and try pace myself, not be in too much pain. The Honda boys were really fast here and I knew they were going to give me a fight if they caught up.”

On the podium, third place overall finisher Shimoda explained that a crash early in the week took a toll on him and that the last moto was all that he had. “My first crash in Moto Two messed up my shoulder a little bit and I had to fight against the pain. I tried as much as I could to the end, but it was just not enough,” he reflected. Shimoda will turn pro with GEICO Honda at the upcoming 2019 Unadilla Motocross.

Lawrence’s frustrations from the up and down week were obvious on the podium. The AMSOIL Honda rider was undoubtedly one of the fastest on the track in every race, but knew that misfortune and things out of his control kept him from taking an overall. “I had an easy title in the first one but had a little bit of a bike malfunction, which happens. I was obviously bummed because I had the title easily in my hands. But I had to regroup for this one,” he shared. “I tried, messed up my start, riding out there like a goon which doesn’t help, especially here. For my first time coming here I surprised a lot of people, surprised myself, and definitely kicked a lot of ass. I knew I could have come away with two titles, but with a bike malfunction and a shitty ride, it just didn’t turn out very well. I’ll go to Unadilla and go for my best there, and even if I can, get a podium.”

250 B | MOTO THREE
9:08.04 mark in the video

With the Pro Sport titles decided, attention turned to the next competitive class, 250 B. Stilez Robertson and Dilan Schwartz had swapped moto wins through the week and were tied going into the final round, while Jarrett Frye hoped to play spoiler to their title hopes.

Schwartz started the race off well, but mistakes would ultimately prove to be costly for the Suzuki rider. He got the lead on the opening lap, then stuck the front-end in a soft rut, went down to fourth, and charged back to through the field. He soon caught and passed Robertson for the lead on lap five, only to stall the engine a lap later and slid to seventh at the finish. 

With Schwartz in and out of contention, Robertson held strong, led laps, and then settled into second place after a surprise pass by Frye on lap six. The second-place result was more than enough for Roberston, though, because 1-2-2 results ended his years of bad luck at the ranch.