Local Racer Earns Spot at Motocross National Championship

Via press release:

Clovis’ Dillon Firpo just made his dream come true. The 19-year-old dirt bike racer has qualified for the largest amateur motocross race in the world, the 30^th Annual Red Bull AMA Amateur National Motocross Championships at Loretta Lynn’s Ranch. Firpo took on more than 20,000 hopefuls from across America and earned one of just 1,386 qualifying positions.

“The Amateur Nationals at Loretta Lynn’s is the event every motocross racer in the country wants to compete in,” said Event Director Tim Cotter. “A win at the Amateur Nationals gives a rider instant national notoriety and can serve as a springboard to a lucrative professional motocross career.”

Most ofAmerica’s top professional motocrossers, including James Stewart, Ricky Carmichael, Travis Pastrana and Jeremy McGrath, have won AMA Amateur National Championships at Loretta Lynn’s. The race is so prestigious that in 2009, teenage stars Dean Wilson, fromCalifornia, and Eli Tomac, fromColorado, were awarded premier professional contracts for the 2010 season.

With the help of sponsors such as TroyLee Designs, Chaparral Motorsports, Deft, Tag, Six Six One, One Industries, Factory Connection, Gaerne & One Eighty Decals,  which help him to make his way to the races, Firpo has had the opportunity to pursue this life long dream. He practices several times a week on local tracks and competes nearly every weekend at tracks located thru out California.

He will make the long journey to Tennessee along with his family and friends. The race runs Aug. 1-6.

Firpo is just one of the more than 20,000 who spent the last four months qualifying for the event. The top finishers in area and regional qualifiers earned a birth into the National Championship race at Loretta Lynn’s. Racers may enter a wide variety of classes, from minicycle classes for children as young as four, all the way up to a senior division for riders over 50. There are also classes for women and classes for both stock and modified bikes.

The track is built on a section of Loretta Lynn’s Ranch and Campground in Hurricane Mills,Tenn. The course contains a variety of jumps, corners and other obstacles designed to test the skills and stamina of the racers.

Most riders attend the event with the help of their families. In fact, many groups consider the event their family’s summer vacation. Besides races, the ranch provides family-friendly facilities including a game room, swimming pools, arts and crafts activities as well as a fashion and talent show.

About the Red Bull AMA Amateur National Motocross Championship

The Red Bull AMA Amateur National Motocross Championship is the world’s largest and most prestigious amateur motocross racing program. The national qualifying program consists of 52 Area Qualifiers (February through May) and 12 Regional Championship (June) events hosted at select motocross facilities across the country. The qualifying system culminates in the National Final (first week of August) hosted annually at the home of country music star Loretta Lynn in Hurricane Mills, Tenn., since 1982. Nearly 25,000 racers attempt to qualify in 33 classes for the 1,400 available positions at the National. Christened “The World’s Greatest Motocross Vacation”, the National event serves as a launch pad for some of the biggest names in professional motocross and supercross, including Ricky Carmichael, James Stewart, Ryan Villopoto, and Ryan Dungey. The national program is produced by MX Sports, Inc., a West Virginia-based race production company. For more information, please visit www.mxsports.com.