Lubbock’s own Brandon Shaw just made his dream come true. The 10-year-old dirt bike racer has qualified for the largest amateur motocross race in the world, the 34th Annual Rocky Mountain ATV/MC AMA Amateur National Motocross Championship presented by AMSOIL at Loretta Lynn’s Ranch. Brandon took on over 22,000 hopefuls from across America to earn one of just 1,482 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 of America’s top professional motocrossers, including James Stewart, Ricky Carmichael, Travis Pastrana and Ryan Dungey, have won AMA Amateur National Championships at Loretta Lynn’s. The race is so prestigious that in 2013 race coverage was aired on NBC for the first time ever. In 2015, the coverage only gets better as the Rocky Mountain ATV/MC National Championship will air LIVE streaming from Loretta Lynn’s on RacerTV.com throughout the week and be broadcast later in the fall on NBC Sports Network
.
Brandon, who will be in the 5th grade, has been riding since he got his first dirt bike when he was 6 years old. He has been racing and training as much as possible, including traveling to Mississippi, Kansas, Oklahoma as well as all over Texas in the past few months.

Brandon will make the long journey to Tennessee along with his Mom and Dad. The race runs July 28 – August 1, 2015.

Brandon is just one of the over 22,000 riders who spent the last four months qualifying for the event. The top finishers in area and regional qualifiers earn a gate position in 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. Brandon will be racing a 65cc KTM dirt bike. He first qualified in February at an Area Qualifier at Cycle Ranch MX Park in Floresville, TX and then in April at Oak Hill MX in Alvord, TX, where the top 8 in each class qualified to go on to the next level. He then went to the Loretta Lynn Regional Qualifier at Golden Pines MX in Prentiss, MS where they took only the top 6 riders from a Region consisting of Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Mississippi and Colorado, although riders from all over the country were there to compete. He finished 4th place in the highly competitive 65cc 7-9 Limited class at the Regional to earn a spot at Loretta Lynn’s.

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 pool, arts and crafts activities, as well as a fashion and talent show.

(Press release from the 34th Annual Rocky Mountain ATV/MC AMA Amateur National Motocross Championship)