Monster Energy's Top Amateur Racers Head to Loretta Lynn's for 2026 National Championship

The sleepy little mid-Tennessee hollow of Hurricane Mills’ about to awake to hundreds of screaming two and four-stroke alarm clocks next week as the nation’s top amateur dirt bike racers descent upon the late/great country singer Loretta Lynn’s Ranch for the 45^th running of the Monster Energy AMA National Motocross Championship.

Steeped in MX lore, “Loretta’s” has put up-and-coming amateur racers on the map, and launched most of the careers of the nation’s top professional motocross and supercross racers. Names like Monster Energy’s champions McGrath, Carmichael and Villopoto, along with pretty much all the guys they’ve battled on tracks and in NFL and MLB stadiums from one end of the United States to the other have competed at Loretta’s.

In 2025 Monster Energy-backed racers, in classes ranging from 12 to 15-year olds in the 65cc Mini and Mini Sr. through 85cc Superminis and Schoolboy 125cc classes, Girls and Women, and all the way up to 250 and 450 B, plus the pinnacle – 250 Pro Sport and Open Pro - captured an incredible 14 class championships and 30 overall podium finishes. 

Leading the way in 2025 at Loretta’s for Monster Energy was Team Green/Kawasaki’s Enzo Temmerman. The Visalia, Calif., native was thisclose to perfection in sweeping the 250 Pro Sport class (1^st/1^st/1^st) and winning the Open Pro class with a 1^st/2^nd/1^st three moto performance. And for his effort Temmerman was given the AMA’s most prestigious amateur motocross racer award – the 2025 Nicky Hayden Horizon Award.

This year, amongst the 1,500 racers that qualified from 36 districts around the U.S., Monster Energy will back some 18 returning class champions and top three podium placers – many with multiple titles and/or overall podiums - at the long running event produced by MX Sports and sanctioned by the American Motorcyclist Association (AMA).

Headlining the premier 250 Pro Sport and Open Pro Sport will be three Monster Energy-backed racers looking for the title of ‘Next’ in terms of being signed to a pro factory-backed team for the 2027 competition season. Those racers include Vincent Wey, Carson Wood and Kade Johnson. Monster Energy, specifically the Monster Army, also recognizes several other returning class champions and podium finishers competing in the Pro Sport classes at Loretta’s, including returning champions Owen Covell (450 B) and Max Shane (450 B Ltd.).

The rung below Pro Sport, 250 and 450 B and B Limited, is highlighted by Monster Energy’s Grayson Townsend and Dane Pappas (who’ll also contest Schoolboy 2), with top returning Monster Army racers including returning champs Tristain Prueitt (2025 125 Jr. B/C) McKayden Fitch (250 B Ltd.). Another to keep an eye on, in his first run on the 250 and 450 Limited big bikes at Loretta’s, will be 2025 Supermini 1 & 2 champ Darren Pine. And in those same classes, Monster Army’s Braxton Mes (Schoolboy 1 runner-up) has a shot at the overall podium.

Another racer moving up from the 85s, where he was awarded the 2025 Loretta’s Youth Rider of the Year trophy for sweeping the 85 and 85 Ltd titles, is Sawyer Gieck. Gieck steps up to the 125cc Jr. B/C and Schoolboy 1 (125cc) next week. And Monster Energy’s other mini cycle double champ, Tayce Morgan, who won Loretta’s Air Force Special Warfare AEGIS Award for sweeping the Mini Sr. 1 & 2 classes last summer, moves up to contest the Supermini classes, along with Monster Energy’s Easton Graves and Monster Army’s Maddox Temmerman.

For the girls/women, Monster Energy will feature Mayla Herrick not only battling for the Women’s division title (3^rd last year), she’ll also test her speed versus the boys in the Schoolboy 2 class. And in the Girls division, look for Monster Energy’s Hannah Jamison to try and equal Herrick’s feat as she’ll also battle the boys in the Mini Sr. 2 class.

Monster Energy/Loretta’s 2025 Overall Champions and Podium Finishers

Returning racers in BOLD

Up now: The 2026 Monster Energy AMA Amateur National Motocross Championship begins on Monday, Aug. 3 and runs through Saturday, Aug. 8. For more information on the Monster Energy AMA Amateur National Motocross Championship, including up-to-the-minute results, link to www.mxsports.com