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RYDERDIFRANCESCO Loretta Lynn Amateur National Motocross Champion
With three Loretta Lynn Amateur National Motocross Championships and and an ad- ditional three overall second place finishes, Ryder DiFrancesco is one rider that expects a lot of himself when he shows up to compete at the Ranch, but the expectations don’t just come from within. The Californian faces a lot of pressure from his inner-circle, his team, his sponsors, and his status as one of the most accomplished amateur motocross racers in the country. DiFrancesco is one of the few mini riders that was chosen to rep- resent Team USA at the FIM Junior World Motocross Championships in Australia; a true testament to the caliber of racer that he is. In all of the years that he has competed at the Ranch, the Team Green Kawasaki rider has never been able to win two championships in one year. He won back-to-back championships in 2011 and 2012 in the 51cc (4-6) Stock class, but he has never hoisted to number one plates in the very same year at the Loretta Lynn Dude Ranch. DiFrancesco has had one of the most accomplished seasons of his amateur racing career thus far, winning nearly twenty AMA titles preceding the
big dance at the Ranch. He chose to contest the 85cc (9-12) class as well as the Mini
Sr. 1 class at the 37th annual running of the Loretta Lynn Amateur National Motocross Championship, but it turns out that the competition on the track wouldn’t be his most dif- ficult adversary this year. DiFrancesco contracted flu-like symptoms at the midway point of the week, forcing him to push through the illness at the most crucial time of the entire event. The 85cc (9-12) class was a relative breeze for the Californian as he went out and dominated the first two motos, but the Mini Sr. 1 class wasn’t quite as straight forward.
A dreadful start in the first moto of the week left DiFrancesco with a massive obstacle to overcome early on, forcing him to fight forward from thirtieth position on the first lap all the way to seventh. At the time, it seemed as though his title hopes had been washed down the drain, but the seventh place finish that he fought so hard for turned out to be pivotal in the overall championship. The Californian fought hard for the win in the second moto and ended up getting the job done, placing him in position to win both titles for the final day of racing at the Ranch. DiFrancesco wasn’t at one hundred percent due to the illness that he contracted, but he was able to dig deep and pull a little bit of extra energy out of reserve in order to finish his last two motos of the week. The Team Green Kawasa- ki rider rode within his limits and kept his composure, settling into second and third place, respectively, in order to earn the title in both Mini Sr. 1 and 85cc (9-12).
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