Ryan Mattison, a 16-year-old Brockport student, has qualified for the Amateur National Motorcross Championships. He’s been competing in the sport since he was eight. Provided photo Brockport’s Ryan Mattison just made his dream come true. The 16-year-old dirt bike racer has qualified for the largest amateur motocross race in the world, the 31st Annual Red Bull AMA Amateur National Motocross Championships at Loretta Lynn’s Ranch. Mattison took on over 20,000 hopefuls from across America to earn one of just 1,386 qualifying positions, with only 42 of those spots available in his class.
“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 Jeremy McGrath, have won AMA Amateur National Championships at Loretta Lynn’s.
Mattison, who attends Brockport High School, is also on the varsity wrestling team and won sectionals in his division as a sophomore this year. He has raced since he was eight years old along with his brother, Michael. He has won many races and championships over the years and competes nearly every weekend, primarily on WNYRacing tracks, including Area 51 Motocross in Batavia where he also spends time practicing, and has recently trained with local experts Mike Metz and Myles Caradori.
Mattison will make the trip to Tennessee in August along with his father, Wayne, mother, Colleen, sister, Erin and brother, Michael. He is racing in the 450 C class on his Kawasaki KX450F, and will be running National top 100 number 57, which is a shortened version of his local number 507.
Mattison is just one of the over 20,000 who spent the last four months qualifying for the event. The top finishers in area and regional qualifiers earn 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.
