=Mechanicsville’s Dori Franzen, a 15-year-old dirt bike racer, recently qualified for the largest amateur motocross race in the world; the 29th Annual AMA Amateur National Motocross Championships at Loretta Lynn’s Ranch. Franzen took on over 20,000 hopefuls from across America to earn one of just 1,386 qualifying positions. 

  Franzen spent the last four months qualifying for the event. The top finishers in area and regional qualifiers earn a guaranteed spot at the National Championship race.  The amateur national qualifying program consists of 52 area qualifying races held from February through May and 12 regional championship races conducted in June at select motocross facilities across the country.

  Less than five percent of the area entries actually qualify for the national championship event, held during the first week of August at the home of country music star Loretta Lynn in Hurricane Mills, Tenn.

  “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. The race is so prestigious that last year, teenage stars Dean Wilson, from California, and Eli Tomac, from Colorado, were awarded premier professional contracts for the 2010 season.

  Franzen, a student at Lee -Davis High School, has been racing since she was six years old. With the help of sponsors such as Foley Motorsports of Mechanicsville, Franzen has been given the opportunity to compete at both the regional and national level.

  This is Franzen’s third year to qualify and compete in the amateur nationals.  She has been training rigorously at the Gary Bailey Motocross School in Axton, Virginia receiving personal instruction from Gary Bailey himself “The Professor” in preparation for this year’s event. 

  In the last eight years Franzen has won over 100 plus races, 20 plus championships, and competes nearly every weekend at various District 13 Virginia, Maryland, and North Carolina dirt bike tracks. Go to www.monsterracing24.com to view Dori’s finishes.

  For more information, please visit www.mxsports.com.