HURRICANE MILLS, Tenn.– Edmeston New York’s Tyrick Wheeler just made his dream come true. The 8-year-old dirt bike racer qualified in the 50cc stock 7-8-year-old class for the largest amateur motocross race in the world, the 31st Annual Red Bull AMA Amateur National Motocross Championships at Loretta Lynn’s Ranch. Wheeler took on over 20,000 hopefuls from across America to earn one of just 1,386 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 Jeremy McGrath, have won AMA Amateur National Championships at Loretta Lynn’s. The race is so prestigious that in 2009, teenage stars Dean Wilson, from California, and Eli Tomac, from Colorado, were awarded premier professional contracts for the 2010 season.