In the battle of youthful exuberance versus the experience of age, youth won the battle and experience won the war: Landon Gibson took the lead in the closing laps of Moto 3 in the Open Pro class to win his second consecutive race while Zach Osborne swept the top five in the class to claim the championship in the Loretta Lynn’s Amateur Nationals in Hurricane Mills, Tennessee.
Osborne had the early lead out of the gate with Gibson nearly two seconds behind in the opening laps. Gibson laid down the fastest time in the moto on Lap 4 (1:50.193), but Osborne (1:50.491) was nearly as quick and it took another couple of trips around the track before Gibson closed to within a second of the points leader.
Jesson Turner was close behind in the opening laps, rounding out the podium.
Gibson and Turner passed Osborne on Lap 9 as the veteran began to lose pace. In clean air, Gibson consistently stretched his advantage over Turner to win the moto by nearly eight seconds.
An eighth-place finish in Moto 1 was too steep a hill for Gibson to climb, and Osborne ended the Loretta’s with the championship.
Ryder Malinoski made life difficult in 2026 with poor starts in nearly every moto. The third race of Open Pro was no exception and Malinoski was forced to come from eighth on the start to climb onto the podium with a couple of laps remaining.
Max Shane improved during the three motos and capped off his Loretta’s campaign with a fourth-place finish in the final Open Pro race. He was ninth in Moto 1 and sixth in Moto 2 to combine for fifth in the championship.
Osborne crossed the finish line fifth, but results of first and second in the first two motos secured the points needed for the title. Osborne won by two points.
