Landon Gibson secured the lead of the Open Pro class of the Loretta Lynn’s Amateur Nationals in Hurricane Mills, Tennessee, with six laps remaining and defeated the Moto 1 winner, Zach Osborne, by more than 26 seconds on Thursday.
In the opening laps, it appeared Osborne was on his way to defend his Wednesday victory. He took the early lead, relinquished it momentarily to Phil Nicoletti, and then avoided his veteran rival when Nicoletti crashed at the front of the field on Lap 1.
Back in the lead, Osborne could not shake Gibson, however, and was unable to build a gap of more than 2.7 seconds. After finishing second one day earlier, Nicoletti’s race was over.
Osborne kept Gibson in sight for most of Moto 2, but after narrowly avoiding his own crash in the closing laps, he lost pace. Gibson took full advantage and built a massive lead.
After struggling in Moto 1 of the Open Pro class, Ryder Malinoski also had a measure of revenge. In the second race, he had a poor start just as he did on Wednesday and Malinoski completed the first lap in 14th. He made steady progress through the field and assumed a podium position on Lap 9.
Youth continued to be served by Carson Wood. After winning the 250 Pro Sport class, he struggled in Open Pro and finished outside the top 10 in Moto 1. Wood had a modest start in the second moto and was barely inside the top 10 at the completion of the first lap. He hovered around the top five beginning with Lap 4 and secured the fourth-place position.
Jesson Turner started eighth and made his way to fifth by the end of the moto.
Kade Johnson began Moto 2 with a shot at the podium. He rode in third or fourth until Lap 10 until a bobble in the final three laps dropped him to seventh.
With one moto remaining, Osborne holds a six-point lead over Gibson.
