Admit One - Union City's Thor Thrasher qualifies for Amateur National Motocross Championship

This coming August, Union City 9-year-old Thor Thrasher will begin his final year at Union City Elementary School as he and his classmates will make the big jump to fourth grade. The jump to fourth grade, as any parent, teacher or student knows, is an important one. All of sudden you are the big dog of the school, the seniors, the big kids, the leaders. Right now though Thrasher’s mind isn’t on that, Thrasher’s mind is focused on becoming a national champion.

In August Thrasher will be taking his riding talents to the great state of Tennessee as he recently punched his ticket to the 2022 Loretta Lynn Amateur National Motocross Championship as one of only 42 riders from across the nation in each class to qualify.

Thrasher began his riding days back at the tender age of 3 when his grandpa bought him his first bike, a 2016 Honda 50, even though the young man still couldn’t even touch the ground. Before his parents allowed Thrasher to take it for a spin however, they told him he had to learn how to ride his peddle bike without training wheels. Before long Thrasher had mastered riding without training wheels, meaning it was time to take the Honda for a spin.

Thrasher would spend hours upon hours each and every day riding around his yard, learning every inch of the bike as he became consumed with riding. In 2020 the Thrasher family decided maybe it was time to take him to the local track and see what he could do, so they traveled to Log Road MX in Bronson where he began his racing days on the peewee track.

It soon became apparent that in order to keep up with the competition, Thrasher needed something a little bigger, so his grandpa and grandma came through and surprised him again, this time with not one, but two Cobra Factory Works Edition bikes.

“Little did we know, we were just getting started,” said his mother Jessie Thrasher.

Thor began racing slowly at first, running a few races the first year as he transitioned to the big track. By the end of the 2020 season he had upgraded his bike once again, moving up to the 2021 Cobra 50 FWE all while bringing home two main track victories.

That’s when the Thrashers decided to go full speed ahead, taking on a full schedule in 2021. Thor and his family traveled all across the state of Michigan chasing the District 14 racing series and the Michigan State Championship series. Out of 98 races in the state that he attended in 2021, Thrasher brought home 79 podium finishes and 66 overall wins, winning the Michigan state championship in the 50 SR class and taking runner-up honors in the 50 open class. Thrasher was also chosen as the District 14 Rider of the Year for the 2021 season.

Here in 2022 Thrasher has taken the next step, having qualified to compete at the Loretta Lynn Amateur National Motocross Championship. The road to the National Championship is far from easy as thousands of kids from across the nation take to their local tracks with the same goal in mind. With that also comes a ton of travel, as Thor and his crew have this year alone traveled to races in Florida, Georgia, Texas, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Ohio and Michigan, not to mention being able to race in the Spring Nationals held at Daytona Speedway.

In order to qualify for nationals one has to race in an Area Qualifier and place in the top 8 to advance to Regionals, which Thrasher did, qualifying in four different regionals, the Midwest, Southeast, Northeast and North Central. Once a rider qualifies for a regional they are invited to compete, with a top six finish officially punching their ticket to Nationals. Thrasher did just that this past weekend, taking a top six finish in the Micro 3 50cc 7-8 Limited Class.

The chance to advance on to Nationals is a culmination of a lot of hard word from Thrasher and his family, as Thor has spent months training on the tracks at the Moto X Compound in Culloden, Georgia. Now with his ticket to Nationals in hand, Thrasher will head back down to the Moto X Compound through the month of July to train for the biggest race of his young career.

The Loretta Lynn Monster Energy AMA Amateur National Motocross Championship well be held Aug. 1-6 in Hurricane Mills, TN. Congratulations and good luck to Union City’s own Thor Thrasher as he competes at the AMA Amateur National Motocross Championship.

This article originally appeared on The Daily Reporter: Union City 3rd grader Thor Thrasher qualifies for Amateur National Motocross Championship