HURRICANE MILLS, TENN. — Bayou L’Ourse’s Kameron Patureau just made her dream come true as the 10-year-old dirt bike racer has qualified for the largest amateur motocross race in the world, the 31st annual Red Bull AMA Amateur National Motocross Championships at Loretta Lynn’s Ranch July 29 to Aug. 4.

Patureau, daughter of Kenney and Jessie Patureau, took on more than 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,” Event Director Tim Cotter said in a press release. “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.

Patureau, who attends Wyandotte Elementary in Morgan City, has been riding since she was 3 years old. With the help of sponsors DeCal Works, NoToil, Fly Racing, Arden Enterprises LLC, mom and dad, grandmother Kat Moore and family and friends who help pay her way to the races, Patureau has pursued her dreams. She has won 50 races in the last 2 years and competes nearly every weekend at tracks across the southern U.S.

This past weekend, she earned a victory in the Girls’ (ages 9-15) and the 85 classes at Highway 70 MX in Napoleonville.

She placed first out of 10 in the Girls’ class and first out of 12 in the 85 class. In the 85 class, she was the only girl participant.

Patureau will return to the race track on July 14 when she heads to Breaux Bridge for a race at Gravity Alley Extreme MX.

She will make the long journey to national event in Tennessee with her parents and her younger brother, Ezra.

Patureau is just one of the more than 20,000 who spent the last four months qualifying for the event. The top finishers in area and regional qualifiers earn a berth into the National Championship race at Loretta Lynn’s. Racers may enter a wide variety of classes, from minicycle classes for children as young as four, to a senior division for riders older than 50. There also are classes for women and classes for both stock and modified bikes.

The track is built on a section of Loretta Lynn’s Ranch and Campground in Hurricane Mills, Tenn. The course contains a variety of jumps, corners and other obstacles designed to test racers’ skills and stamina.

For more information, visit www.mxsports.com.