First-ever woman from St. George rides to victory as national motocross champion

ST. GEORGE — Sophia Phelps has a pretty simple plan for success.

Sophia Phelps of St. George rides at Loretta Lynn’s Amateur National Motocross Championship, Hurricane Mills, Tenn., Aug. 7, 2021 | Photo by Erin L. Malcom Creative, St. George News

“Set goals and work your butt off,” she said, “because that’s the only thing that I’ve learned, really. It all comes back to: I set a goal, and I work my butt off.”

Phelps, an 18-year-old freshman at Dixie State University, used that formula and became the first-ever female motocross national champion from St. George.  

Phelps finished second, first and first in her three motos, respectively, to earn national champion status at Loretta Lynn’s Amateur National Motocross Championship in Hurricane Mills, Tennessee, during the first week of August.

At her home in Green Valley on Aug. 11, Phelps told St. George News that her championship didn’t come easy. It took years of practice and hard work in countless races to make it to the top of the podium.

“My family has always been riding dirt bikes. I learned to ride at age 4 and was racing at age 6,” she said, adding that her father Bill Phelps was a rider as a teenager, and he taught his children to get into the sport.

“It’s definitely really thrilling. If you think about riding a roller coaster, that’s really just what it feels like the entire time,” Phelps said. “I really enjoy all of that. As with anything, I naturally enjoy improvement and success; I think a lot of people do.”

Sophia Phelps of St. George, third from right, rides at Loretta Lynn’s Amateur National Motocross Championship, Hurricane Mills, Tenn., Aug. 7, 2021 | Photo by Erin L. Malcom Creative, St. George News

There’s another aspect of the sport that keeps her jumping back onto a bike.

“We are allowed to be coed,” Phelps said, adding that competition provides different kinds of rewards depending on who she’s racing.

“The boys are way more fun for me to beat, because their dads get mad at them afterwards,” she said. “And also because going into it I naturally have a disadvantage, so I think it’s way more rewarding for me to beat the boys.”

Racing against women has a different feeling.

“It’s fun to race the women because it’s an even playing field,” Phelps said. “We’re all in the same boat. The even playing field is fun, but it’s also fun to make the boys mad.”

Phelps claimed her national championship in the women’s class at the Loretta Lynn event. The race featured three motos – or three separate races – on the same track over three different days.

For each moto, 42 riders lined up on the starting line and the winner had to beat them all to the finish line. Riders made multiple laps on the track during each moto.

Going into the third moto on the final day of the event, Phelps was in position to win but she tried not to think about that.

“People say it a lot in the sport: focus on the race in front of them,” Phelps said. “We don’t think at all about championship points. We go in there to win each individual race.”

Even still, it was hard for her to keep her emotions in check as she raced the final moto.

“I think I was like two laps to go, and I was sitting in first, and I was like, ‘Dude, you are two laps away from winning the championship.’ I had to shut that down,” Phelps said. “Keep it super chill, just go and do what you came here to do.”

It was a win for the whole family when Phelps claimed the championship.

Sophia Phelps of St. George shows her hardware at Loretta Lynn’s Amateur National Motocross Championship, Hurricane Mills, Tenn., Aug. 7, 2021 | Photo by Erin L. Malcom Creative, St. George News

“I had a lot of parents, especially other racing parents, say, ‘This is your win, too,’” Sophia’s mother, Shaunna Phelps, said.

Shaunna Phelps did much of the cross-country driving and Bill Phelps was Sophia’s primary mechanic and coach. And her siblings played a part, too.

“My sister has to humble me often,” Sophia Phelps said. “And I have to humble myself by doing stupid things often.”

The best part about success on the track is it leads to success off of it.

“My confidence has increased because I’ve gotten better at my sport,” she said. “I started with very low self-confidence.”

But as she improved her skills, she also got a boost in self-confidence.

While she might have some more races in her, her focus is turning to college, where she plans to study mechanical engineering.

“There’s a lot more money in that than in motocross,” Phelps said.

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2021, all rights reserved.

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