The penultimate round of the FIM Women’s Motocross World Championship took the spotlight at the Motorsportpark Gelderland Midden in the Netherlands, where the demanding sand circuit in Arnhem presented an ideal battleground for the top contenders in WMX.
Race Report and Images by Infront Moto Racing
With the championship race tightening, all eyes were on the Dutch red plate De Baets Yamaha MX-Team’s Lotte Van Drunen who entered the round neck-and-neck with Daniela Guillen from RFME Spain National Team in the standings. The treacherous, technical nature of the Arnhem track required flawless execution, with the smallest mistake potentially altering the course of the title fight.
In the end, it was the home rider and ‘Queen of Sand’, Lotte Van Drunen who came out victorious with two race wins and a perfect performance to extend her lead in the championship.
The first WMX Race of the weekend kicked off the Dutch Round with Lotte Van Drunen taking the lead from the first turn in front of Lynn Valk from Schmicker Racing but the number 1, F&H Racing Team’s Courtney Duncan quickly took the 2nd spot as she took the inside of Valk to chase after the red plate. The first gate pick of Daniela Guillen didn’t make it happen for the Spanish who found herself boxed before the first corner and got 11th after a couple of turns but she quickly launched a charge up the field and was 8th on the opening lap.
The Dutch rider Valk showed composure to move up to 3rd in the opening lap with her countrywoman Sara Andersen getting to 4th along in front of another local rider and Champion who was taking part of her last career race as a one-off to ride on home soil, Nancy Van De Ven.
Meanwhile MXFONTARACING’s Kiara Fontanesi fought for 6th with Guillen on her back but the Spanish rider found her rhythm after an average start and passed the Italian for 6th and started to eye a move on Van De Ven for 5th who had a good cushion at that time.
With many Dutch rider showing what the fans came fore, it was Van Drunen who was at the top and managed to keep around 2 seconds gap on Duncan as she clocked the fastest lap of the round too but Duncan was not letting it go as to remind the young ace that she was a 4- times World Champion for a reason. On lap 8 of 12, Duncan reduced the gap to 1 perfect second and didn’t let Van Drunen have a rest.
Meanwhile Guillen finally managed to get to Van De Ven and made a decisive move to go 5th. While Valk 3rd, Andersen 4th, Guillen 5th, Van De Ven 6th and Fontanesi 7th would keep their positions for the remaining laps, the battle for the race wins was raging.
On Lap 9, Duncan was literally alongside the Dutch rider and pushed hard which was one tough test for Van Drunen. The Dutch took advantage of the back markers to put a gap between the charging Duncan to 2.5 seconds and fly to victory. It was a great race that predicted another strong showdown on the Sunday.
In Race 2, Van Drunen took the holeshot and the lead in front of Fontanesi, Valk and Duncan. It was not the dream start for Guillen as she found herself 10th in the opening lap. Van De Ven fell I the first straight and would not finish the race in the end.
Valk wanted to show herself on her home race as she passed Fontanesi during the opening lap while Guillen started to show her fast pace as she was already up to 5th on the turn of the opening lap after overtaking riders including Ceres 71 Racing’s Danee Gelissen, Sara Andersen and SYE Racing Team 423’s Larissa Papenmeier. The Spanish was on fire and not finished as she passed Fontanesi on lap 2 and set the fastest lap in 1.57.091, nearly 2 seconds quicker than Van Drunen and moved up to 4th behind Duncan.
Van Drunen was creating a gap with Valk to 4 seconds. It didn’t last long for Valk as Duncan fought back to 2nd with a good flow while Valk came under pressure on the charging Guillen on lap 3 who was eying the 3rd spot. Fontanesi in 5th fell behind to 12 seconds with Andersen on her back wheel.
Finally on lap 5 of 11, Andersen made her move on the outside of the Italian Champion to go 5th. Meanwhile Guillen had Valk exactly where she wanted as she got on the outside to pass Valk for 3rd.
At the lead, Van Drunen extended her margin on Duncan to 6.9 seconds on lap 6 and looks very well into her rhythm. Duncan in 2nd had 6 seconds on Guillen at that time.
Meanwhile Andersen showed great skill to overtake Gelissen for 6th and kept going a lap later to pass Fontanesi for 5th. Both riders would keep their spot until the end to finish 5th and 6th overall respectively.
Things seem to settle between from lap 5 with no overtake happening between the 3rd place of Guillen and the 7th place of Gelissen. With a good 3-4, Valk got on the 3rd step of the podium whiule Guillen missed out on it and could have blamed her starts over the weekend because she had an excellent pace.
Duncan was pushing hard to get to Van Drunen as the Kiwi went on for a late charge as she increased her pace to start a final showdown. In the last lap while Flares were already lit up to celebrate the win of their home hero Van Drunen, Duncan was racing hard to get a shot at the overall win.
Fans were on their feet with a couple of seconds separating them but there would be no late drama as Van Drunen passed the finish line with a second race win. Duncan would go 2-2 for 2nd overall but the hero of the day was without a doubt, Van Drune who clinched a magnificent home win and extended her lead in the championship.
It wasn’t the best weekend for British rider Lucy Barker, who fell off on the first lap of Moto 1 when she was in eighth, then got wiped out on the start straight in moto 2. We know Lucy is made of tough stuff and she will come back fastest and stronger as her pace is certainly top ten.
Lotte Van Drunen: “That is exactly what I need to do, two good starts. I knew I was the fastest but I just had to do it. And now to get two whole shots, that’s incredible. My starts have been so bad this season. Now we have quite a bigger gap than we started in the championship so yeah that gives me a lot of confidence for Turkiye and I’m ready for more so thanks to everybody around me.”
WMX – Race 1 – Classification:
FIMWMWC_WMX_R1_RaceClassification-3916_19_27_351_1_D530471D15148B50E932E7075BB317C6
WMX – Race 2 – Classification:
FIMWMWC_WMX_R2_RaceClassification-3916_19_27_352_1_F045B31C64D7A086A82BEA1597E5A6CE
WMX Overall – Classification:
WMX World Championship – Top 10 Classification: 1. Lotte Van Drunen (NED, YAM), 248 points; 2. Daniela Guillen (ESP, GAS), 231 p.; 3. Lynn Valk (NED, KTM), 204 p.; 4. Kiara Fontanesi (ITA, GAS), 192 p.; 5. Larissa Papenmeier (GER, HON), 164 p.; 6. Sara Andersen (DEN, KTM), 162 p.; 7. Courtney Duncan (NZL, KAW), 152 p.; 8. Malou Jakobsen (DEN, KTM), 120 p.; 9. Danee Gelissen (NED, YAM), 117 p.; 10. April Franzoni (FRA, HON), 94 p
WMX Manufacturers – Top 10 Classification: 1. Yamaha, 251 points; 2. GASGAS, 235 p.; 3. KTM, 208 p.; 4. Kawasaki, 164 p.; 5. Honda, 164 p.; 6. Husqvarna, 51 p
