Insight: WMX Race Recap from Ironman

Text written by Ashlee Harris
Images by Mitch Kendra

Ironman Raceway hosted the fifth round of the Women’s Motocross (WMX) Championship in conjunction with the AMA Pro Motocross Championship finale over the weekend. The WMX round was held on Friday, which included a 15-minute practice and two 15 minute-plus-one lap motos throughout the day and was attended by 24 female racers. Practice times were close amongst the top riders so the day was setting up to be a tight battle!

Moto one saw the #21 of Kyleigh Stallings grab the holeshot on her Kawasaki and settle into a comfortable pace putting roughly five seconds between herself and Lachlan Turner aboard the #99 Yamaha, with Mikayla Nielsen on the #51 Honda in third. Stallings is a great starter so we usually see the #21 machine out front when the gate drops and this moto was no different. Jordan Jarvis kept her #301 Yamaha in fourth for most of the race, pushing to make a pass on Nielsen until she ended up tucking the front end coming into a corner on a charge. Sophia Phelps on the #56 Kawasaki charged forward from a mid-pack start to move herself into fifth, before then passing the downed Jarvis to take over fourth and held on for the remainder of the moto. Jarvis was able to remount and take several places back and put on another charge to come back for sixth, closing in on fifth place rider Jamie Astudillo (KTM) when the checkers flew. Stallings also appeared to make a mistake near the end of the moto, which made for a tight finish between first and second as well! Stallings ended up taking the win with Turner a close second, Nielsen third, Phelps fourth, and Astudillo fifth. Jarvis would cross the finish line in sixth after her crash and riding through some resulting bike problems.