Last weekend, the WMX field got their championship underway with an exciting season opener. While on paper, it was two-time WMX Champion Lachlan Turner going 1-1 for the overall win, the racing was closer than it seemed. Turner ran into issues in the first moto, crashing out of the lead and having to fight back into a podium position as Charli Cannon led. Turner did just that, moving forward before taking over the race lead and winning. In the second moto, it was Cannon who had the early lead but ran into trouble. Cannon remounted and went after Turner, reversing the roles from the first moto the day prior. Cannon and Turner both had close calls as they were pushing the limit of going as fast as possible but not crashing. In the end, Turner had enough breathing room for the moto win, stamping a 1-1 to start the season. Cannon came was second in the moto and overall, as Mikayla Nielsen rounded out third overall.

Following her win at Hangtown, Turner's YZ250F bike had the red background number plates added for this weekend. And while she is not running the #1 today because this is her first race in the United States of America, we also have the two-time and defending WMX FIM Motocross World Champion Lotte Van Drunen racing WMX today. van Drunen is running her usual number (#401) in her USA debut as we have a big clash of top MXGP talents set to battle in Colorado. Will van Drunen land on the podium today?

First Qualifying Session

The report on the track is that it is not overly watered like last week in Hangtown and it has yet to get super rutted up yet like the Pro Motocross National usually does. Maybe we see similar conditions to last week, when Friday’s track was not as beat up for the first moto and Saturday’s track was by far much more rough and tricky. Except, today being an open practice day for all 250 and 450 Class riders, maybe the track will still end up being rough and difficult? We will see this afternoon.

When bikes got onto the track, no surprise, it was the #1 leading the field on the results page. At the checkered flag, Turner's 2:24.140 led, then it was Nielsen's 2:27,933 followed by the Australian duo of Taylah McCutcheon (2:28.477) and Charli Cannon (2:29.976). A 2:30.082 from Jordan Jarvis rounded out the top five then Lotte Van Drunen's 2:30.533 was sixth fastest in the session.

Second Qualifying Session

Riders are working through the track and their bike settings in the Colorado elevation and the track got faster the second time around. This time it was Cannon going P1! Her 2:18.568 bested Turner's 2:19.269, then Nielsen (2:21.117), van Drunen (2:22.235), and Jarvis (2:26.890) rounding out the top five. The top five from this second session was the top five in overall qualifying for the day.

And of those five, all four but van Drunen raced the WMX race here last year. How quickly can van Drunen get up to speed on an unfamiliar bike and layout? 

First Moto

The first moto dropped the gate and it was Lachlan Turner leading Mikayla Nielsen and Charli Cannon, then Taylah McCutcheon and Jordan Jarvis. Lotte Van Drunen was outside the top 15 off the start and began working forwards. Turner took off and had a 19-second lead over Nielsen, who had a mechanical issue late in the race. The #401 of van Drunen made her way into the top five with a late pass on Jarvis, then she was gifted another position by Nielsen's issue. That gave Turner an even bigger lead. Turner took the race win by over 27 seconds as Cannon and McCutcheon rounded out the podium, with van Drunen, and Jarvis rounding out the top five. Turner's best lap (a 2:17.586 on the second lap) was five seconds faster than second best lap (a 2:22.4 from Cannon).

Tune in tomorrow via Peacock to watch the second moto live at 7 p.m. Eastern.