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.
With the championship race tightening, all eyes were on the Dutch red plate Lotte Van Drunen who entered the round neck-and-neck with Daniela Guillen 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 but the World number 1, Courtney Duncan quickly took the second spot as she took the inside of Valk to chase after the red plate holder. 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 eleventh after a couple of turns but she quickly launched a charge up the field and was eighth on the opening lap.
The Dutch rider Valk showed composure to move up to third in the opening lap with her countrywoman Sara Andersen getting to fourth 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, Kiara Fontanesi fought for sixth with Guillen on her back but the Spanish rider found her rhythm after an average start and passed the Italian for sixth and started to eye a move on Van De Ven for fifth who had a good cushion at that time.
With many Dutch riders showing what the fans came for, it was Van Drunen who was at the top and managed to keep around two 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 eight of twelve, Duncan reduced the gap to one 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 fifth. While Valk third, Andersen fourth, Guillen fifth, Van De Ven sixth and Fontanesi seventh would keep their positions for the remaining laps, the battle for the race wins was raging.
On Lap nine, 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 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 Danee Gelissen, Sara Andersen and Larissa Papenmeier. The Spanish was on fire and not finished as she passed Fontanesi on lap two and set the fastest lap in 1.57.091, nearly two seconds quicker than Van Drunen and moved up to fourth behind Duncan.
Van Drunen was creating a gap with Valk to four seconds. It didn’t last long for Valk as Duncan fought back to second with a good flow while Valk came under pressure on the charging Guillen on lap three who was eying the third spot. Fontanesi in fifth fell behind to twelve seconds with Andersen on her back wheel.
Finally on lap five of eleven, Andersen made her move on the outside of the Italian Champion to go fifth. Meanwhile, Guillen had Valk exactly where she wanted as she got on the outside to pass Valk for third.
At the lead, Van Drunen extended her margin on Duncan to 6.9 seconds on lap six and looked very well into her rhythm. Duncan in second had six seconds on Guillen at that time.
Meanwhile, Andersen showed great skill to overtake Gelissen for sixth and kept going a lap later to pass Fontanesi for fifth. Both riders would keep their spot until the end to finish fifth and sixth overall respectively.
Things seem to settle between from lap five with no overtake happening between the third place of Guillen and the seventh place of Gelissen. With a good 3-4, Valk got on the third step of the podium which 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.
“That is exactly what I need to do, two good starts,” Van Drunen said. “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 – Top 10 Classification:
1 Lotte Van Drunen (NED, Yamaha), 25:56.780
2 Courtney Duncan (NZL, Kawasaki), +0:03.475
3 Lynn Valk (NED, KTM), +0:45.117
4 Sara Andersen (DEN, KTM), +0:46.925
5 Daniela Guillen (ESP, GASGAS), +0:59.547
6 Nancy van de Ven (NED, Yamaha), +1:01.393
7 Kiara Fontanesi (ITA, GASGAS), +1:34.201
8 Larissa Papenmeier (GER, Honda), +1:35.090
9 Malou Jakobsen (DEN, KTM), +2:24.437
10 Amandine Verstappen (BEL, Yamaha), -1 lap(s)
WMX – Race 2 – Top 10 Classification:
1 Lotte Van Drunen (NED, Yamaha), 24:08.822
2 Courtney Duncan (NZL, Kawasaki), +0:03.129
3 Daniela Guillen (ESP, GASGAS), +0:32.782
4 Lynn Valk (NED, KTM), +0:42.509
5 Sara Andersen (DEN, KTM), +0:49.894
6 Kiara Fontanesi (ITA, GASGAS), +0:59.143
7 Danee Gelissen (NED, Yamaha), +1:24.796
8 Larissa Papenmeier (GER, Honda), +1:28.537
9 Malou Jakobsen (DEN, KTM), +1:33.201
10 Amandine Verstappen (BEL, Yamaha), +1:37.271
WMX Overall – Top 10 Classification:
1 Lotte Van Drunen (NED, YAM), 50 Points
2 Courtney Duncan (NZL, KAW), 44 Points
3 Lynn Valk (NED, KTM), 38 Points
4 Daniela Guillen (ESP, GAS), 36 Points
5 Sara Andersen (DEN, KTM), 34 Points
6 Kiara Fontanesi (ITA, GAS), 29 Points
7 Larissa Papenmeier (GER, HON), 26 Points
8 Danee Gelissen (NED, YAM), 24 Points
9 Malou Jakobsen (DEN, KTM), 24 Points
10 Amandine Verstappen (BEL, YAM), 22 Points
WMX World Championship – Top 10 Classification:
1 Lotte Van Drunen (NED, YAM), 248 Points
2 Daniela Guillen (ESP, GAS), 231 Points
3 Lynn Valk (NED, KTM), 204 Points
4 Kiara Fontanesi (ITA, GAS), 192 Points
5 Larissa Papenmeier (GER, HON), 164 Points
6 Sara Andersen (DEN, KTM), 162 Points
7 Courtney Duncan (NZL, KAW), 152 Points
8 Malou Jakobsen (DEN, KTM), 120 Points
9 Danee Gelissen (NED, YAM), 117 Points
10 April Franzoni (FRA, HON), 94 Points
