2024 FIM WMX WORLD CHAMPION | LOTTE VAN DRUNEN.
An extraordinary season has culminated in a historic achievement for Lotte van Drunen, who clinched her first WMX World Championship title at just 17 years old in Türkiye.
This remarkable victory marks a defining moment in the young Dutch rider’s career. Van Drunen showcased incredible skill and determination throughout the season for De Baets Yamaha MX-Team, consistently performing at the highest level and overcoming tough competition. Her triumph in Türkiye crowns a breakthrough season where she faced off against the world’s best, including riders like Daniela Guillen and reigning champion Courtney Duncan.
Lotte van Drunen has long been named as a “rising star” because she has always raced above the level that her age, or even gender, would otherwise place her. Hailing from the South Holland city of Gorinchem, 80km south of Amsterdam and in itself a beautiful medieval riverside area, Lotte has raced against male competition for most of her Motocross life. As soon as she was old enough, she competed in the WMX World Championships and has never finished lower than the two seventh places she recorded in her debut at Afyonkarahisar in September 2022.
Her first success in international competition, winning races in the 2018 EMX65 qualifiers against current EMX250 rider Bradley Meisters and finishing tenth in her first EMX65 finals. She was also a sensational second in the first race of that year’s World Junior Championships in Australia. A second race eighth left her with fourth overall, but the impression was made!
Sixth in the following year’s EMX65 finale, and a podium in the World Juniors at Arco, proved that she could deal with hard pack terrain as well as her native sand. In 2021, she was the top qualifier from the EMX85 North-West group, taking third overall, ahead of current EMX125 points leader Gyan Doensen, in the Sardegna finale.
After taking to EMX125 briefly as her male competitors got stronger and faster, Lotte turned 15 in August 2022 and immediately signed up to race the WMX finale in Türkiye. Two seventh places, still on a 125cc bike, were impressive enough to earn a Kawasaki ride for 2023, and she spent the winter adapting to the 250cc four-stroke machine.
Lotte instantly shot to the top with an outstanding first race win at her first WMX race on the four-stroke, in her favoured sandy terrain at Riola Sardo in Sardegna. From holeshot to chequered flag, she controlled the first race with ease, before a mid-pack start in the second race forced her to fight through into third place, enough for second overall.
Battling with four-time Champion Courtney Duncan and fellow teenage tearaway Daniela Guillen, Lotte was consistently in the top three in her first full season and scored a glorious double race victory on home sand at Arnhem, her first overall Grand Prix win. Third in the series was just reward for her efforts, and she signed a multi-year contract with Yamaha to set herself up for 2024 and beyond.
Van Drunen began the season with an almighty, loudly cheered tussle with Guillen on her rival’s home turf in Spain, drawing gasps from spectators as she sailed over the massive triple-jump with ease and pushed the victorious Daniela all the way to the final corner! That was followed by a dominant performance in the sands of Sardegna. Earning her the “Queen of Sand” nickname, Lotte was 2.2 seconds faster in Time Practice, but a first corner incident left her at the back of the pack in race one!
With an incredible charge, the Dutch star had got to sixth by the end of the first full lap, then hauled in Guillen to make an amazing last lap pass for a famous victory! Race two was almost a foregone conclusion, and an 18-second margin at the end proved her superiority in the softer going. The red plate was hers, on a tie-break with Guillen as the most recent winner.
She was never to relinquish that mantle, and with her first win on hard pack at Lugo in Spain for round three, after stirring battles with Duncan and Kiara Fontanesi, she defeated the two multi-champions and built a lead over Guillen, who had a difficult day with crashes.
Round four was held in difficult conditions at Teutschenthal, where constant rain through the weekend made the track very tough. Victory for home heroine Larissa Papenmeier, with Guillen second overall, saw Van Drunen still on the podium, losing just a single point to her Spanish title rival over the weekend.
More mud followed at Maggiora, and the first WMX race was declared null and void as one hill became impassible. The Sunday race was the only one to count for points and was not much easier. Lynn Valk took the win, and Lotte settled for a steady sixth, her lowest score of the year.
With a points-scoring ride against the men at the MXGP of Flanders, it was clear that Lotte was not going to let her pace drop, and her sand game looked on point as they approached the next round, her home one in the Netherlands.
With just three points between Van Drunen and Guillen, it was time for the return to Arnhem, just an hour from her home city and site of Lotte’s first victory a year before. The Spaniard gave the home crowd a scare with fastest time in Time Practice, but with average starts she was powerless to prevent the local girl from speeding away at the front in both races. Although Duncan stayed close throughout, the maximum score and podium performances from both Duncan and Valk extended the points lead to 17 before the final round in Türkiye.
Taking no chances, especially on a heavily watered circuit for the second race, Van Drunen could afford to be cautious and despite the overall victory going to Daniela, it was Lotte van Drunen who fulfilled all of the expectations to claim her first world title at the age of just 17. An incredible achievement for a girl who, together with the strong and tenacious Guillen, is lifting the Women’s side of the sport to new heights in terms of its prestige and status in World Motocross. Long Live the Queen!
Lotte Van Drunen: “I can’t believe it. I’m still so young and we worked so hard for it and now to do it already is something incredible. I want to give a big thanks to my dad because he’s the man behind all this. And thanks to my mom, my brother, my friends and family, my team, my trainers, everybody supporting me. This is crazy! Dreams do come true. That’s what we can see now. It’s been quite a great season. I’ve had some bad results, but I’ve also had really good results. My starts were bad and also all shots. So, yeah, I think this could never have been better. I’m really proud of myself and everybody around me, because without them this would have never been possible”
Quick Facts
Date of Birth: 09/08/2007
Place of birth: Gorinchem, The Netherlands
Racing Number: 401
Team: De Baets Yamaha MX-Team
BEST RESULT: WMX World Champion (2024)
FIRST ROUND RACED: MXGP of Türkiye 2022.
WMX Career stats:
Overall Victories: 4
Overall Podiums: 8
Race Wins: 9
Top 3 Race Finishes: 15
Pole Positions: 5
WMX 2024 stats:
Overall Victories: 3
Overall Podiums: 5
Race Wins: 5
Top 3 Race Finishes: 10
Pole Positions: 3
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