Duncan Wins WMX Spanish Round in Back-to-Back Victory and Takes the Red Plate.
The third round of the FIM Women’s Motocross World Championship has ended at intu-Xanadú with Big Van World MTX Kawasaki’s Courtney Duncan taking the victory.
The return to the competition for the WMX showed amazing battles throughout Saturday and Sunday in front of passionate Spanish fans who came in large number creating a special and unique atmosphere.
In the first race, it was Nancy Van De Ven of Ceres 71 Racing who took the best start to lead the way in front of Big Van World MTX Kawasaki’s Courtney Duncan and RFME GasGas WMX Team’s Daniela Guillen. Van de Ven seemed to control the first lap when she went down giving free way for Duncan to take the lead. Duncan made the perfect race as she increased her lead constantly to win the race by 28 seconds. Van de Ven had to settle for 12th in the end continuing to have issues on the first races so far in the season as she went down a second time on lap 5 when she was back up to 5th .
Guillen seemed to go the whole way as 2nd but the determination of MX Fonta Racing’s Kiara Fontanesi made the difference in the end. Fontanesi found herself 5th after lap 1 and charged the whole race to overtake Larissa Papenmeier for 4th on lap 2, then Fantic Maddii Factory Racing’s Lynn Valk on lap 7 for 3rd. The five-time World Champion looked full of control as she managed to also pass Guillen for 2nd on lap 8. Guillen could not contain Fontanesi’s speed in the end and settled for 3rd while Fontanesi finished 2nd. Guillen made a great start as she found herself 2nd on the turn of lap 1 and in the end at a good 3rd place for her home round in Spain. Valk ended up at the 4th place.
Larissa Papenmeier’s Yamaha Racing 423 showed some good moves as after she made a mistake and moved down from 4th to 8th on lap 2 but found her rhythm to get back to 5th with her last overtake on JK Racing Yamaha Charli Cannon on lap 11.
Martine Hughes had a really good ride too as she found herself 10th on lap 1 and managed to move her way up throughout the race. She gained two spots oer the course of three laps by overtaking RFME GasGas WMX Team’s Gabriela Seisdedos on lap 2 for 9th and benefitted from Lotte Van Drunen fall to get to 8th on lap 3. She then followed Papenmeier all way through to finish 6th.
Championship leader Van Drunen made a mistake early in the race and found herself 9th on lap 3 but showed her usual qualities to get back to 7th in the end. Cannon looked like she was up for a good top 5 finish until lap 10 but then got overtaken successively to finish 8th. The best performance of race 1 was for Sara Andersen who passed lap 1 in 19th position but then displayed some great speed to power through and finished 9th in the end.
Jamie Astudillo had a strong consistent race as she never got overtaken from lap 1 until the end and even gain one place to finish 10th.
In race 2, Van de Ven led the way from the first turn while Fontanesi went down in the first turn and had to retire from the race. Cannon quickly took the lead within the first lap. Behind them was Duncan who found herself 3rd in lap 1.
On the back of her win in race 1, Duncan started to charge the front two riders as she overtook van de Ven on lap 3 after a mistake from the Defending World Champion. Duncan did not waste time to put pressure on Cannon for the lead and it was a done thing on lap 4. Duncan went on to get a perfect 1-1 to top the round of Spain showing all her speed throughout the whole weekend. Van de Ven finish in 6th place for a 8th overall.
Cannon fought hard but got overtaken by the excellent Valk on lap 5 and had to concede her 3rd spot to Guillen in last couple of laps. Cannon Finished 4th for a good 4th overall.
Guillen had a very good determination, and showed a lot of fighting spirit in front of her home fans to get this 3rd place which placed her on the 3rd step of the podium with a 3-3.
Valk showed very good control throughout the whole weekend as she came from the back in race 2. She was 6th on the turn of lap 1 and pushed through with great overtakes to get to a great 2nd place to go 4-2 and get on her 1st podium of the season with 2nd overall.
Van Drunen started well as she was 4th over the first to laps but went down on lap 3 to move down to 6th. However, Van Drunen’s speed helped her to get back to 5th in the end while overtaking van de Ven along the way. With a 7-5 Van Drunen finished 5th overall.
Papenmeier and Andersen followed each other from lap 1 until the end where both gained positions. Papenmeier ended at the 7th place while Andersen on 8th position. It was the same path followed by Britt Jans-Beken who rode a steady race, gaining one position on lap 2 from 10th to 9th to keep her position until the end getting a 10th overall. Mathea Seleboe managed to get a good top 10 as finished 10th.
In the end Courtney Duncan got a well deserved back-to-back win and took the Red Plate in front of the good Lynn Valk and home hero Daniela Guillen.
Courtney Duncan: “It was a really good weekend for me with two wins, it couldn’t be better and I got the red plate. It’s awesome and the crowd was so loud today. I’m happy to have the Red Plate back. An awesome weekend and I could not ask for much more than that!”
WMX – Race 1 – Top 10 Classification: 1. Courtney Duncan (NZL, Kawasaki), 25:50.085; 2. Kiara Fontanesi (ITA, GASGAS), +0:28.705; 3. Daniela Guillen (ESP, GASGAS), +0:32.275; 4. Lynn Valk (NED, Fantic), +0:35.055; 5. Larissa Papenmeier (GER, Yamaha), +0:55.953; 6. Martine Hughes (NOR, Husqvarna), +1:03.765; 7. Lotte Van Drunen (NED, Kawasaki), +1:16.207; 8. Charli Cannon (AUS, Yamaha), +1:17.874; 9. Sara Andersen (DEN, KTM), +1:42.652; 10. Jamie Astudillo (USA, KTM), +1:52.431
WMX – Race 2 – Top 10 Classification: 1. Courtney Duncan (NZL, Kawasaki), 24:18.919; 2. Lynn Valk (NED, Fantic), +0:07.313; 3. Daniela Guillen (ESP, GASGAS), +0:13.139; 4. Charli Cannon (AUS, Yamaha), +0:15.370; 5. Lotte Van Drunen (NED, Kawasaki), +0:16.248; 6. Nancy van de Ven (NED, Yamaha), +0:47.026; 7. Larissa Papenmeier (GER, Yamaha), +0:47.611; 8. Sara Andersen (DEN, KTM), +1:12.418; 9. Britt Jans-Beken (NED, Yamaha), +1:22.541; 10. Mathea Seleboe (NOR, Yamaha), +1:27.937;
WMX – Overall Top 10 Classification: 11. Courtney Duncan (NZL, KAW), 50 points; 2. Lynn Valk (NED, FAN), 40 p.; 3. Daniela Guillen (ESP, GAS), 40 p.; 4. Charli Cannon (AUS, YAM), 31 p.; 5. Lotte Van Drunen (NED, KAW), 30 p.; 6. Larissa Papenmeier (GER, YAM), 30 p.; 7. Sara Andersen (DEN, KTM), 25 p.; 8. Nancy van de Ven (NED, YAM), 24 p.; 9. Kiara Fontanesi (ITA, GAS), 22 p.; 10. Jamie Astudillo (USA, KTM), 21 p.
WMX – Championship Top 10 Classification: 1. Courtney Duncan (NZL, KAW), 135 points; 2. Daniela Guillen (ESP, GAS), 125 p.; 3. Lotte Van Drunen (NED, KAW), 116 p.; 4. Lynn Valk (NED, FAN), 98 p.; 5. Charli Cannon (AUS, YAM), 89 p.; 6. Kiara Fontanesi (ITA, GAS), 83 p.; 7. Sara Andersen (DEN, KTM), 75 p.; 8. Larissa Papenmeier (GER, YAM), 71 p.; 9. Nancy van de Ven (NED, YAM), 66 p.; 10. Britt Jans-Beken (NED, YAM), 64 p.;
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