The 2026 Women’s Motocross Championship Powered by Synchrony (WMX) reached its pivotal halfway point with an anticipated return to the lush landscape of the “Country Club of Motocross” at High Point Raceway. The UFO Plast High Point National served as the summer’s first race on the East Coast and with it came the most unpredictable action of the season as new faces emerged and a new winner stood atop the podium. After six straight runner-up efforts, multi-time Australian National Champion and Quad Lock Honda rider Charli Cannon [#7] broke through for her first win in the U.S. and led a podium composed of fellow champions.
With one WMX race under her belt, reigning FIM World Champion Lotte van Drunen [#401] came out swinging in her second stateside race, as the Dutch rider paced both Qualifying sessions on Friday. The HGS Slade Racing rider posted her fastest lap during the second session with a time of 2:09.263, which placed her nearly a second ahead of the 2:10.126 posted by reigning WMX Champion, Altus Motorsports bLU cRU Yamaha’s Lachlan “Lala” Turner [#1].
While all eyes were on a potential champions showdown between van Drunen and Turner for Friday’s opening moto, it was SLR Honda’s Mayla Herrick [#23] who shocked everyone by grabbing the holeshot and sprinting clear of the field in her first ever professional gate drop, on her 17th birthday.
Partzilla Blaster Power PRMX Kawasaki’s Taylah McCutcheon [#10] slotted into second initially, but lost traction approaching the track’s first jump and bottlenecked the field. That allowed van Drunen to move into second and fellow SLR Honda rider Mikayla Nielsen [#51] into third. Turner found herself outside the top five in eighth, while Cannon started even further back in 15th.
With the lead in hand, Herrick showed an impressive level of comfort controlling the pace of the moto. van Drunen was able to move within reach of the lead but was unable to gain significant ground on Herrick. Meanwhile, Turner fought her way forward and moved up to fifth. She continued to push the pace got around both McCutcheon and Nielsen on the same lap to take control of third.
Herrick showed the poise of a veteran out front, even as she navigated lapped riders. She maintained a lead of about two seconds over van Drunen for the entirety of the moto and carried on to complete a memorable and historic wire-to-wire moto win by 1.8 seconds over the world champ, who also claimed her first moto podium. Turner, battling illness, was unable to close in and settled for third. It marked the first time this season she failed to win a moto. Nielsen was fourth, while Cannon made a valiant charge up to fifth.
Saturday’s second moto was initially marred by a crash in the first turn that included Herrick and several other riders. Unfortunately, Herrick was unable to continue, and the race was ultimately red flagged, which necessitated a restart. It proved to be a fortunate turn of events for van Drunen, who experienced an issue with her start device during the initial gate drop and later discovered oil was leaking from her Yamaha. The red flag period allowed those issues to be resolved and enabled van Drunen to line up.
The restart saw Turner grab the holeshot over Cannon. McCutcheon slotted in between them briefly, but Cannon soon reclaimed the position. The clear track allowed Turner to open up a three second lead on the opening lap.
As the leaders pulled away, Nielsen was able to make the pass around McCutcheon for third. Behind them, van Drunen overcame a start outside the top 10 to put herself into a fight inside the top five.
Out front, Turner continued to build on her lead over Cannon and was nearly 10 seconds clear of the field when she crashed shortly before time expired on the race clock. She crossed rutted upon landing off a jump and knocked the wind out of herself. As Turner picked up her bike Cannon rode past, with Turner reentering several seconds later in second.
Despite her best efforts, Turner was unable to overcome the deficit on the final lap and Cannon carried on to her third WMX moto win by 5.1 seconds. Nielsen followed in third, just ahead of van Drunen.
Cannon (5-1) and Turner (3-2) ended up tied for the overall with 42 points apiece, but Cannon’s moto win gave her the second moto tiebreaker and her maiden WMX victory.
Turner’s runner-up finish signified just the third time in 15 career starts that she failed to win a moto.
van Drunen finished on the overall podium in just her second WMX start and will return to defend her MXW title in the FIM Motocross World Championship.
A history-making overall podium was composed of a four-time Australian National Champion in Cannon, a two-time AMA National Champion in Turner, and a two-time FIM World Champion in van Drunen.
Despite the end of her seven-race win streak, Turner did not lose a single point to Cannon in the championship standings. The rivals remain separated by nine points with three rounds remaining.
Jordan Jarvis Yamaha’s Jordan Jarvis [#301] sits third in the standings, 30 points back, but also sits just one point ahead of Nielsen, in fourth, and three points ahead of McCutcheon, in fifth.
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