The FIM Motocross World Championship stars accepted the challenge of the sandy track at Arnhem, in The Netherlands, at the weekend with Kiwi hero Courtney Duncan impressing again.
The reigning world champion from South Otago was thrilled to be back in the picture after a mixed campaign this year and a non-point round four of seven in Germany back at the beginning of June.
While multi-time former men’s world champion Jeffery Herlings dominated in the premier MXGP men’s class in Holland at the weekend, New Zealand’s Duncan took her F&H Kawasaki to finish overall runner-up in the penultimate sixth round of the separate Women’s Motocross World Championships (WMX) that shared the programme.
The seventh and final round of the WMX is set for Turkey on September 8.
The reigning women’s world champion from South Otago was thrilled to be back in the picture after a mixed campaign this year, with a non-point-scoring round four of seven in Germany back at the beginning of June effectively rerailing her campaign.
But, with the 2024 WMX race tightening, all eyes were on the championship leader’s red plate-holder, Dutch De Baets Yamaha MX-Team rider Lotte Van Drunen, who entered the round neck-and-neck with Daniela Guillen, from RFME Spain National Team, 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’, 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 GP round with Van Drunen taking the lead from the first turn in front of Lynn Valk from Schmicker Racing but the number 1, F&H Racing Team’s Kiwi rider Duncan quickly took the second spot as she took the inside of Valk to chase after the red plate.
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 11th after a couple of turns but she quickly launched a charge up the field and was 8th on the opening lap.
The Dutch rider Valk showed composure to move up to 3rd in the opening lap with her countrywoman Sara Andersen getting to 4th 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 MXFONTARACING’s Kiara Fontanesi fought for 6th with Guillen on her back but the Spanish rider found her rhythm after an average start and passed the Italian for 6th and started to eye a move on Van De Ven for fifth who had a good cushion at that time.
With many Dutch rider showing what the fans came fore, it was Van Drunen who was at the top and managed to keep around 2 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 12, 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 in 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 the Sunday.
In race two, 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 Ceres 71 Racing’s Danee Gelissen, Sara Andersen and SYE Racing Team 423’s Larissa Papenmeier.
The Spanish rider was on fire and not finished as she passed Fontanesi on lap 2 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 4 seconds. It didn’t last long for Valk as Duncan fought back to 2nd with a good flow while Valk came under pressure on the charging Guillen on lap 3 who was eying the 3rd spot. Fontanesi in 5th fell behind to 12 seconds with Andersen on her back wheel.
Finally on lap five of 11, 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 6 and looks 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 3rd place of Guillen and the seventh place of Gelissen. With a good 3-4, Valk got on the third step of the podium while 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 second 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.
MXGP CLASS
Meanwhile, MXGP ploughed back into the sand for the Grand Prix of the Netherlands and the Arnhem terrain was the scene for Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Dutch rider Jeffrey Herlings to go 1-1 for the third time this season in the MXGP class.
Herlings clinched his third victory from the last five meetings to close the gap at the top of the FIM World Championship standings, while MX2 World Champ Andrea Adamo broke into the top three for the second week in a row with third overall.
For the second year in a row the Dutch Grand Prix was hosted by the compact and sandy Motorsportpark Gelderland circuit in Arnhem.
Herlings was attempting his first MXGP outing at the venue after missing the 2023 event. Hot and bright weather greeted both days of action at the rippled, technical and physical layout.
On Saturday the qualification race decided the gate positions for the two Grand Prix motos on Sunday as well as providing the riders with their first opportunity to snare world championship points for the weekend.
Herlings took his works KTM 450 SX-F to 4th position after a top 10 start.
In the MX2 class, Belgium’s Liam Everts was highest classified with third followed by defending champion Adamo in fourth.
Sunday saw Herlings in superb form despite a back complaint. He took his time to make progress in the first moto but passed his title rivals to comfortably own the chequered flag.
Herlings’ start was better in the second race and he was able to control the 30-minute and 2-lap distance from the front of the pack; winning his twelfth moto of the year by almost 10 seconds.
Red Bull KTM headed the MX2 running at the start of the first outing with Belgium’s Sacha Coenen, Everts and Adamo running 1-2-3.
It was Everts who applied the more effective pace and crossed the line in 3rd with Adamo a clear 4th.
The Italian was more formidable on the rough track in the second dash as he classified as runner-up and celebrated 3rd on the day.
Everts had a crash that dropped him to 7th (5th overall). Coenen was 10-6 for his result card but led for a phase.
EMX250 star Cas Valk made another wildcard entry to MX2. The Dutchman scored 11-11 and will be back on European Championship duty next weekend.
Herlings now has 11 consecutive podium finishes and 12 for the season as well as 15 career wins on home soil.
The points haul means he is 3rd in the standings: just 35 from the red plate and 26 from P2. In MX2 Everts holds 4th and is 40 points from the top three.
The Grand Prix of Switzerland at Frauenfeld will bring MXGP up to round 17 and the last fixture in August.
Photo courtesy F&H Kawasaki
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MXGP AND MX2 STANDINGS AFTER ROUND 16 of 20:
MXGP – World Championship – Top 10 Classification:
1. Tim Gajser (SLO, HON), 801 points; 2. Jorge Prado (ESP, GAS), 792 p.; 3. Jeffrey Herlings (NED, KTM), 766 p.; 4. Calvin Vlaanderen (NED, YAM), 550 p.; 5. Jeremy Seewer (SUI, KAW), 547 p.; 6. Glenn Coldenhoff (NED, FAN), 495 p.; 7. Romain Febvre (FRA, KAW), 492 p.; 8. Kevin Horgmo (NOR, HON), 359 p.; 9. Valentin Guillod (SUI, HON), 306 p.; 10. Brian Bogers (NED, FAN), 283 p.
MX2 – World Championship Classification:
1. Kay de Wolf (NED, HUS), 777 points; 2. Lucas Coenen (BEL, HUS), 733 p.; 3. Simon Laengenfelder (GER, GAS), 676 p.; 4. Liam Everts (BEL, KTM), 636 p.; 5. Andrea Adamo (ITA, KTM), 545 p.; 6. Mikkel Haarup (DEN, TRI), 542 p.; 7. Rick Elzinga (NED, YAM), 492 p.; 8. Sacha Coenen (BEL, KTM), 444 p.; 9. Camden Mc Lellan (RSA, TRI), 315 p.; 10. Ferruccio Zanchi (ITA, HON), 290 p
WMX RESULTS & STANDINGS AFTER ROUND 6 of 7:
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 p.; 3. Lynn Valk (NED, KTM), 38 p.; 4. Daniela Guillen (ESP, GAS), 36 p.; 5. Sara Andersen (DEN, KTM), 34 p.; 6. Kiara Fontanesi (ITA, GAS), 29 p.; 7. Larissa Papenmeier (GER, HON), 26 p.; 8. Danee Gelissen (NED, YAM), 24 p.; 9. Malou Jakobsen (DEN, KTM), 24 p.; 10. Amandine Verstappen (BEL, YAM), 22 p.
WMX World Championship – Top 10 Classification:
1. Lotte Van Drunen (NED, YAM), 248 points; 2. Daniela Guillen (ESP, GAS), 231 p.; 3. Lynn Valk (NED, KTM), 204 p.; 4. Kiara Fontanesi (ITA, GAS), 192 p.; 5. Larissa Papenmeier (GER, HON), 164 p.; 6. Sara Andersen (DEN, KTM), 162 p.; 7. Courtney Duncan (NZL, KAW), 152 p.; 8. Malou Jakobsen (DEN, KTM), 120 p.; 9. Danee Gelissen (NED, YAM), 117 p.; 10. April Franzoni (FRA, HON), 94 p.