The Women’s Motocross (WMX) Championship, held in conjunction with the AMA Pro Motocross Series, became a battle of the continents, as defending WMX Champion Lachlan “La La” Turner (Altus Motorsports bLU cRU Yamaha) went 2-1 to take the overall win at round five of the WMX series at Unadilla Raceway in New Berlin, New York, beating out Australian Champion Charli Cannon’s (Quad Lock Honda) 1-2 finish for the overall victory in what was perhaps the best race of the year.
Photos by Michael Antonovich
In moto one, holeshot hotshot Kyleigh Stallings (Monster Energy Kawasaki Team Green Kawasaki) exited the first turn with the lead for the third straight time, dating back to last weekend in Indiana, with Cannon on her rear fender. However, Turner had a different plan, taking the outside line and scooting around both Stallings and Cannon in turn two to take the lead.
Meanwhile, Cannon ducked inside of Stallings to take second before locking her sights on Turner, setting up a battle that would last the entire race. At the finish, Cannon edged out Turner for the win.
Round one winner, SLR Honda’s Mikayla Nielsen passed Stallings midrace to finish third, while Yamaha’s Jordan Jarvis also slipped by to finish fourth. Stallings was fifth.
Stallings was first out of the gate again in moto two but was quickly passed by Turner and Cannon.
Cannon pressed Turner for the entire race and at one point went down, losing additional time, allowing Turner to easily win the moto ahead of Cannon, Nielsen, Jordan Jarvis and Stallings.
In the end, Turner’s 2-1 trumped Cannon’s 1-2 for the overall win. Nielsen (3-3) finished third overall, Jarvis (4-4) was fourth and Stallings fifth (5-5).
“I learned from my mistakes the first moto—and capitalized on the lappers and realized what I needed to do better—and came out swinging for the second moto,” said Turner. “I was not letting anyone beat me.”
Cannon is starting to gain her footing on American soil and gave Turner her best challenge of the season.
“It was a step in the right direction,” said Cannon. “I was happy with the first moto. It was a cool race for Turner and me. Lachlan and I just swapped leads and battled the whole moto, and I’m super happy to have won that one. The second race, I haven’t been getting good starts this weekend, but I was in third, and I made my way to second, but I didn’t really feel this one. I made too many mistakes. Obviously, I had quite a big crash over a step-up, which bent my bike, but I finished second, which I’m proud of myself for pushing on.”
Nielsen was third overall, despite two big crashes on consecutive weekends.
“I crashed last week at Ironman and was kind of banged up from that, and then this weekend I had a situation where my bike stepped out and I crashed pretty hard again in qualifying,” said Nielsen. “So, I didn’t get the most out of practice. I was kind of a little unsure with the moto-one race, but I rode my best, and we were just chasing bike setup in this last moto. I’m sure everyone is, but I’m from California and we’re used to hard pack, so I thought this track would have been good for me, but it just sucked watching them kind of walk away from me when I felt like I was riding good.”
With one round remaining at Budds Creek on August 22, Turner leads the championship with 217 points, followed by Cannon with 193. Nielsen is third with 182, while Stallings and Jarvis round out the top five with 153 and 151, respectively.
2025 WMX Round 5 Results
- Lachlan Turner (Yam) 2-1
- Charli Cannon (Hon) 1-2
- Mikayla Nielsen (Hon) 3-3
- Jordan Jarvis (Yam) 4-4
- Kyleigh Stallings (Kaw) 5-5
- Jamie Astudillo (KTM) 6-6
- Nanami Honda (Yam) 7-7
- Destiny Burgess (KTM) 8-8
- Jaylie Gallacher (Hon) 9-9
- Kaitlyn Jacobs (Hon) 11-10
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