A lovely summer night race made for a memorable opener to the 2016 FIM Women’s Motocross World Championship for WMX rookie Courtney Duncan who stole the show on the impressive man-made circuit of Losail to win the round with a massive double race victory.
The opening race of the season is always gnarly and this time it was no different. When the gates dropped, defending world champion Kiara Fontanesi of MXFontaRacing Syneco Honda pulled across on the vice world champion Livia Lancelot of Team One One Four which forced them both to lose a fraction of a second and hand the young Dutch speedster Nancy Van De Ven the holeshot.
Just as she did last year, Van De Ven led the opening lap ahead of Lancelot, Fontanesi and Duncan, who is fresh out of New Zealand. On the opening lap none of the girls were prepared to give an inch as Lancelot forced a pass up the inside of Van De Ven to take the lead. A few corners later, Duncan carried more momentum into the waves and took second.
As the Kiwi started breaking down the walls of Lancelot, Fontanesi over shot a 180 degree turn and crashed which left Van De Ven with a bit of breathing room in third.
Meanwhile, last year’s WMX round of Qatar dominator, Lancelot, had her work cut out as Duncan was hot on her tails. With 10 minutes to go, Duncan seized the opportunity to pass Lancelot, took the lead and didn’t look back.
At the checkers, it was Duncan who had stretched out a lead of 27 seconds to win the opening race of the year. Meanwhile, Lancelot kept a cool head for second while Van De Ven had a comfortable gap in third over Larissa Papenmeier and KTM Silver Actions’ Amandine Verstappen.
When the gates dropped for WMX Race 2, Nancy Van de Ven took yet another holeshot. Race one winner Duncan was around third place heading into the first turn but wasted no time in pushing past Lancelot, who was in second, and Van de Ven to take the lead.

Race 1 (top three)
1. C Duncan (Yamaha) 25:39.039
2. L Lancelot (Kawasaki) +27.377
3. N Van De Ven (Yamaha) +41.292
Race 2 (top three)
1. C Duncan (Yamaha) 25:46.879
2. L Lancelot (Kawasaki) +28.037
3. K Fontanesi (Honda) +48.139
Overall standings (top three)
1. C Duncan (NZL, YAM) 50 points
2. L Lancelot (FRA, KAW) 44
3. N Van De Ven (NED, YAM) 38