Lachlan Turner overcomes mistake to win the first moto of 2026 WMX Series

RANCHO CORDOVA, California: Lachlan Turner led the first and last lap of Moto 1 of the Hangtown Classic at Prairie City SVRA to begin her 2024 and 2025 title defense with a victory, but for most of the 12 minutes plus one lap, it appeared Christi Cannon would stand on the top of the podium.

Turner earned the holeshot and pulled a gap on the field, but almost immediately after jumping across the finish line, she put her bike on the ground and handed the lead to Cannon.

“I just made it hard on myself,” Turner told NBC Sports after the moto. “I got the holeshot, then led and fell over and had to work my way up. I really worked for that one, so it means a lot.”

Turner regained her flow and tracked down the top three. She was in second by the completion of Lap 3, but Cannon had a solid lead.

Cannon rode flawlessly for most of the moto until a mistake on the final lap caused her to lose the backend of her bike. Turner zipped by and beat the field to the finish line by two seconds.

“I got off to a good start and I led the first few laps,” Cannon said. “I charged hard, but I guess towards the end, I lacked a little intensity. I made a big mistake over the triple, which cost us some time and it came down to that last lap, wheel on wheel. She just made a good pass for me on the corner, which I’m [devastated] that I just threw it away. But we got one more tomorrow and I’m ready to back for it.”

The troubles weren’t over for Cannon, however. She was docked a position for accelerating off course during that final lap and was credited with third.

That elevated Mikayla Nielsen to second, which was her eighth podium in the last 12 motos of competition.

Nielsen had her own problems to overcome. She broke a motor in the final qualification session and almost failed to make the gate drop.

“My motor was broke before this race, so my mechanic had to swap it,” Nielsen said. “First call went by and I was like, I need to go get my gate. The wheels weren’t even on the bike, so I was just praying that I was going to get to race the moto. I just tried to keep my cool, and then I saw the bike coming right as gate drop was going for the site lap.”

In her WMX debut Taylah McCullough rode as high as second early in the race before slipping to fourth at the end.

Jordan Jarvis rounded out the top five.

WMX Moto 1 results