WMX continues to gain momentum and with the Women’s Motocross Championship powered by Synchrony set to commence this weekend at Hangtown alongside round two of the 2026 Pro Motocross Championship, anticipation is building ahead of the new season. Defending champion Lachlan Turner, along with Charli Cannon and Mikayla Nielsen, shared their thoughts on the upcoming season during the series’ pre-season press conference, which you can hear within this Input feature.

Image: Octopi Media.

Lachlan Turner (Altus Motorsports BLU CRU Yamaha):
I had a crash about two weeks ago and initially thought I’d broken my lower back again. Thankfully, it turned out to be torn ligaments in my lower back instead. I think it’s pretty close to being fully healed now, and I believe [Charli Cannon and I] are getting back to 100 percent. We’re really competitive on the track, it’s definitely cool to race and battle with them because we’re all out there racing to win. It’s fun to go head-to-head on the track and then, once the racing is over, go get food together or even get our nails done. That balance makes it pretty special. It’s going to be a really cool challenge racing each other this year when we’re both fully fit. Racing the opening round in Australia, they definitely taught me a lot. My riding style changed quite a bit, even from the short amount of time I spent over there – they have so much knowledge and experience, and it was really cool to be able to learn from them. The whole experience gave me a big confidence boost coming back home, and I feel ready for the season to get underway. My expectation is obviously to go 1-1. Last year I didn’t go 1-1 at the opening round, so that was a real kick in the bum, but I definitely want to go 1-1 this opening round and get the year going.

Charli Cannon (Quad Lock Honda):
I probably haven’t raced as much as I would have liked coming into this season. The first round of the Australian championship, which was combined with the Oceania Women’s Cup, has been the only big race I’ve competed in this year. I also raced a local area qualifier at High Point, but that’s about it. I’ve been able to spend a lot more time on the bike during the week training, so I feel prepared from that perspective. I definitely feel a lot more prepared for this year and have a lot more knowledge after racing the series last season. Coming into last year, I didn’t really know much about the competition, the tracks or what to expect, but now I have that experience to build from. I’ve also had a really good lead-up to the season, training at MTF, spending a lot more time on the bike and focusing on consistency. I’m looking forward to the year ahead and getting the racing underway. This is where I’ve always wanted to be, and now I have the opportunity to be based here and race the full series with Quad Lock Honda. Hopefully I can stay here for a few more years and continue chasing my goals. At the moment, I’m still racing between Australia and America for Honda, and I’m just enjoying what I do. I think ‘LaLa’ and I are both coming into this season a lot healthier than we were last year – I don’t have any lingering injuries, and I’m sure LaLa is ripping too now that everything has healed up. We’re both coming in healthy and I’m ready to put up a fight. Coming into this first round, I really want to get some good starts and be consistent. I want to start up front and fight for the wins. Last year I had a really slow start to the season, but I came into that one a little injured. This year I’m healthy and ready to be in the fight. I’m looking forward to having some fun battles and fighting for the wins.

Image: Foremost Media.

Mikayla Nielsen (SLR Honda Racing Team):
I think women’s sport as a whole is growing rapidly right now and it’s exciting to be part of that. There’s a lot more interest in what we’re doing and it’s a great feeling to know that we have that support behind us. We want to be racing on Saturdays, and with Synchrony onboard we now have the opportunity to showcase what we can do on Saturdays as well as during the Friday motos. It’s a pretty exciting time to be involved in women’s sport right now. I’ve been racing the National Grand Prix Championship (NGPC) off-road series and have completed about six rounds so far, plus I’ve also raced a couple of local events along the way. That championship is currently on its summer break and doesn’t resume until the same weekend as Ironman, so I’ll have to work out how to balance racing both series when that comes around. But overall, I’ve been spending a lot of time racing off-road and a few local races as well. I feel like it’s safe to say [last year] was not as consistent a season as I would have hoped. The highs were highs and the lows were lows, but I feel like I have a better understanding of the season now. Before that, I was just racing off-road and not really doing much moto, but now, coming into it, I feel like I’m more prepared. I just try to put as much time as I can into riding, doing a lot of motos and training with the boys. I’m sure they all have too, but I feel like I’m going to come into this season a little more open-minded. If anything happens, you can’t take it too hard because you’ve got to race again the next weekend. I feel like that’s one thing I had to learn last year – you can’t dwell on it because you’re right back into it again seven days later. So yeah, I feel like I just want to come into this season and be grateful for what we’re doing. Obviously I want to win, but it’s kind of crazy how much we’ve blown up. I feel like all three of us should sometimes just take a step back and be like, ‘This is crazy.’ But yeah, I definitely still want to come out swinging again this year and keep it going as I go from race to race.