NEW BERLIN, New York: Lachlan Turner returned to the United States after winning eight straight motos and a championship in the Australian WMX Series and walked away from the field in the first moto of the Unadilla National. Turner beat Charli Cannon to the finish line by more than 10 seconds.
In what might have been described as grudge match, Turner exacted her revenge over Cannon, who became the first rider other than the two-time champion to win an overall in 2026 when she scored the victory in Moto 2 of the High Point National and the overall on a tiebreaker.
“Racing back and forth, just makes you better,” Turner said from the top of the podium about her experience in Australia. “Racing gets you better, so that’s what I’m doing.”
Cannon, an Australian native, had an up and down moto after being challenged by Mayla Herrick in the opening laps, Mikayla Nielsen in the middle stage, and Jordan Jarvis at the end of the moto.
Unadilla has been a strong track for Cannon after winning Moto 1 there in 2025.
“I’m not too happy with that ride,” Cannon said after the race. “I got a pretty good start and just fell over in that first lap and that kind of, I guess it just frazzled me, and I got stuck behind the girls. Then I was making too many mistakes. So we’ll just clean that up and evaluate the track for tomorrow and it should be good. I feel good out there, so just need to eliminate those mistakes that I made during the moto and we’ll have some fun.”
Jarvis round out the podium as she kept her feet on the pegs and capitalized on her rival’s mistakes. Jordan started outside the top five, cracked that position when Herrick crashed, and then challenged Mikayla Nielsen for the final podium position after the white flag waved.
“It hasn’t been a bad year by any means, but definitely not happy with how it’s gone,” Jarvis said. “Not happy with how Loretta’s went (where she finished second to Herrick). So coming in here with some fire, got one more moto tomorrow and then I pack everything up and go to Canada on Sunday. So racing’s nonstop. I’m just going to keep getting better as the year goes on and so far I have.”
Herrick finished fourth despite crashing during the moto.
Piper Bell rounded out the top five.
