Dirt bike racing is filled with highs and lows, and no one knows that better for the moment than Mayla Herrick.
In a little more than 24 hours, Herrick went from standing on the top box of the podium in the High Point National in the Women’s Pro Motocross Series powered by Synchrony (WMX) to lying in a hospital bed with a concussion.
Herrick debuted in the WMX Series with a victory in Moto 1 at High Point in Mount Morris, Pennsylvania, on her 17th birthday, the first day she could compete in the series.
In that race, she held off a challenge by two reigning champions, Lotte van Drunen, the MXGP Women’s Pro Motocross champion, and Lachlan Turner, who is defending her US WMX title. Both riders have won the last two championships. Also competing in the race was Charli Cannon, the reigning Australian Women’s Motocross champion.
Herrick was in a position to win the overall after getting a fast start into Turn 1, but as the field rounded the corner, contact in heavy traffic sent her to the ground hard.
Moto 2 was red flagged and Herrick was eventually transported to a local hospital with a potential broken femur. X-rays revealed no broken bones, but she was held overnight with a concussion.
On Monday, Herrick’s family provided an update.
“To update you on Mayla — she is doing great,” Kelsy Herrick, Mayla’s mother, reported to RacerXOnline.com. “Initially, they thought she may have a femur fracture, but we are very grateful to share that she has no broken bones. She does have a pretty significant concussion and is bruised, scraped, and sore, but she will recover and should be ready in time for Loretta’s and Unadilla.”
The Monster Energy AMA Amateur National Motocross Championship, commonly known as the Loretta Lynn’s National because it is held on the late-singer’s ranch, will run August 3-8, which gives Herrick nearly six weeks of recovery time.
