Daytona International Speedway President, Frank Kelleher, is ready to get creative to bring more motorcycle racing to the track: “As Bill France used to say, we’re not here to grow grass,” Kelleher told NBC Sports while watching Free Practice at Thunder Ridge Nature Area in Ridgedale, Missouri.
Daytona’s annual Bike Week currently hosts some of the best racing in the sport, anchored by the Daytona Supercross on the frontstretch dirt and the Daytona 200 on the track’s infield road course. When the SuperMotocross World Championship was created, the similarity to the new hybrid tracks and what Daytona had done all along was noted.
There is plenty of room for one more set of motos on the massive foot print that Daytona provides.
The Women’s Pro Motocross (WMX) series debuted at Daytona as part of the Ricky Carmichael Daytona Amateur Supercross program and it was run after the Daytona Supercross race that has become foundational on the schedule.
As WMX set out to create its ling-term direction, Hannah Hodges became the first winner in series’ history on a track that was radically altered from the one on which the men competed.
Daytona and Carmichael had to get creative that weekend in 2024 as the track transitioned from the highly technical one professionals expect to one that would create strong competition for less experienced riders.
In its first season, eight rounds comprised the WMX schedule and the best six contributed to the championship. Two of the six races were run in conjunction with the Pro Motocross Nationals.
The series has come a long way since. In 2026, all six WMX rounds were part of the men’s program with major broadcast coverage provided by Peacock.tv.
“We’re here to throw races and host the biggest and best motor sports events,” Kelleher said. “I have been following the series and am really excited with what they have going on. And if the stars align that we could host, definitely that would be a win.”
To do so would most likely require the speedway to get creative once more.
One of the primary arguments against women racing on Supercross track is the technical requirements, specifically the whoops section. One reason the ladies of motocross were invited to compete in the 2026 SuperMotocross finale, was the loss of that section in the three-rounds that make up the playoffs as a way of making these hybrid tracks behave more like those in Pro Motocross.
“We see that with what Ricky Carmichael does at the amateur event where we can have a split lane, we can have a pro section, we can have an amateur section,” Kelleher continued.
Daytona would be amenable to creating a split lane around the whoops, if that was what it took to expand the program.
One other objection is the lack of experience on Supercross-style jumps, but the women took a huge step toward removing that obstacle in Ridgedale.
WMX staged what was arguably the best race among five that made up the Saturday show for the SMX Finale. Hodges, who won the inaugural race in 2024 before disappearing from the schedule to give birth to her first son, led early and was part of a three-rider battle that handed the lead to eventual winner, Lachlan Turner.
In Ridgedale, Hodges scored her second WMX podium in five starts.
“I definitely have always kind of favored supercross,” Hodges said after the Invitational. “I grew up training at MTF [Millsaps Training Facility] and when I was on Super Minis, their outdoor track was basically an outdoor supercross track. They had huge jumps on it. Colleen [Millsaps] really helped me set my foundation on supercross. She would have me — even just random months throughout the year that we had no supercross — she had me hitting whoops just to have the experience. So definitely just kind of put the work in for that and have just always been confident on it.”
Second-place Charli Cannon was arguably the fastest rider on the Ridgedale track. She crashed early in the race and then stormed through the field. Cannon had enough momentum on the final lap to challenge Turner, until she lost momentum on the face of one jump and cased the following one.
“I feel like at the level of a rider we all are now, a jump’s a jump,” Cannon said after riding back into winning contention. “I feel like you kind of just have to commit pretty early on and it’s kind of ballsy, but that’s how, in my case, I feel like I can do all the jumps pretty early. You just have to commit straight away.
“And then once you know the speed and that, all the jumps kind of are the same. But I’ve done some time, some weeks on these type of supercross jumps. And so that gave me a bit more confidence to be able to do all these jumps as well. I have never hit anything as big as these before, but just with how the track was - it was quite fast. I didn’t really have any problems with all the jumps, so it was fun.”
As excitement continues to grow for the WMX, officials in both the stadium and outdoor series consider ways to elevate the stage.
Should the women race in Supercross-style events? Should they have a Supercross championship in addition to the Motocross title?
“Definitely,” said three-time champion and winner of the first SMX Invitational. “I definitely think we could actually start out with at least the three SMX rounds for a championship, but I think a Supercross championship would be insane.
“That’d be so cool.”
