WMX: Courtney Duncan reflects on tough motocross season before final round in Turkey

Courtney Duncan hasn't had the smoothest of transitions to new team Kawasaki. Photo / Getty Images

Defending Women’s Motocross world champion Courtney Duncan won’t be adding a fifth world title to her collection of championships this year.

Despite struggling after changing motocross teams, the Kiwi flyer has no regrets with her decision to look for new challenges.

“It’s been a really tough season that’s for sure,” Duncan told the Weekend Herald.

“It’s been far from mine and everyone else’s expectations.

“I haven’t been a 100% and we’ve struggled since the start of the season. Obviously it’s the same manufacturer [Kawasaki] but the bike setup is very different. There are quite a few things different, and I’ve had to make a few more adjustments than I thought.

“It’s everything that comes with changing teams and I underestimated some things from the get-go.

“With that being said, I know I’m not at my best and if I was at my best and giving it everything that would have been disheartening. In this case we know we’re still climbing the ladder and when we get to 100% we’ll be winning again.

“I’m not discouraged and have full belief we’ll be at our best soon. I’m still confident, happy with my decision to move teams and don’t regret it and still think it was a smart move.”

After a stuttering start to the year in the opening five rounds of the WMX championship, Duncan and her new F&H Racing Team found some rhythm and posted two second-place finishes recently at the Netherlands Grand Prix to move to seventh on the championship table 96 points behind series leader Dutch women Lotte Van Drunen (248 points).

“That’s probably the best result of mine in sand to date. As you know it’s not my favourite type of track and normally I’d struggle to get a top-five finish let alone a podium and battle for a win. It was pretty cool,” Duncan said.

Adding more woe to her 2024 season, the 28-year-old injured her knee during a practice crash in the run-up to the German Grand Prix in June and had to miss the event, severely denting any chance of defending her 2023 world title.

“Also getting the injury before the start of the season didn’t help me at all and made a dent in my preparations for the opening races.

“With the quality of the competition you can’t avoid to get behind and it also didn’t help my cause getting the knee injury before Germany,” she said.

Duncan struggled at the following round in Italy, finishing 14th and ninth, but came good in the Netherlands last month.

This weekend is the last round of the championship in Turkey and the New Zealander is fired up to end the year on a high.

“The plan this weekend is to have a really good couple of races in Turkey. Having a bad season and having an injury means it’s important to remember to fight until the very end, push for good results and finish the season on a high.

“We’ve done that in the past when we’ve lost the title but come out swinging at the last World Cup event.

“It’s important to go into the break showing people I’m still here, finishing on top and here to stay.

“I’ve done well here [Turkey] in the past and won quite a few races. I’m pretty comfortable racing here, but the track does change a bit year to year. I won’t be dwelling on previous results and will take the races as they happen and do everything to stay on top in both races,” Duncan said.

Van Drunen leads the title race on 248 points followed by Daniela Guillen (231), Lynn Valk (2014), Kiara Fontanesi (192), Larissa Papenmeier (164) and Duncan seventh (152).