The New Zealander, victorious at this venue on each of her two previous visits, already gave notice of her intentions during practice as she lapped three-quarters of a second faster than any of her rivals and in Saturday afternoon's first twenty-minute-plus-two-lap moto she quickly advanced from a cautious third-placed start to take over the lead before the end of the opening lap. Moving clear of her chasers at the rate of two-seconds per lap she led comfortably by a quarter-of-a-minute by half-distance and eventually cruised home twenty-eight seconds ahead of the runner-up. The twenty-five points for moto-victory also moved her to the head of the championship standings by five points going into tomorrow's second moto.
Courtney Duncan: "Getting pole was a good start to the day because that's not my string point. I made my way quickly into the lead on the first lap of the race and just rode smart, stayed consistent and pulled a little each lap. I've always had good results here so let's hope that continues tomorrow. I've been working hard with the team the last few weeks, got some good seat-time and I'm really happy with the bike. Everything's trucking along well."
Dutch teenager Lotte van Drunen, carrying the red plate of the series points-leader at the start of the day, set fifth-fastest time during practice and quickly moved forward from seventh to fifth in racing. A loss of momentum on a slight rise on lap two pushed her momentarily back to ninth but the fifteen-year-old maintained her composure to recover to seventh at the finish. She now trails Duncan by ten points heading into race two.
Lotte van Drunen: "It was quite a tough day, I didn't find a good feeling with the track in the morning but it was coming better in timed practice for fifth-best time. The race just didn't go as planned; I was making a lot of stupid mistakes, then I crashed down to ninth before coming back to seventh. I just couldn't find my rhythm today. I think I was too focused; I just need to relax and have more fun, then the results will come by themselves."