At 18 years of age, Danielle McDonald is making waves in the American off-road racing scene, having captured four Grand National Cross Country (GNCC) Series WXC Class podiums since arriving in 2025. This Five Questions interview takes a closer look at the Australian standout’s journey abroad and her season in the US so far.

Image: Supplied.

Danielle, thank you for your time. You’ve made a pretty big change going from Australia to the US, competing in their enduro categories, which include the GNCC, so talk about that switch and how it all came about.

Yeah, so Yamaha here originally reached out to me while I was over in Australia last year, and they wanted me to come over and do a few GNCCs just to try it out and see how I went. They were keen on me possibly joining their team, so I ended up coming over and competing in the last three or four rounds. They weren’t my greatest results, but the team knew I was fresh to it all. I knew I could be up there with those girls, so yeah, it was Yamaha that approached me, and we went from there. I now ride for the AmPro Yamaha team, and they’re super-professional. They’ve got a full-on shed and everything that they work out of, and full-time mechanics – they’re the real deal, and the team has been awesome to me. We’ve been working pretty hard to dial the bike in for myself, and we’re making great progress.

That’s awesome. I feel like you’ve gone between motocross and enduro throughout your racing, right? Is there a preference between the two?

I started doing motocross originally, and then I went into the enduro scene [afterwards]. I’ve been going between enduro and motocross since, and I love both, so I will continue to do that. This is really the only year I’ve stepped back from motocross racing and given the enduro side my full attention. Even last year, in my first year of seniors, I did the ProMX in Australia, so that was pretty cool. I definitely would love to continue to do motocross in the future as well – Lorettta’s was actually in my contract this year, but because of my injury when I tore my ACL, I wasn’t able to dive into motocross as much as I would like to this year. My focus is just trying to get fit and better for the GNCC at the moment.

I saw that you’d had that injury. Was that in a pre-season crash?

So last year about two weeks before the ISDE, before I had to fly out, I was training in my backyard doing a casual ride around my grass track and happened to fall on my knee the wrong way, and I completely tore my ACL and there were two major tears in my meniscus that I had to get stitched back up as well. For the ISDE, I actually took one week off, then flew straight over to Spain and raced the event, where we picked up second place. We would’ve loved to have won that one, but coming out on the box considering everything was still pretty good.

Image: Supplied.

Wow, that’s pretty hectic! So moving overseas, obviously, is a big thing with relocating and such, so how has the transition been, who is with you, and where are you based?

It’s definitely a major change! I have had to leave most of my family behind in Australia and all my friends, so that was a hard thing to come over and do. I’ve had the privilege of my mum, dad, brother, and sister come over since. They’ve come to visit. I do have my brother over here with me, racing alongside me. He’s more of a supported rider for the team, so that’s pretty cool, but it was a hard transition. My brother’s the main one that’s over here full-time with me, and my dad does fly back and forth just to come and check up on us. As for where I am based, I’m in South Carolina at Travellers Rest. I spend most of my time here, and then yeah, I’ve been over here for six months now. I’m going to head back to Australia, though, and race the Hattah Desert Race, so that will be a nice change.

It’s a big change, no doubt. And lastly from me, what is the racing like over there, from a track and competition perspective? The girls look fast over there…

The tracks are hugely different from what we have back in Australia! Just the terrain and how they run it, and how many people turn up to these events is wild. There’s no cutoff, so really my race can range from between 500 to 700 riders each time, which makes the lappers pretty extreme. I’ve had to learn how to pass that many riders around a 12-mile track, which was difficult, especially when you get into some of the tighter woods that they have. Then sometimes they can have torrential rain, and they will not cancel the event – it doesn’t matter what the track conditions are like, they will run it no matter what, so that’s something I’ve had to get used to. Then the girls over here, honestly, they’re next level. They are training nearly every day, and this is their full-time job basically, so yeah, there’s a lot of competition and a lot more girls over here that are in the running for the championship as well.

Great to hear, Danielle. Well, best of luck with all of the racing, and enjoy your time back in Australia for Hattah.

No worries, thank you so much!