On July 4th, 1916, Augusta and Adeline Van Buren mounted their Indian Model F motorcycles, and departed from Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, NY, to start a journey that would take them 5,500 miles across America to Los Angeles, CA, over dirt roads, rough trails, and more.
Their objective was to prove that women could handle riding a motorcycle over long distances, and as a consequence, were fit to serve their country as motorcycle dispatch riders in the US military.
Two months later, after becoming the first people to reach the top of Pike’s Peak by motorized vehicle, they rolled into Los Angeles to complete their journey, following it up with a quick sojourn to Tijuana, Mexico, having proved their point.
The sisters’ quest went unheeded: although women would serve as dispatch riders in the WRENS, the British Navy, the US military would not employ women motorcyclists until the Second World War.
Women riders have always faced greater hurdles to riding and competing in motorcycle racing than their male counterparts. Beryl Swain became the first woman to race the Isle of Man TT in 1962, which prompted the FIM to ban women from competing, deeming motorcycle racing an unsuitable occupation for a woman.
That ban was later reversed, and riders like Taru Rinne, Tomoko Igata, and Katja Poensgen competed in Grand Prix racing, though their paths were never smooth.
Beating the Boys
The hard work of the women who came before culminated in 2018, when Ana Carrasco made history by becoming the first ever female rider to win a motorcycle road racing world championship.
Along the way, she had broken several other barriers: first woman to score points in the Moto3 championship, following on from Tomoko Igata who had scored points when 125s were the smallest Grand Prix class.
First woman to win an individual world championship motorcycle race, taking victory in the WorldSSP300 class at Portimao in 2017; first woman to take pole, at Imola in 2018; then the first woman to lead a world championship.
At the end of 2018, she capped it off by clinching the title at the last round of the series in Magny-Cours.
The title defense didn’t go entirely to plan. Carrasco crashed out of the first race in Aragon, after contact with another rider, and finished eighth in the next race at Assen, in a massive leading group containing19 riders.
She went on to score two wins, three podiums, and another pole before the end of the season, but it was not enough to prevent Manuel Gonzalez taking the title last year.
Israeli journalist and TV commentator Tammy Gorali spoke with Ana Carrasco about her 2019 season, her championship in 2018, and the impact that had on her career, and on the sporting world as a whole.
Carrasco spoke about her relationship with Jonathan Rea, about the challenges of being a woman in what is seen as a man’s world, her views on umbrella girls, and whether there should be a separate race series for women.
And of course she talks about how she has worked to improve herself over the past couple of years, the changes she has made in her life and training, and where she sees her future.
Tough start
But Carrasco and Gorali started off discussing the 2019 WorldSSP300 season. “The season did not start as we wanted,” Carrasco said. “The first two races we were a bit unlucky. A rider touched me in Aragon so I crashed. A difficult way to start the season, nothing was good and the final results were so-so.”
Things improved as the season went on. “It’s not what I wanted, but I felt strong and I think we were doing a good job. In Imola and Jerez we made it to the podium, so we were improving during the championship.”
“I felt good, I felt strong, one of the strongest in the championship. I was hoping to arrive to the last races fighting for the championship, in this class, this is how it is. We always need to work race by race in this category”
Carrasco’s 2018 season had been disrupted by the changes to the rules mid-season, as the series sought to balance the disparity in performance between the very different bikes in the WorldSSP300 class. With a better balance for the 2019 season, there was less need to change the rules.
“This year happily the rules did not change,” Carrasco said. “Not like last season, it was crazy every race. Currently it’s stable and better for us. Better for the team to improve the bike, for me to improve myself and for us to try to make a good combination of me and the bike.”
Working Harder
The nature of the WorldSSP300, in which closely-matched bikes produce close and furiously intense racing, had caused Carrasco to change her preparation. She had moved to Barcelona in 2018, and was constantly looking for ways to sharpen the skills needed in racing.
“I worked at the same level as before, I moved to Barcelona to live with my team, so I changed a bit my training,” Carrasco explained.
“I am working a lot with [former Moto2 rider] Ricky Cardus, working with a motocross bike to try to make myself a bit more aggressive, because our class is very close and our group is very large, so we need something extra to try to finish the races on the top. So January we are working a lot on this.”
The training Carrasco put in was intense, between four and six hours a day. “Also with my physical condition we are working with my personal trainer. So we improved from last season and I feel much better than the seasons before.”
Impact
Had Carrasco seen a change in attitude toward her, since winning the championship? “Everything got bigger, with the fans, with the media,” the Spaniard said. But that didn’t distract her from her goal.
“It’s expected, but in the paddock it’s the same, every season is completely new and a new history to be written.”
Carrasco’s achievement, becoming the first woman to win a world championship, was not met with universal acclaim.
The more reactionary segment of the racing community tried to find ways of denigrating her title, and play down what she had to do to win the title. It was only the WorldSSP300 title, they complained, she had an advantage being so light, and she had been on the right bike for the championship.
Carrasco has no time for people who looking for excuses for why she won the 2018 title. “I don’t know, and actually, I don’t care,” she says.
“We are working with the same rule book, my size is what it is, but I have more weight added. Fortunately, because the 300cc bike is so small, the added weight does not affect me physically.”
“Taking a Man’s Job”
The troglodytes among Carrasco’s critics even rolled out the old, insidious slur, that to beat the men was unfeminine in some way, that she must a woman trying to be a man, that she must be a lesbian.
Again, Carrasco has learned to treat such accusations with the contempt they deserve. “It’s like that because we are girls in this sport, as if it is wrong to be gay in any way, or that I need to be one because I am taking a man’s job.”
Such criticism was easy to ignore when the overwhelming response to her title was so positive. Carrasco was surprised at just how attention her championship garnered.”I expected something, but not as much as that,” she said.
“It was very big for me, I had to spend a long time away from home, do a lot of media commitments. But I am happy, because it seems like a lot of people were happy for my achievements and it’s good. It was difficult to manage but it was not difficult for me.”
How did she cope? “I celebrated the attention, the media coverage was positive,” Carrasco said. “It was good, as everybody knew a girl won the championship. Not just a race, a championship.”
Did that put any pressure on her? “I don’t feel pressure, because I know that every year it’s a new championship so past results are nothing. You have to start from zero to make a good season.”
Being the first woman to win a world championship came with a great deal of responsibility, whether Carrasco wanted to or not. But she didn’t let that distract her. “I just go on with my thing. I don’t feel like an idol. This my job, I am a rider. This is what I want, to make good results, so I don’t care so much.”
The debate around women racers often expands into larger arguments about the role of women in the paddock, and then devolves into arguments over umbrella girls. Carrasco is dismissive of the entire debate.
“It’s just a job, they do it because they like it,” she says. “It’s fine and we must respect all occupations. I am a rider, they are umbrella girls, every occupation is normal for everybody. Man, woman or anything else.”
Ride Like a Girl
One of the ways Carrasco dealt with criticism from the more reactionary sections of racing was to adopt the slogan “Ride Like A Girl”, and wear it with pride, selling a t-shirt with the slogan on after winning the championship.
This had been a deliberate way of reclaiming what others had meant as a misogynistic insult.
“In Spain they use it like something bad,” Carrasco said. “It’s equal to not being good at something, and we decided to use this championship to try to change the perception.”
“We wanted to show to people that I am a woman, and I won the championship against all men, and we want to make people change. People would always find a way to make us women look weak, but we’re not. I was on my period on the podium this season.”
Does she see herself as a role model now, especially for young girls wanting to go racing? “More girls are looking at me, more are coming into the sport and mainly the families are supporting them more, because maybe now they can see that I did it,” Carrasco said.
“It’s good to have a top female rider, as now young girls can see they can also arrive to the top of the field. It’s nice to have young fans come to me no matter if they are boys or girls.”
Getting more young girls racing is seen by many as one of the key ways to grow the sport. Opinion is divided on the right way to go about doing this.
There are some, like Chicho Lorenzo, father of former MotoGP champion Jorge, who believe that racing series solely for girls and women is the right direction, by providing a less hostile and intimidating environment to compete in.
Others, however, say that the key is to make the environment less hostile, and that the only way to produce talent of whatever gender is by having everyone compete together, and the best progressing on.
Equal Footing
Ana Carrasco tends more toward the second camp, though she concedes there might be a place for girls-only series at a much lower level. “Not at the world class level,” she said. “I want to keep competing like this so I can be on the same level as male competitors.”
“But for sure it might be a good idea to have a championship like this for girls who are starting, like the Red Bull Rookies Cup, where it’s free and they can keep learning and try to find their way. In my case it was not what I needed. If you want to be the best you have to compete against the best.”
Carrasco believes her own career trajectory is the proof of that. “A lot of people look at me and my path, and I am the proof that the way to be a champion is start fighting and compete against the best from the beginning,” she said.
But that didn’t mean that racing series and federations should not be trying to encourage young girls at the lower levels of racing. “In order to change the perception that this is a man’s world, girls need to get more support from the start,” she said.
“The FIM need to work more with the younger girls in the long term, not just one year but ten, help prepare them for the world championship level.”
The plans for an SSP300 women’s cup to be run by the Italian federation during rounds of the CIV Italian championship could be a good starting point, Carrasco told Gorali.
“I heard something about this new championship. I think it’s a good starting point for the young girls that want to be riders. But then, in my opinion, for sure the next step would be to go to the 300 category of CIV to try to reach the level to arrive to the world championship.”
Would Carrasco prefer to see an all-female championship, or a team in an open championship which held seats open for women riders? “I think that we mustn’t forget that we are riders, there is no difference between us and men,” Carrasco pointed out.
“It’s good to have a championship like this one that helps young riders, but you need to have the level to arrive to the world championship. But for sure would be good that the teams give the opportunity to the riders that have the level to do it!”
Photos: Kawasaki
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