Interview: Ana Carrasco
We speak to the 2018 World Supersport 300 champion after her life-threatening injury and inspiring comeback
No matter what happens in the future, there will be a few brave racers who will for ever have their names carved in the annals of motor sport history: most famously John Surtees, the first to win world championships on two and four wheels, Valentino rossi, the first to win back-to-back premier-class races on different makes of motorcycle, and ana Carrasco, the first woman to win a motorcycle road racing world championship.
Carrasco’s achievement is particularly significant because little more than half a century before she won the 2018 Supersport 300 world title, she would not have been allowed to enter the championship in the first place.
In 1962, the governing body of bike racing (the FIm, Fédération Internationale de motocyclisme) banned women from worldclass racing. why? Because Londoner Beryl Swain was planning to become the first woman to go grand prix racing. the FIm were stunned that any woman would want to do such a thing, so they rewrote the rules to keep women out.
‘No one should like to think about such a charming person getting hurt in a motorcycle race,’ wrote an official in turning down Swain’s entry.
Sadly, Swain died a few years before Carrasco’s triumph, so she never got to see a woman climb one of the sport’s highest peaks.
Carrasco started racing very young, when her parents gave her and her sister and brother minibikes.
‘my father is a mechanic and works in racing, that’s why it started,’ says the 24-yearold from murcia in south-east Spain. ‘when I was three, he bought me a bike, so it started like a game, just for fun. then when I was four, I did my first race, but only after I’d cried for three days because my parents wouldn’t let me race. my brother and sister also rode bikes but they soon stopped.’
why did ana continue?
‘I did a lot of sport — football, basketball, tennis, almost everything — but riding a bike was completely different. For me, it was the most fun and I also had the opportunity to go racing with my family, so it was fun for the family too. honestly, I didn’t expect to become a professional rider because it was just a hobby.’
Carrasco climbed the same racing ladder that most Spanish racing superstars have climbed: from minimoto and metrakit 80s to 125s and moto3.
‘when I was a kid, I raced against Álex rins, marc márquez, and maverick Viñales. all these guys were of my generation, so I raced against a lot of good riders and some of them are now in motoGP. when they were young, they were already very fast and I was fighting with them, which was good.’
at the same time, Carrasco watched motoGP’s previous generation on television.
‘we watched all the races and my favourite rider was always Casey Stoner, because I loved his style and how he raced. he was my favourite, but also there was Dani Pedrosa and Valentino rossi.’
It comes as no surprise that Carrasco is a powerful woman. She exudes strength, confidence, and intelligence. She also speaks excellent english and combines her professional racing career with studying for a law degree.
‘I try to be confident, because really we are all the same,’ she says. ‘when fans watch motoGP riders, maybe they think these guys are from another world, but we are all the same. Some of us are racers and others are builders or doctors — I don’t see any difference.’
Carrasco is also sunny and inspirational, with one of the widest smiles you will ever see on a world championship grid.
‘It’s very important to enjoy this sport because we also know the bad side. During race weekends, I’m serious and focused but I try to enjoy every moment because you never know when it may be finished for you.’
Carrasco made her way through a maledominated sport by always looking ahead
and always ignoring the doubters shouting from the side-lines.
‘It’s not only in racing but also in normal life — when you want to do something different from other people, you will always have those who say, “Yeah, try it!” and you will have others who say, “You are wasting your time, you won’t make it!” So, you listen to those who want to help you and everything else means nothing. It’s always important to know who is trying to help you and who is trying to destroy you.’
Carrasco was beating boys from her earliest days in minimoto but has no idea what they thought about getting beaten by a girl.
‘this is a difficult question because I never knew what they thought. at first, it was quite strange for people to see me winning races, but soon it became normal, so I think this is the biggest step we’ve made in this sport.’
Carrasco won her first regional 125-cc titles in 2009, then moved into the Spanish-based FIm (yes, them!) CeV 125-cc series, the gateway to grands prix. In 2011, she became the first woman to score points in the CeV.
‘I was 14 at that time and from that moment, I started thinking more like a professional rider and I started thinking that, maybe, one day I can ride in the world championship.’
Just two years later she made her world championship début at Losail, Qatar, riding a Ktm moto3 bike. her best result in three seasons of grands prix was an eighth place at the 2013 Valencia GP, won by her teammate, Viñales. Current motoGP stars miguel oliveira and Brad Binder finished 10th and 12th respectively.
only two women have bettered that: taru rinne, who took seventh in the 1989 west German 125-cc GP and tomoko Igata, who finished seventh in the 1995 Czech 125 GP.
Carrasco’s grand prix career was cut short by the problem that affects so many aspiring youngsters, regardless of gender: she was unable to raise the several hundred thousand euros required to buy herself a ride.
‘I didn’t have the money to continue and, anyway, I wasn’t enjoying moto3 because I never had a good bike, so I was always struggling to get results.’
She was saved by the 2017 creation of a new series within the world Superbike championship: the Supersport 300 class for small-capacity road bikes such as Kawasaki’s Ninja 400, Ktm’s rC390, and Yamaha’s r3.
‘Supersport 300 is a lot cheaper because the bikes cost maybe five per cent of a moto3 bike, so the budget you need is much smaller,’ she says.
In 2017, Carrasco contested the series with a small Spanish team and a Ninja 400. She rode into the history books at Portimao in September, when she won the Portuguese worldSSP300 round to become the first woman to win a world championship road race.
twelve months later at magny-Cours, she went one better when she became the first woman to win a road racing world championship.
worldSSP300 is a frantic and chaotic series, just like moto3, with huge gangs of riders battling for the win. Carrasco has proved herself time and again in these vicious brawls, although this is not her preferred style of racing.
‘my strongest point as a rider is that I’m very consistent. once I achieve a good lap-time, I can repeat it many times; so, for sure 300 races aren’t my favourites because it’s impossible to be really consistent in those races. You have 20 or 25 riders fighting for the win every lap, then on the last lap everybody thinks the same — they prefer to crash rather than lose the race. this makes racing for the championship really hard.’
Carrasco keeps herself sharp by riding flat
track and motocross with some of the best riders in the world, because she recently moved to Barcelona, the epicentre of motoGP.
‘I do a lot of flat track, together with other riders. every thursday at rocco’s ranch at the Barcelona circuit, they have a day for professional riders. all the riders that live nearby go there, so you have rins, Fabio Quartararo, Jack miller, remy Gardner. everybody is fast and the racing is always aggressive!’
riding for Barcelona-based Provec Kawasaki makes Jonathan rea her teammate, so the sixtime wSB king helps Carrasco when he can.
‘he has always helped me, but more since I arrived at Provec two years ago. he has a lot of fun watching the 300 races, so he really pushes me to be better. the 300 class and world Superbikes are completely different, so I try to learn from him how to work with the team and how to be fast from first practice, which is so important for your weekend.’
Carrasco’s historic world-title success thrust her into the limelight, a situation she did not want to waste. She wanted to use her new-found fame to explode a few old myths and in particular defuse that sexist phrase — “mate, you were riding like a girl!” — by transforming it from insult to compliment.
‘we started thinking about this because in Spain and all over the world we hear this kind of thing too many times — that something is wrong if you ride like a girl. So, we wanted to show that it’s stupid to say this, because I’m a woman and I won the title by riding like a girl. If you want to be a great rider, it doesn’t matter if you are a man or a woman.’
Carrasco’s self-styled nickname, Pink warrior, came via a similar thought process — take something considered feminine and
something considered masculine and make them one.
She has also made the point by using a grid boy, although only once, so far.
‘I always told my team that if all the guys have grid girls, then I want a grid boy! Finally, I got one at assen in 2014, because it was my team’s home race and they wanted to do something different. we should show people that this is just another job that should be open to everybody. For sure, it would be much better if we had 50/50 grid boys and girls.’
Carrasco’s long-term goal is to keep moving up, class by class, with the ultimate intention of going all the way to wSB or motoGP.
‘I’m a small rider — 52 kilos and 155 centimetres [about the same as 31-time motoGP race winner Dani Pedrosa] — but I think I could ride a superbike, no problem. of course, competing is very different from winning. maybe, we will try 600s next and if I am competitive, we can try the next step, because the difference in size between a 600 and a 1,000 isn’t so big.’
In fact, Carrasco would already be riding in worldSSP600 but for a serious accident last September. She highsided while testing at estoril, breaking her back in two places.
‘an injury like that is different for everybody but I didn’t have the problem where I couldn’t move my arms or legs, so I didn’t feel the real fear. when I arrived at hospital, they told me what was wrong and what operation I needed. I tried to think of it as a normal injury — it’s a wound like another that they can fix. For sure, the recovery is more difficult but I tried to approach it in this way, because, otherwise, you start to think about what can happen and that’s something that can make you want to stop.’
Five months later, she was back on a bike — after having the metalwork removed — and, four months after that, she was winning again. at misano, she claimed a hard-fought victory, despite continuing issues with her back.
‘the biggest problem is the pain. the positive is that I don’t feel it when I’m on the bike, but afterwards it hurts a lot. everything is very busy during a race weekend, so the most important thing is to be able to recover from one practice session to another. the hardest thing is to manage the pain.’
even marc marquez was impressed by Carrasco’s comeback. ‘Now I’d like to have a comeback like ana’s,’ said the six-time motoGP king in June. and one week later, he did, taking his first motoGP victory since his own lengthy layoff due to injury.
marquez’s respect for Carrasco gives you some idea of the esteem in which she is held throughout the sport. more than anything, she hopes that her success will inspire other women to go racing.
‘this would be great. the most important thing for any woman is to enjoy the ride, enjoy the road, and work hard to find the opportunities. of course, you also need some luck, but, most important of all, you need good people around you to help you to make it.’