‘Ana shows the lads how it’s done’ ‘IN MY FIRST RACE IN 1990 I GOT BEATEN BY TWO GIRLS’
Our man pays tribute to the first woman to win a world bike title
Ithink it’s bloody brilliant what that Ana Carrasco has done this year. She has done an amazing job and is a proper trailblazer for bike racing on the world stage. To become the first woman ever to win a world motorcycle title is impressive stuff. I really like the Supersport 300 championship that she won. The racing is absolutely wheel-towheel and really hard-fought so the girl had to earn that title. The series organiser even added a load of extra weight to her bike as a handicap to let the boys catch up with her. I watched the title decider at Magny Cours and Carrasco was under massive pressure from her rivals. She was at the back of the group and she just managed to pop herself into the points and nick the title.
I’ve been beaten by girls before. I guess a lot of male racers don’t expect them to be as good as the blokes, but that attitude is utter rubbish.
In my first race at Aintree in 1990 I got beaten by two girls. One was called Liz Skinner and the other Kate Parkinson. I remember that like it was yesterday. They both went on to win quite a lot of big meetings in their racing careers.
It’s so good to see women running at the front in motorcycle racing. Carrasco can clearly ride a bike well, she knows how to deal with the pressure and she’s won a World Championship against a load of guys who probably thought she would be an also-ran.
It can’t be easy for a woman in a championship full of blokes, that’s for sure. Fair play to her I say,. It’ll be interesting to see what she does next, it would be good to watch her climb the ranks and go on to bigger things.