Full Throttle

It’s somewhat depressing to find out that one of your motorsport heroes was born in 1997. It raises all sorts of existential questions for the rest of us about what we’ve been doing to fill in the time… Still, to look on the positive, Ana Carrasco, the hero in question, is a formidable woman whose appetite for success, and focus on goals, is so impressive, I’m happy to cede the ground.

Not only did Carrasco recently win the 2018 World Supersport 300 Championship, and in doing so become the first woman in history to claim a motorbike world championship title, but she’s also busy studying for a law degree back in her native Spain, because, as she explains it, “It is really important for my future to have the law career… in my family, the most important thing has always been the studies.

Quite right, of course, but still, Carrasco’s family does a handy little sideline in motorsport victories. Her father was a motocross rider and Ana has been at it since her first race at the tender age of four. Her first bike, in case you’re wondering, was a Polini Minibike – “a sort of twostroke paddock bike with an auto gearbox,” as she describes it. Not then, a Batman balance bike, like my kids had. Different (two-)strokes for different folks.

From then on, it was a case of racing with the support of her father, while she worked her way up through the race categories, until she hit the Moto3 World Championship in 2013. There, she became the first woman to score points in the series after finishing 15th in the Malaysian Grand Prix and 8th in the season-ending Valencian GP. In 2016 she switched to the Moto2 European Championship, where she struggled, but found success after moving to the newly formed Supersport 300 World Championship with Kawasaki. She won the 2018 championship on a Kawasaki Ninja 400. 

Easy peasy, then. What next, apart from a glittering career in international law? “My main goal is to try to fight for the title again this year but… for sure, my dream would be to ride one day in Superbike or MotoGP.” And how does she think she will fare there, as a woman? It’s a tough playground, and while motorbike riders may not be subjected to the same physical rigours as Formula 1 drivers, there’s a huge degree of fitness and strength required to shift your weight under braking and acceleration, to get the bike down through the corners and back up again. 

“I think in this sport women can ride at the same level as men,” she says. “Motorbike racing is not only about strength, but about technical points, your bike, your team…” And what about mental differences between men and women? Riding a bike exposes you to the parameters of safety like no other sport except, perhaps, horse-riding. Do women have more of a built-in aversion to risk, mentally? “Men normally are more impulsive and women think more about what they have to do,” she says, adding, however, that there are no differences in the two genders’ riding styles.

Carrasco doesn’t see the need for a women-only race series, and her own idols in the sport are Valentino Rossi (“a complete rider with a strong mentality”), and Casey Stoner (“incredible talent and a clear mind”). And her top tips for men or women looking to emulate her success? “I work a lot in the gym to be as fit as possible – I do CrossFit, cycle and run.” And mentally? “I just try to be always thinking positively and to enjoy what I do.”  Wise words, even for those of us born before 1997.

This article was taken from the Spring 2019 edition of the Goodwood Magazine.