Ana Carrasco - Motorcycle Hero - Ride Like A Girl!
A female motorcycle world champion who is on her way to the top!
Two years ago in 2018, Spain's Ana Carrasco raised a pink flag on her Kawasaki Ninja 400 bearing the words 'Ride Like A Girl!' The occasion was her lap of honour at Magny-Cours after winning the Superbike Supersport 300 Championship aged only 21.
Her story has now been made into a documentary called 'Ride Your Dream', which is showing on Spanish Rakuten TV, to inspire other women and show them what can be achieved.
Ana Carrusco has been riding a motorcycle since she was three, encouraged by her father, a motorcycle mechanic. She entered the 125cc category of the FIM CEV International Championship in 2011, after reaching the minimum eligible age to compete in the series. She became the first woman to score points in the series by coming 16th at the circuit de Jerez event.
Then in 2012 she joined JHK Laglisse on a KTM for the 2013 Moto3 World Championship as the first woman to take part in the category. At the end of her debut season she had scored nine points and was ranked 21st in the Riders' Championship standings – not a bad start!
Beset with funding problems Carrasco got crowdfunding and at the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari round she became the first female rider to secure pole position in the Supersport 300 World Championship. At the race the following day, she became the first female rider to lead a World Championship Motorcycle racing series. Then her teammate Scott Deroue retired due to mechanical problems, leading to events which gave her the championship making her the first woman to claim a motorcycle world championship.
Gaining Jonathan Rea as a mentor she claimed two victories in 2019, three podiums and finished third in the drivers' standings with 117 points.
Grid Boy
Although she's not put off by it, Carrusco is aware that she is a woman in a male dominated sport and made her point by arriving on the grid in the Dutch MotoGP with a topless male model 'grid boy' holding an umbrella over her.
When asked about how it felt to be a woman amongst many men, Carrasco claimed that she hadn't been the victim of sexism in her career and said:
“It’s still almost all guys racers on the grid, but I try to achieve my goals like any other rider, not like a woman,”
As a trail blazer she is another female racer proving that it can be a career for women, and like the other great women racers out there, beating a path for more women to follow. Her ambition is to compete in Superbike or MotoGP in the top class – and as she confidently points out …
'nothing is impossible,not just in sport, but in every area of life.”
Down But Not Out
Unfortunately a crash in testing at Portugal's Estoril circuit broke two of Carrasco's vertebrae which has taken her out of the running for this season and adds to her list of previous injuries: broken elbow, collarbone and shoulder.
So we wish her a speedy recovery so that she can get back on that bike and out there on the track where she clearly belongs, what an inspiration.
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