Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

~ Women in road racing I Fast ladies in leathers O"l 00 O"l ,....; omen road racers? Why not?! From baseball to boardrooms , women have proven themselves ' ca pable of meeting the challenges that, until very recentl y, were held o u t of reach . The moorings that once kept women a t ba y ar e slowly being severed and women are now free to exp lore wat ers pr eviously cha rtered by men o nly. While so me wom en sail ~i n gerl y fro m th eir sheltered harbors Int o th e mainsteam of opportunity, o thers motor out at full throttle. A good examp le of wom en who seek the many challenging opportunities offered by our now less cha uvinistic society are those who control th e th rottles of road ra cing motorcycles. While females are not exac tly w in n in g AMA National Championships, they're not finishing last, either. The AMA first allo wed women to compete against men in 1972. Carter Alsop, th e AMA 's first li censed femal e roa d racer, made her raci ng debu t as a Novi ce at th e 1977 Laco nia Classic. In '78 Alsop entered the Su perbike Productio n cla ss at Loudo n, markin g the first tim e a wom an Expert -ranked rider co mpeted on the paveme nt. Again st co m pe tition indudi ng J oh n Bettencourt, John Lo n g , Reg Prid m o re, Ri ch a rd Sch lachter and Keith Code, Alsop, riding a Suzuki GS I000, finis hed 17th. Alsop, a brig ht and attractive wom an from Fairfield , Virgin ia . finan ced her raci ng by runn ing a motorcycle windscreen manufacturing bu iness fro m her home. Last we heard she was in vol ved in rai sin g horses. her o ther love. O ne of th e most consis tent femal e road racers to foll ow Alsop was Sh erry Friduss from Gainesville, Florida. Known as the " First Lady . of the Twins," Friduss contested th e AMA Pro T win s (formerly Battle of th e Twins) clas s from 1983 to '87 a board her Mot o Guzzi Le Mans. In '87, Friduss also co mpeted in th e AMA Superbike Seri es a board a Suzuki GSXR750. Friduss' husband, Stan, also a racer, has been upholdin g the family 's honor of late, and continues to campaign a Moto Guzzi in the AMA Pro Twins Modified Production category. 'More recently, the racing duo of Kathleen Coburn and Toni Sharpless have received a fair amount of notoriety as fema le road racers . Last year they teamed with France 's Veronique Parisot to finish 37th in the Bol d'Or 24-hour endurance race and became the first-ever, all-female team to compete in the prestigious French event. Coburn and Sharpless also raced the 24 Hours of Le Mans and finished an impressive 10th overall. Both have raced for Gauloises, the French cigarette company, Nescafe Americana, the japanese coffee concern, and for Yamaha as individual race deals, but have no t been able to score a fu ll-year contract. "Many of th e rides we get wit h the big teams happen when they can' t get the riders they want," explains Coburn. " If they can't have the winner of the race, the next best thing they have is us, because we're fast women and we receive a lot of publicity." Iro n ica ll y, both Coburn a n d CJr-------------------=--------., CJ w :r w > ~I (J) > ell o o :r . I- c, By John Schiavone Photos by Brian Catterso when the thought of simply wa tching the guys ride their dirt bikes was unappealing. "I'm no t going to sit around and just watch," she said. "If you have a bike for me, I' ll give it a try." Last year Lynch competed in AMA/CCS and WERA regional . events where her handling of a Kawasaki EX500 caught the eye of Eraldo Ferracci. It was Ferracci who convinced johnson to giv e Lynch a . try at th e professional level. After talking with these women, one realizes that their reasons for. racing motorcycles are the same as those of their male counterparts. For Coburn, road racing provides, "The u ltimate challe nge - a passion. All of my life I've been searching for something and I've never been Canadian Kathleen Coburn (above and right) is arguably t he fa stest active woman road racer com peting in N orth A me rica. Sharpless were rai sed ju st a few mil es a pa rt in th e subur bs of T oronto, Ontario, Canada, but did not meet until th ey becam e racers. As minoriti es, th e two wom en pitted with each o ther and began traveling together to redu ce expenses. This year the y have officia lly form ed a team known as " T he Winning Combination" a nd are actively seeking sponsorsh ip. Coburn grew 'up with an interest in horses and was very active in spo rts . While attending her first road race w ith friends , " So m eth i n g sparked," says Coburn. "Road racin g motorcycles looked like th e ultimate challenge. You sit on a bike mu ch lik e a horse and, iri som e respects, bikes are easier to control because they don't have minds of th eir own . At least they don 't chase you aro und th e pits, " she says with a hearty laugh. Following two years of amateur racing in Canada, Coburn scored well in three classes and won a Canadian National road race. Her first professional outing was at Daytona on a Superbike. "The feeling was unbelievable ," sh e reca lls. " I never rod e a Superbike (before). T urning pro was bad enough, but to have your first ride at Daytona, was a good way to break into the sport. When you first see the riders go around the banking you're kind of nervous. Then you get on it and you just do it - this sport is for me." Sharpless developed an interest in motorcycles from her father, himself a former racer. She first started riding at age eight, and by the time she was 14 had won two Canadian National Champ io nships as an ice racer. After Oat tracking for a couple of years she decided roa d racing was the way to go. In 1982 she purchased a Yamaha RD350 and finished sixth in her first race. " I was hoo ked," she confesses. "Flat tracking took its toll on me and I liked road racing beca use the track was predictable. The surface remains . consistent." Suzanne Brightbill fro ilIs burg, Pennsylvan ia, was the o nly woman to actively compete in last year's AMA Superbike Series . She entered five events, qualifying for the Loudon and Mid-O hi o finals in which she finished 25th and 30th, respectively. Brightbill also managed six top-l O finishes in AMAI CCS and WERA regional events. She began her racing career with automobiles but switched to enduro racing when cars became too expensive. Like Coburn, Brightbill started road racing after attending a race with friends. "I loved road raci ng righ t from the start," she recalls. "After the first lap of (new) riders school I was n't qui te sure, but by the second lap I started to enjoy it and by the th ird la p I was hooked." Sharon Lynch fro m Monto ursville, Pen nsylvania, will team up this season with George Fritz and Pete johnson's Keystone Racing effort to contest the AMAlCCS Supertwins Heavyweight and AMA Pro T wins Modified Prod uctio n classes. L ynch bega n ridi ng motorcycles at age 13 satisfie d;" she admi ts. " But when I started to race, I began to learn a lot about people, about life in general and about my own personality. I started to see things in myself that I never realized before - personality traits that I never realized I had. As a racer you learn about your own aggressiveness and you learn how to relate to mechanics, managers and financial matters. " Brightbill is also intrigued by the challenges and adventures offered by road racing. " There's a feeling you get when you 're out there," she says. "When you're do ing your very best and everything is clicki ng , it's freedom. When I'm ou t on th e track I feel more at home there than anywhere else." Lynch switched her focus to road racing after pursuing many "S upercareers." I didn't have a husband and kids and I didn't have the satisfaction of a career," she explains. "I just did n ' t feel I was using my fu ll

• Cover