20 minute read
LEFT TURN LADIES
LEFT TURNPhotos courtesy Dave Hoenig, Jodi Johnson, Scott Hunter and AMA archives
LADIES
DIANE COX STEPHANIE LANE
TAMMY KIRK SHAYNA TEXTER BAUMAN SANDRIANA SHIPMAN
A short history of the female struggle to race professionally, and the very speedy women who continue to carry the torch
LADIES
By Joy Burgess
This isn’t news, but women have laid down some serious tire tracks in the top tiers of professional motorcycle racing during the last several decades. Whether in dirt track, road racing, motocross, drag racing or land speed competition, badasses such as Shayna Texter Bauman, Shelina Moreda, Angelle Sampey, Ashley Fiolek, Erin Sills, Nichole Mees, AMA Motorcycle Hall of Famer Sue Fish and many others have deep sixed the notion that women can’t compete for national class wins.
But it wasn’t always this way…
“Women have had to fight,” Red Bull/KTM factory rider and AFT competitor Shayna Texter Bauman told American Motorcyclist for this story, “and it’s awesome to see how far women in sports have come.” And it’s
CHARLOTTE KAINZ MOLLY TERRY
NICHOLE MEES MICHELLE DISALVO MORGAN MONROE
DIANE COX
truly been a fight.
Consider this: In late 1969, 18-yearold Debbi Selden applied for an AMA Pro Racing license and was denied. This resulted in a court case, which Debbi won, and she was eventually issued a license. That same year, while women were still denied entry to the pits, Kitty Budris tuned the BSA carrying AMA Motorcycle Hall of Famer Don Castro to the Amateur final win at the Sante Fe Short Track National.
Or this: When Kerry Kleid showed up at an AMA Pro motocross national at Unadilla in 1971, she was denied the ability to race despite having an AMA Professional racing license. No one realized she was a woman until she came to the track. After receiving a recommendation from AMA Congressman Don Pink, Kleid received her Pro license.
This “[made] her one of the first women in the United States to be accepted into professional racing by a major motor sports sanctioning body,” said AM Magazine in a 1971 article titled “Women in the Pits and On the Track.” Kerry was featured on the cover of that issue, and shortly after its release the AMA Competition Congress voted to allow qualified women to compete in all forms of AMA racing.
After that groundbreaking decision, women dove into motorcycle racing, blazing a trail in the ’70s for the women who’d come after them. Still, not a lot tried dirt track racing, especially in the Grand National series. Ripping around ovals at well over 100 mph, often bar-to-bar, is exceedingly dangerous, and as Bruce Brown says in On Any Sunday, “Professional motorcycle racing is a violent world.” And that hasn’t changed.
Only five women have ever held National numbers in the sport (although a handful of others have earned their Pro license). Diane Cox led the way in flat track, becoming the first woman to compete as an AMA Expert, earn a spot in an AMA Grand National program, and advance to a Trophy Dash at an AMA Grand National. Through her racing career she had no fear as she took on the best flat trackers in the nation, competing against AMA Grand National Champion and Motorcycle Hall of Famer Gene Romero in a televised “Battle of the Sexes” event in ’77, then against defending AMA Grand National Champion and AMA Hall of Famer Jay Springsteen in ’78.
For Cox, being the first Expert — while it seems like a big deal in the history of flat track — wasn’t a major accomplishment. “It was fun,” she told American Motorcyclist in 2019, “just something I did.”
TAMMY KIRK
While women were making strides in the fight and right to race, Tammy Kirk was a little girl hanging out in her dad’s Bultaco shop. “I started racing when I was 9,” Tammy told American Motorcyclist, “and they’d always say, ‘We don’t have a class for the girls.’ My daddy would shame them into letting me race with the boys. I’d outrun them, and then they’d be really ticked off,” she laughed.
After motocross she started flat tracking. “I liked to go fast,” she said. She broke her back in ’77, but came back to win the Novice championship in 1980. She continued working her way up, going Junior in ’81, Expert in ’82, and became the first woman to earn Grand National points in Knoxville, Tenn., eventually becoming the first woman to earn a National number in ’84.
TAMMY KIRK
While Tammy talks about how tough it was wrangling her HarleyDavidson XR750 while weighing only 120 pounds, for her, the hardest part of contending at the national level was being poor.
“We didn’t have a lot of money,” she says. “My dad was my mechanic and we struggled keeping the bike running; it wouldn’t last the whole 25 laps. You had the heat race, semi, LCQ and by then the bike was worn out. It was hard getting parts for Harleys from one race to another, and honestly, that was the reason I quit. I got tired of making races and not being able to finish.”
“I retired in ’89 – at Springfield – and moved on to car racing,” Still, motorcycles have always been her first love, and she’s continued to watch the women who came after her.
“I remember meeting Michelle Disalvo at San Jose,” she said, “and I raced with Shayna [Texter Bauman]’s daddy Randy, and I remember when she was a kid. I’ve loved watching it all on TV…Shayna has done so well, and Nichole [Mees] did great, too. But I didn’t go back to the track myself for years. I knew if I did I’d want to do it again. I stayed away until they started having races at Dixie Speedway.”
“I still have the motorcycle I raced at Springfield,” she told us. “My XR750…I could probably race it tomorrow, and before my dad died, he wanted to hear it one more time.”
These days, Tammy owns a Honda dealership. “I love it,” she said. “I help the mechanics and work in parts and help work the front. It’s like a hobby, not a job. I just love motorcycles… always have!”
MICHELLE DISALVO
Michelle Disalvo got her first bike for her ninth birthday. “I rode it every day,” she said, “and it broke about every three days. My dad said if I wanted to ride I had to work on it, too, so from then on I fixed my own bikes.”
Her dad, who raced flat track in the ’60s, took her to a race when she was 10, and that’s when she knew she wanted to race. “I knew, just from watching in the grandstands, I could beat everyone in the mini class,” she said with a laugh.
Just a couple years later she got the chance to meet Tammy Kirk. “I met Tammy at the San Jose Mile in the pits after the race,” Michelle told American Motorcyclist. “I was probably 13, and Tammy had a pink XR750. Someone introduced her to me and told her I was a flat tracker.”
“It didn’t seem like a big deal at the time,” she continued, “but to do what she did on the XR750, she was probably one of the best. I found out later when I briefly rode an XR750 how intense that class is.”
Michelle turned Expert in 1992, the fourth woman to compete at the AMA Expert level, then in 1999 she became the second woman to carry an AMA National Number, keeping National No. 97 from 1999 through 2002.
After earning her number Michelle headed to Daytona International Speedway to race, and she knew immediately she wanted to join the circuit. “The moment I was on the gas and banging bars at the Speedway I knew I intended to race the entire circuit, or get as far as I could,” she said.
Michelle went on to be the first woman to take a podium in the Grand National Series, and in 2000 became the first woman to win an AMA national title, taking the 883 Performance title in the AMA Hotshoe series at Zanesville, Ohio.
Throughout her entire racing career, she’s continued working on bikes,
MICHELLE DISALVO
just as she did as a kid. “I have built everything I rode through the years,” Michelle said, “and I broke a lot of stuff before I learned how to keep it together. I tried to do it on my own, which only gets you to a certain point. But I think that makes me better at what I do as a mechanic today.”
Today, Michelle wrenches for reigning SuperTwins champ Briar Bauman as the lead tech on the Indian Factory Team. After getting him to his first championship back in 2019, she sat the 2020 season out, but is back on the team for 2021.
“I’m really excited to be back on the Indian team,” she told us. “Dave [Zanotti] asked me if I wanted back on board, and the next thing I knew I was packing up and driving to Wisconsin.”
“All I can say is it feels right, and I’m proud to back Briar [Bauman] and help him chase another [AFT SuperTwins] championship.”
STEPHANIE
LANE
STEPHANIE LANE
Stephanie Welch Lane, known in the flat track world as “Stevie” Welch, got a PW50 when she turned 4. “I don’t remember much about learning to ride,” she told American Motorcyclist, “but I do remember running down the road in front of our country home, learning the ‘tuck’ for the half miles.”
“We went racing almost every weekend with my Dad,” she continued. “At that time my Dad was president of a local race track called Aztalan in Wisconsin, and we spent countless hours there.”
Both Stephanie and her Dad had the mindset that she wasn’t just a female in a male sport. “I was a racer,” she said, “just like the rest. I remember at a young age, at Aztalan’s yearly picnic, they wanted to have a Powder Puff class for the females to race and have fun. I wouldn’t ride in it because I never thought of myself like that; I was just another racer.”
Stephanie’s goal was always to get that National number. “I think the first time I put it on paper I was around 9 or 10, and I knew that I wanted to earn my license and get that National number.”
When she made her first Pro Race at Joliet, Ill., on her 16th birthday, she just happened to pit next to Michelle Disalvo. “From then on Michelle was a great person to ask questions. We spent some time traveling with her that first year and she helped me learn the ropes.”
With that National number as her goal — which she achieved in 2001 — racing became her only focus. “I’d work out eight to nine hours a day, and I was also in college…For as long as I
NICHOLE can remember, every step we took in my racing career was to get to the national level.” In 1997, Stephanie crashed at the Indy Mile, which left her with injuries that reMEES quired multiple surgeries. “My left shoulder and back were so injured,” she said, “that in the end we just couldn’t fix it anymore. I’ll never forget my last race in my hometown of Beaver Dam, Wisconsin. In lap four of practice I went into turn one and hit a hole mid-corner. It yanked the bars nearly out of my hands, but I saved it. The bike died coming out of turn two, so I pulled into the infield and pushed my bike back, only to realize my shoulder had come out of joint again. My Dad met me, took the bike, and after my dad put my shoulder back in, I said, ‘I’m done.’”
Stephanie completely walked away. When she finally went back to Springfield after having her daughter, seeing the sport she loved was amazing…but she realized she’d made the right decision.
“I know that I have done an amazing thing by getting my National number,” she said. “My name got put down in history for that, but to me I was just another racer achieving a life-long dream.”
NICHOLE MEES
Of the five women who’ve held National numbers, only three have scored AMA Grand National Points — including Nichole Mees. And no other woman has done what she did racing twins in the premier class against the best flat trackers in the world.
Nichole made 32 Main events, finished 20th overall in her final season, and once
AFT Announcer Scottie Deubler
beat the fastest guys in the land in a Dash for Cash sprint at the Springfield Mile. And all aboard the ferocious Harley-Davidson XR750, the nastiest, gnarliest racebike in the land for over four decades.
“Nichole’s just a badass,” said AFT announcer Scottie Deubler, “Determined and dedicated. She rode hard; she’d shine at tough tracks. And she was always someone you had to deal with if she was out there racing.”
According to Nichole, who started riding a PW50 at age 3, it was never about being good for a woman. “I just wanted to be the best,” she said, “not just the best of the women.”
As a teenager, she won championships in both ice racing and flat track, and in 2003 she was the AMA Female Rider of the Year in a stacked field of females from motocross, ATV and other types of racing.
In 2004 Nichole competed as an AMA Expert, then in 2007 she finished 17th at the Grand National at Joliet, Ill., becoming the second woman in history to earn Grand National Points. Later, in 2008 she became the fourth woman to have an AMA National number.
She still remembers making that first Main Event at Joliet, beating out flat track legend and 2000 Grand National Champion Joe Kopp. “Joe was in my semi,” she remembered, “and I knew I had tough competition there, but I got the holeshot and led the entire way.”
AMA Motorcycle Hall of Famer and seven-time Grand National Champion Chris Carr still remembers the night she beat him. “To this day,” Chris said, “Nichole’s had the best finish ever for a female — seventh place at Knoxville, Iowa in 2011. I finished right behind her in eighth place that night… Nichole did herself proud in a very male-dominated sport.”
“I’ve gotten to talk to and watch Michelle Disalvo,” Nichole told American Motorcyclist. “She’s amazing on the track and a great mechanic. I’ve also gotten the chance to meet Stevie Welch [Lane]. Her dad actually built some of my motors when I was an amateur, and I won races and championships on them.”
Nichole continues to be involved in flat track, with her and husband — Factory Indian SuperTwins racer Jared Mees — promoting the annual AFT National at Lima, Ohio.
Is there a sliver of a chance she might get out there and race again? “I will be the Grand Marshal at the Sacramento Mile and plan to take a few laps on the Indian,” she told us. “At this time, I don’t have plans to race competitively, but if the right opportunity presented itself…well, you never know!” SHAYNA TEXTER BAUMAN
Shayna Texter Bauman, who’s five feet tall and 100 pounds, is the fifth
SANDRIANA SHIPMAN — and so far the last — woman to earn a flat track National number. She won her first National race in 2011, beating now-husband Briar Bauman after battling him all race long to become the first woman to ever win an AMA National Championship event. Since that first win she’s racked up 18 more national wins, a feat that makes her the winningest AFT Singles rider in history. Motorcycle racing is in Texter’s blood. Her grandfather and father both raced, and there’s a Harley-Davidson dealership in her family, so it’s no surprise she started riding at age three. Her brother Cory started racing flat track in 2003, and halfway through the season she decided she wanted to race, too. Sadly, her father passed away in 2010. “I watched him battle and never give up,” she says, “and that was a huge inspiration. On the day he died Cory and I said, ‘we’re going racing.’ It would have been an easy time to walk away from the sport, and I was struggling, but I continued to push.” “While I didn’t follow Tammy Kirk or her racing career as a kid,” Shayna told American Motorcyclist, “once I was into
CHARLOTTE
KAINZ
SHAYNATEXTER BAUMAN
my career I met her at a few nationals. She came and showed up to support me. Super cool!”
“My Dad and Grandpa ran a team out of their Harley-Davidson shop,” she continued, “and I started to take more notice when Dad sponsored Jared Mees, who was dating Nichole [Cheza] Mees. Later, after my Dad passed, a lot of the riders he sponsored started stepping up to help Cory and me. And Nichole was one of the biggest there. She’d do her thing and then help guide me in a lot of ways…I valued that so much.”
“Michelle, obviously, continues to have a big impact on me,” she added, “as she takes care of my husband [factory Indian rider] Briar’s bike. She was a talented rider, but she’s also a fantastic tech. I’d put her against any of the guys, even the established ones. It’s been really cool to see her transition from rider to championship-level crewmember!”
While Shayna’s one of only three women to score Grand National points, and the only one to win an AMA national, when the helmet’s on, she says she’s just 100 percent competitor. “I wanna be treated as a racer first, woman second. By doing that, I think it shows women and girls, ‘Hey look, I’m competing against the guys and you can, too!’”
Helping the sport grow by mentoring riders and giving back is important to both Shayna and husband Briar. “I wanna see the sport grow,” she said. “There’s gotta be a future for the kids. We’re always working to give back. We want this sport to be around for a long time. If we can help get that next great female or male racer involved, great!”
MOLLY, CHARLOTTE, MORGAN AND SANDRIANA
Although no woman has earned a National number since Shayna Texter Bauman – yet – several skilled women have gone Pro in flat track racing in the past decade.
Molly Terry competed in the Pro Singles division in 2013, also competing in the Basic Twins division that year where she finished 11th at the Springfield Mile aboard a Harley-Davidson XR750. She was back in 2014 to compete in both the Pro Singles and Pro Twins divisions, earning a second-place finish in the Pro Twins class, once again at the Springfield Mile.
Later, in 2015, she competed in the GNC2 division, but sadly, injuries cost her and she decided to walk away from the sport.
Charlotte Kainz, from Wisconsin, earned her Pro license in the GNC2 class in 2015, winning her first GNC2 semi at the Black Hills Half-Mile. Known as a quiet, unassuming, upand-coming racer who had a smile a mile wide, Charlotte started racing at age 5 and had already won a 50cc championship by the time she was 10.
At the end of her first Pro season in 2017, Charlotte got tangled up in a crash aboard her XR750 at the Santa Rosa Mile and tragically passed away from her injuries. It was the same weekend that racer Kyle McGrane also died, and the two losses shook the flat track community. Today, she’s remembered and honored with the Charlotte Kainz Memorial Race that takes place each September in Wisconsin.
Morgan Monroe started racing flat track in 2007 at age 8. “My younger brother Ace started racing before I did,” she told American Motorcyclist, “because I would cry and tell my parents I’d never race. But after I finally raced for the first time, I was hooked
MORGANMONROE
and never looked back.”
“My first Pro race was at the Charlotte Half Mile in 2016,” she continued, “running the No. 10j. This was the greatest day of racing and still one of my best memories ever.”
Unfortunately, a severe crash at Oglethorpe Speedway in Savannah, Ga., caused her to walk away from racing. She broke her right scapula, L1 vertebra, four ribs, a small bone in her left hand, and sustained a traumatic brain injury that caused her to have a hemorrhagic stroke, temporality paralyzing the right side of her body.
Her injuries and the subsequent stroke led to a long recovery, learning how to walk again and working to regain mobility in her right arm and hand. After years of physical, occupational, and speech therapy — and many hours of at-home and alternative therapy — she eventually did get back on a bike.
“As a result of my miraculous recovery and the outpouring of support from my family, friends, and the flat track community,” Morgan said, “I developed a non-profit organization called Morgan’s Place (morgansplace.org).
MOLLY TERRY
Our goal is to provide wraparound services for the entire family after an athlete who has been injured has been discharged from inpatient care. This organization is important to me as a way of giving back.”
Sandriana Shipman raced for the first time at age 7 aboard a PW50, and got the bug. “My dad never asked me if I wanted to race,” she said, “and I never asked him. There just wasn’t a question.”
“I didn’t know who Shayna and Nichole were until I was 14,” Sandriana told American Motorcyclist. “I was already into racing with no female role models. Nichole was riding a twin and doing excellent; seeing her do it at her level was so cool!”
She spent time racing vintage flat track, then got her Pro license in 2017 and competed in the AFT Singles class. She continued racing at the Pro level in 2018, getting her best finish of 15th at the East Rutherford, N.J., Mile.
After numerous injuries, especially a horrific crash at the Texas Half-Mile, Sandriana retired, choosing to walk away before the decision was made for her. But she didn’t leave the sport. Today, she’s the Team Manager for the First Impressions race team, which includes AFT Singles racers Ryan Wells and Tanner Dean.
FINALLY…
“Nearly one in five riders today is female,” said Stephanie Lane, “and while those numbers don’t translate over to the track as much as I’d like, the level female racers are reaching today is far beyond what I think anyone thought would happen.”
It wasn’t always this way. But thanks to these left turning ladies, and other female motorcycle racers, things are looking up.
