So much has changed in 61 years

So much has changed in 61 years. With the success of the new FIM Woman’s Circuit Racing World Championship this season it is hard to believe what happened in 1963. After Beryl Swain became the first woman to ride in World Championship Grand Prix in 1962, she was banned the following season. The reason the FIM revoked her international Licence – they thought racing was too dangerous for a woman.

It is the bravery and determination of pioneers like Swain, Gina Bovaird, Taru Rinne and Tomoko Igata that brought about a massive change of attitudes although it took such a long time. For half a century they fought against and defied prejudice and convention to provide the modern World Championship stars such as Ana Carrasco and Maria Herrera with an arena to display their considerable talents.

I remember sitting with my dad watching black and white pictures of Beryl Swain on BBC television in 1962. She was racing her 50cc Itom round a banked tarmac cycle track in South London preparing to make her World Championship debut in the Isle of Man. She finished 22^nd in the very first 50cc World Championship race to be held over the Mountain circuit and that was that. The FIM would not budge over its ban and Swain’s World Championship career was over. Women sidecar passengers were allowed to continue as long there was a male driver at the helm.

In 1980 I reported from Daytona on the performance of Gina Bouvaird in the 200 miler round the world-famous banking. Riding a 500cc TZ Yamaha she was the first woman to compete in the 200 miler and she was soon on her way to Europe. She rode at Brands Hatch in England the same year and then embarked on her dream to race in the toughest, most competitive, dangerous, and frighteningly quick World Championship ever witnessed, the 500cc World Championship of the eighties. She was undeterred after failing to qualify for a number of grands prix and finally made it 1982. Many of the top riders boycotted the French Grand Prix at Nogaro on safety grounds. Bouvaird finally qualified to become the one and only woman to compete in a premier class Grand Prix in the 75-year history of the sport. Unfortunately, she failed to finish but it was a historic day.

Seven years later I stood on the pit wall at Hockenheim with pen and notebook in hand. I was ready to lap chart the 125cc race at the 1989 West German Grand Prix and I was lucky. Only after she finished second in qualifying did I realise that Taru Rinne was a woman. Even then I was not prepared for those explosive opening few laps of the 14 laps race around the ultra-fast track. The Finnish female Honda rider fought for the lead in a typical 125cc scrap. Eventually she finished in seventh place just over ten seconds behind winner Alex Criville who went on to win the World title. Rinne was the first woman ever to lead a Grand Prix race. That seventh place was followed a month later with an eighth place at Assen but unfortunately a bad crash at the French Grand Prix the next year halted her trailblazing progress.

That seventh place in Hockenheim was equalled by Japanese rider Tomoko Igata at Brno in the 125cc race at the 1995 Czech Republic Grand Prix. That is still the highest Grand Prix finish by a female rider. Ana Carrasco came close in the Moto3™ race at Valencia in 2013 when she crossed the line in eighth place.

Attitudes and prejudices have changed dramatically in those six decades. Grand Prix Motorcycle racing has played its part in this ongoing revolution. When we reflect and embrace those changes in all aspects of life we should never forget those brave pioneers who set the wheels in motion.