HOW THE DISTRICT 34 WOMEN'S MX CLASS STARTED
Barbara Toribio
/ March 2004
The best thing that happened to
district 34 women's motocross in the beginning was Darryl the president of Walden - and
that Walden mini track. Because they had the extra room and because Darryl was such a nice
guy he agreed to give us a women's class on the mini track, unconditionally. Until then
district 34 offered only one race a year for women - on Mother's Day at Walden, 1 moto 2
laps around the pond at lunch. The first time I went, in 1999, 50 women showed up. I had
always been told that the reason there was no district 34 women's class was because there
was no interest, but 50 women showing up on Mother's Day looked like a hell of a lot of
interest to me. I think it was actually the tracks that were just not interested in adding
the class.
When Darryl agreed to let us try
out a women's class the first race was actually on the Walden main track (and the entire
class was me and Athena), in 1999, but then we were moved to the mini track in 2000,
hoping that more girls would be brave enough to give it a try if it wasn't on the main
track. The first few races were just me and the Jersey girls - Athena Stefanou, Rene
Kotopoulis and Lisa Jorgensen - usually just 2 or 3 of us per race. But they were fun
races and believe me, those girls had skills!
Immediately, Peggy Debusmann, who
I remembered racing at the Ace motofest "That's My Honey" race, joined us on her
KX250. Soon we saw Terry Finkle on the line setting up his girl, Terry Eagan, to race the
motos. Now we were getting serious! An email came out of the blue one day, from Jill
Abruzese from CT - she had called one of the tracks inquiring about women's racing and
they had given her my email. So she came and joined us on her YZ125. And then Carmen
Caccavale saw what we were doing and decided to give it a try and joined us on her KX80.
Soon after, Claverack track
informed us that a women's class was always available there - that if any women signed up
they could run combined with the vintage class. Nobody had been aware of this and it
wasn't something that Claverack advertised. But we were happy to hear that they were
willing to let us race and we began racing there too. Unfortunately, because we had less
than 5 riders, they gave us plaques instead of trophies, but when we became a real class
that changed too. In the early days Walden didn't even have any trophies for us at the
first few races nor did they post our points. That first year (2000) we didn't earn any
district points, just Walden points. Slowly it all changed.
It was a long road ahead. We
wanted the other tracks to add the women's class and most of us wanted to be moved onto
the main track from the mini track at Walden. And we needed more girls. I compiled an
email address list of all the girls that I knew who rode and kept them apprised of what
was going on. Any time I saw a girl riding, anywhere I went, I got her email address and
tried to get her to join us. During the winter I used the numbers on the front page of the
Knobby News to call all of the tracks and ask for a women's class. I didn't know the track
people so it was pretty intimidating making the calls. In the case of Diamondback I called
Carlo Coen first to see how he thought his brother might feel about adding the class at
Diamondback. Carlo thought we were entitled to a chance and when I spoke to John Coen he
agreed right away to a trial run, as long as we could get five or more girls to sign up
for every race. So Diamondback was our second success. The other issue was allowing girls
to practice with the 80s if they chose, rather than the novices, and Jon agreed to that
also. The third big issue was giving the girls their own motos, not combined with any
other class. For the most part Diamondback was the only track that also gave us that, for
most of the first year, although now the women's class is combined with vintage at every
track and it is a major point of contention.
For 2001 Claverack still wanted
to combine us with the vintage class but they allowed us to practice with the 80s and to
advertise the details of the women's class. However Ace track informed me that the club
members had decided in a meeting that it was "too dangerous for women to race at
Ace". The first Ace race of the season went by and then finally an Ace member wanted
his daughter to race and managed to get the ruling changed from within. At the first race
at Ace they ran us on the pee wee course, with little ropes closing off parts of the track
and having us cut the track through the trees and stuff. It was ridiculous, but we had
good motos in the mud that day, nonetheless. By then (June 2001) we were averaging 8
riders per race and the motos were getting faster and faster. I was sending out a weekly
email on Monday mornings to all of the girl racers telling them what happened at the race
the day before, how many girls showed up, who we practiced with, who we raced with and
where the next race was. I also sent out an email at the beginning of the year with all of
the information for getting AMA cards and district cards and where the tracks were and how
you sign up and what you need to know to race. More and more girls started turning up. The
next two young hotshots to come on the scene were Anna Oswald and Jackie Beyer - two kids
in their teens who were fast and they began challenging me on a weekly basis. Kristen
Shuart was the next girl to become a regular and she and I began to battle for the lead
each week on our YZ125s.
At the second race at Ace there
was a lot of arguing over whether we would run the dumb pee wee layout, and by mistake or
perhaps because the issue was unresolved, half the track was roped off for the pee wee
layout but the other half wasn't. Practice with the 80s had, of course, been on the whole
track layout. And in practice Kristen made it clear to me that she was coming to get me
today! Moto 1 the gate dropped and Kristen and I were neck-a-neck for half the course (the
normal track layout) and riding as hard as we could. We did the spectator tabletop side by
side and when we landed we both nailed the gas and that is when, all of a sudden, we see a
banner closing the track in front of us and directing us to cut to the straight before the
whoops. Well it was way too late to turn and we both locked 'em up and our bikes slid
under the banner and by the time we got up we were both incredulous. Everyone started
yelling. Some girls stopped, some hung the turn to go to the whoops. The whole moto had to
be red flagged, the ropes were taken down, and the girls were set free on the whole Ace
track. Finally!
We had never approached
Southwoods for a women's class yet because most of the girls did not want to race it - it
looked so sandy and rocky. But Jeannine Price, who had been watching our progress, added
the class to the schedule at Southwoods and was surprised when no-one showed up! She had
to inform us that there was a women's class there waiting for us. So we went. Initially we
had our own motos and our own practice, which made it my favorite track. But eventually,
as far as layout, I would have to say Ace was my favorite track.
Young girls and their families
saw the women's class getting bigger and started to prepare (although its an open class
the minimum bike size is 80ccs). They would come up to me and tell me that they are
getting ready for the day they can join in the class. And Darryl at Walden decided to add
50cc and 65cc classes for little girls at the Walden mini track. Ken Scherer, who does the
websites for Ace and Diamondback, began featuring coverage of the women's class in his
weekly race reports and really giving the women's class a lot of great publicity.
That year, 2001, we averaged 8-12
girls at every race, we raced every track, and for the first time in history the district
34 women's class received district points and trophies at the year-end awards banquet. For
all of the girls involved and for the many people who supported us and helped us it was a
really proud night. So many people - the track announcers, the gate guys, the trophy
ladies, so many others - helped get the class going that year, and the milestone even made
it into the next issue of MXAmerica.
In 2002 we averaged 12-15 girls
at every race and slightly higher in 2003 - having as many as 20 riders compete, with a
women's class race at every district event since 2001. For 2003 we even were issued our
own numbers and don't have to take our bike numbers from the novice class pool anymore.
We've become more accustomed to riding with our vintage comrades too, although our number
of riders and range of skill levels within the class demand our own class, which we still
haven't been given. But we outnumber the vintage class in every moto and more often than
not we have more riders than 125A!
Advertising became less and less
necessary as people everywhere seemed to know about the women's racing in district 34, and
the lure of those year-end top-10 trophies became a strong draw for the girls. The
district 34 women's class is now the largest women's racing organization in the Northeast.
The class has even made it into a recently-published book called "Biker Lady" by
Sasha Mulllins. One of our riders, Carmen Caccavale, was featured on a Lifetimes TV
program at her first national race at Broome, and I was asked to speak to Irv Braun at
Broome about the district 34 women's class Our riders come from every state in the area,
from Pennsylvania to Massachussets. Meg McDermott and Olga Woods from NEMX join us, as
well as Julie Thompson and some others from NESC. Over the years a lot of hot riders came
up to make for a lot of exciting races > Athena Stefanou, Nicole Burns, Erin Sheedy and
others from near and far. Carla Nelson showed up occasionally and I think she was the
fastest rider we ever had. Julie Thompson would be a close second. In the end of 2002
Chrissi Basna from NJ began winning a lot of motos and then in 2003 new girl Haley Burke
started riding strong. And it seems, as with any class in any district, that young
hotshots keep coming up and new people keep joining in and the racing action never dies
down. Every time the gate drops on the district 34 women's class I know that everyone in
the moto is giving it everything they've got and that the class is here to stay.
