Ana Carrasco became the first woman to win an individual world championship motorcycle race on Sunday in Portugal.
The 20-year-old Spaniard, riding a Kawasaki Ninja 300, found a draft on the final stretch to overtake Yamaha riders Alfonoso Coppola (by 0.053sec) and Marc García (0.062) in round 10 of the FIM Supersport 300 World Championship.
The dramatic end to the 11-lap race at the Autodromo Internacional do Algarve lifted Carrasco to seventh in the overall standings with two races to go. Coppola moved top of the table with the runner-up finish with García dropping to second.
WorldSBK (@WorldSBK) What an end!!! 😱@AnaCarrasco_22 takes her very first #WorldSSP300 win! pic.twitter.com/G71l7nkTTu
Carrasco, who started riding motorcycles when she was three, debuted in international competition as a 16-year-old on the Moto3 circuit in 2013, when she became the first woman to score points in a world championship race since Katja Poensgen in 2001.
She joined the European Moto2 series in 2016, before moving to World Supersport 300, a lower-tier series formed this season to provide opportunities for promising riders.
“I am very happy about this result,” Carrasco told World SBK. “I want to share it with all my team. We have worked very hard and we have been making progress in each race.”
Easy_flankin on September 18th, 2017 at 22:17 UTC »
I was there! It was great race. Didn't think she was going to do it, came out of the last corner in second and only just beat the guy to the line. Was fantastic the crowd was behind her and everyone one was so happy she did it.
calineko on September 18th, 2017 at 20:25 UTC »
This is awesome! Kudos to the Moto Championship too for not having gendered races.
(which clearly does not make sense here, but it does not in other sports.. yet ...).
lastskudbook on September 18th, 2017 at 19:24 UTC »
This should be bigger news and no news at all.
Well done to her and the first of many I hope.