23-year-old Sonya came to motorcycle racing a little later than most, discovering flat-track just six years ago, at the age of 17.
“I started riding pretty late, it’s true, but I instantly fell in love with it. I started flat tracking at about 17 and then road racing at 20. Before I started riding, I did soccer and competitive cheerleading and stuff, so nothing super serious, just a lot of club sports. I’ve always been pretty active.”
Balancing the pressures
A dedicated student, Sonya has spent the last few years studying for a degree in biological engineering back home in America, a course that she completed in 2024.
“It wasn’t as hard as people would think to juggle it all, in fact it was kind of nice, as I would get stressed with one part of my life and could go work on a different part of it. So, it was kind of a good balance to have my studies and my racing. But I graduated last spring after completing my capstone project.”
“My degree is in biological engineering. I started out studying biology, but then realised I really like the engineering side of things. Most people in my field go into prosthetics or something more medical, but I really like the inventiveness of it, whereby we take inspiration from forms found in nature to engineer something – it’s called biomimicry – for example turbine fins are inspired by whale fins because they’re the optimal design for pushing fluid. You actually see a lot of this in motorcycle racing too.”
Racing goals, corporate goals
Sonya’s focus is on the WorldWCR championship right now, but she will enter the world of full-time work come the fall.
“So, this year I’m racing full-time, which is a ton of fun and a really cool experience. I want to start regularly finishing in the points, that’s the main goal. If I can just keep moving forward and get better each round, I think I’ll be happy. I wanted to give myself this year to kind of go all in and see what I could do with the racing.”
“Work-wise, I’ll be doing technical consultancy for Siemens Digital Industries. It’s not exactly bioengineering, but more the engineering side of business and communicating with the engineers, basically being that point of connection.”
“I plan on committing to this championship and trying again next season. This year is kind of me dipping a toe in the water so that I can learn all the tracks, figure out how everything works, and just kind of be as prepared as possible for next year.”
International relations
This is Sonya’s first year discovering the WorldWCR circuits and getting to know her fellow racers, but she has spent time in Europe before, as an intern.
“A few years ago, I had the chance to do an internship in Spain for about three months, so I got to be based there and traveled around a little bit. That involved technical consulting too, so I worked on solar panel fields and design and wind farms. I got very good at writing Spanish but I’m a terrible speaker of Spanish – that’s one of my goals this year in fact, I want to get better at speaking Spanish and Italian with my team.”
“Everyone’s been very welcoming. The language barrier sometimes gets in the way, but overall, everybody’s been super friendly, and I have two teammates, so I think that’s really helped me to integrate myself into the series. They already knew everybody and so have introduced me to people. I’ve found it very collaborative too, sharing our data and helping each other. I know at the front of the pack it’s pretty cutthroat, but since I am closer to the back right now, I’ve gotten a lot of support from other teams and have found that people are willing to tell me what they’re doing. When I get a bit faster, maybe they’ll stop helping me.”
Rider, and mechanic too!
She might be a biological engineering graduate, but Sonya is equally at home getting her hands dirty as a mechanic. Two years ago, she took part in Build.Train.Race., a road race program organized by Royal Enfield North America that runs alongside the MotoAmerica championship.
“I did it two years ago, and it was probably the best way I could have started in road racing. Royal Enfield picks 12 women each year, they give you a street bike and help you to build it into a race bike. They’re not the most powerful or technical machines, but they’re pretty good for starting out and getting comfortable working on your own bike. They take you to a training day, give you all the basics, and then you race at six of the MotoAmerica rounds. Each racer is basically their own mechanic. You’re really doing a lot of your own work, which was an uphill battle, but they give you all the technical sheets and manuals and professional mechanics are on hand to provide support.”
“The program’s brought a lot of women into the MotoAmerica paddock to watch, and you see little girls coming up wanting pictures with the women riders. It’s great to see, because it’s helping more females to get into racing but also enjoy the sport as spectators. I’ve had a fantastic crash course from so many professionals in America – it’s been like ten lifetimes in the past two years!”
Finding the way
As an American, Sonya now has first-hand experience of the challenges of racing on another continent and is also optimistic about the opportunities available to youngsters in her home country.
“I think there is a way for children to come up in America and become professional racers, but you have to know where to look and it’s not as easy as putting your kid into soccer or something. I think the hardest part is working out how to do it, but we have some great initiatives, like with Build.Train.Race for women and now the Talent Cup and the Mini Cup, to help youngsters get into the Rookies Cup, so there are opportunities if you look for them. It’s also a bit harder to send your kid across an ocean to race, rather than just the country next door, so it’s definitely a family commitment.”
“The WorldWCR is fantastic to launch women into the sport and kind of give them that platform. I love racing with the guys in the States but here is where I can grow as a rider, which is why I came. I started late and obviously missed a lot of the ‘bar banging’ and tight racing growing up, so I’m starting to experience that here. I think it’s great to put all these women who want to be champions together so we can elevate each other. I think we’re getting closer, and the girls at the front are no joke. I’d love to see us on some bigger bikes in the future, to help showcase that women can handle bigger bikes, maybe R9s or R1s. I’m sure the organisers had no idea how everybody was going to stack up last year, but it already seems a lot more competitive this year.”
Source: WorldSBK Press Office
