World Superwomen

So I’m in the passenger seat of the E150 driving back from World Superbike weekend at Miller Motorsports Park. Few people likely knew that there were two women both attempting to qualify for World Supersport; Canadian racer Marie Josee Boucher and Melissa Paris.

“MJ” Boucher was pitted next to the garage me and James were unloading the van into on Thursday, but SBK moved her in to a garage near Melissa and the other World Supersport privateers. I was glad when her mechanic told me she had an ’09 Honda CBR1000RR, because the ’06 I was looking at looked like bringing a knife to a gun fight.

Both Melissa and MJ’s laptimes on Friday were down near the bottom of the list; they weren’t dead last, there were one or two behind MJ, and maybe five or six behind Missy. They were both hovering right around the 107% qualifying time. During Saturday’s qualifying, Missy made the cut, along with Chip Yates and Oleg Piankh, and MJ was just tenths of a second off. I was really hoping that both of them would make it to the show.

In Saturday’s GTU (600cc bikes) race, Elena Myers placed 14th against some of the nation’s top club racers and some AMA regulars, and then 16th on Sunday in the GTU (1000cc bikes) race. Way to go! I love the quiet intensity about Elena…and that she wears eye make-up and nail polish too.

When the World Supersport race came around, James and I were packing up the van and I dragged him over to the grandstands to go watch. It looked like Melissa had two, maybe three racers behind her, and I wondered if she had recognized that she was back in that place where you’re measuring your results based on how many boys you put behind you, rather than how many away from the front you are. I know that when I started racing my SV in the AFM, I just wanted to put more racers behind me at the finish and it was usually only a handful. I’m glad I’m closer to the front now!

I was so bummed when I saw her hesitantly put her little hand up as she puttered down the straightaway six or seven laps in. I don’t know what happened, some sort of mechanical obviously, but I know that her Facebook status message says “Melissa Paris is absolutely gutted.” I know it must be disappointing to not have achieved your goals, but jeez louise, can’t you take some satisfaction at having been the first woman to qualify for a World Supersport race? That’s history, and not all of us girl racers will ever get there. So PBAC says be happy, Mrs. Hayes.