Warrnambool's Tayla Relph has been selected to compete in the FIM Women's Circuit Racing World Championship in 2024. She spoke to The Standard about how the opportunity came about, the significance of the championship and the community support she's received to book her spot on the grid.
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00 Taylor, you're officially going to be joining a Women's World Championship heading over to Europe
00:04 in May. Can you just tell me a little bit about how this opportunity has come about?
00:08 Yeah, you know, it's still surreal and a little bit of a pinch me moment that, you know, I was
00:12 selected to race in the FIM Women's Circuit Racing World Championship. So the significance behind
00:18 this is incredible. It's the very first time in motorsport history that there's been a dedicated
00:23 Women's World Championship within road racing. So, you know, to be the only Australian selected
00:29 and to be one of 22 women across the whole entire world selected to race in this World Championship,
00:33 it's a dream come true and something that I'm still sort of pinching myself with.
00:38 You started racing at three, you're 27 now. Did you ever feel like this kind of opportunity would
00:43 present itself? Look, not at all. As a little three-year-old me, I wish I could tell myself
00:47 where I am going to be now at 27. You know, there's so many things that I'm looking at
00:52 throughout my career where I'm thinking, you know, it would have been so easy for me to give
00:55 up at that opportunity, at that opportunity when stuff started getting hard. But, you know, to,
00:59 it's once again, just another overwhelming feeling to know, you know, I'm so glad that
01:03 I persevered through all of those really, really hard times. You know, when I thought maybe I can't
01:07 quite make it because now look at me, I'm 27 years old and yeah, just being selected to race in a
01:12 World Championship and can now actually call myself a World Championship rider. It's one of those
01:17 things that so many races say they want to do and not many actually get the opportunity to achieve.
01:22 So the fact that I get to do that and add myself to the list is incredible.
01:26 So you've had a lot of community support, you know, around Warrnambool to help you book your spot.
01:30 What did that mean to you to see so many people come on board and chip in?
01:36 Yeah, look, I did not think that five days ago when I announced this news that I would have
01:40 actually had the level of support that I had. I always knew that Warrnambool was such a supportive
01:45 and tight-knit community. But, you know, to put that community support into numbers, you know,
01:50 it's been like just been baffling to be completely honest, how many people have just jumped on and
01:55 supported straight away without a second thought. When I first got that notification seven days ago
02:00 that I was racing in this championship, I got given seven days to find 10,000 euro, which ended up
02:06 equating to 17,250 Australian dollars. To try and find that in seven days in this sort of economy,
02:12 I didn't think it was going to be possible. And to be honest, it wouldn't have been possible
02:18 without all of this support that I have been given. So from the bottom of my heart,
02:22 if you're watching this and you are one of those people that have donated to that GoFundMe page,
02:27 this is my opportunity to say thank you personally. So yeah, I really can't thank everybody enough.
02:32 [BLANK_AUDIO]