15 mins with Yulina— Females in Motorsport
Transcript:
Hello, everyone. This is a little short 15 minute episode where we hear from women in motor sports, about the business and about being a woman. In the business. It's part of a larger blog post that you can find on the website, www.forevermotoring.com. So, this is one of these conversations with Yulina, who is an interesting person.
She actually started out as a promotion girl. In the sports, maybe, you know, like grid girls. Actually, these are just beautiful women. She was scouted because she's so pretty. To come hang out at the track, hold umbrellas and do things for the guys. But, um, anyway, when she was doing this, she decided that she wanted to be on the bike. So instead of holding the umbrellas for the guys on the bike, She decided to be on the bike herself and it's been. Quite a hard journey.
If you have a look at her Instagram, you'll see. She's had some hard times, um, she's been hurt. She's had some bad accidents. She's constantly trying to figure out. How much does she promote herself? How much did she show her body? How much did she not?
She talks about this on her Instagram. I find that refreshing. I'm going to link to some of those posts. So you can just look for yourself. Because I don't have the answers to any of this. But it's something interesting to think about and something we should think about.
And it's definitely something that's changing now. Uh, all right.
Here's a clip with Yulina :
Andrea:
Hey, Yulina. So great to meet you. Thanks for being on Forever Motoring today.
Yulina:
Yeah, thank you, Andrea.
Thank you for inviting me. I'm really happy to be here. I'm humbled and I'm honored. Thank you so much.
Andrea:
Well, it's, it's an honor for us too. You have quite an inspiring story which you share on Instagram. How do we first, uh, introduce you? Some people already know you, but for those who don't.
Yulina:
I am an amateur motorcycle racer. I raced in the amateur super bike championship in Malaysia, I guess you could say Malaysia is my home. It's where I was, born raised, everything. So yeah, um, culturally I am, I guess you could say, Malaysian. Um, I'm actually Japanese, but I also speak Spanish.
Andrea:
You seem to be a sort of global citizen even your Instagram, there's so many languages, did that start early for you when you were a kid? And were you moving a lot or were you mostly in Malaysia?
Yulina:
I was mostly in Malaysia.
What I would say is I did have access to a lot of things. Um when I was young, I think, growing up in, in an Asian, particularly Southeast Asian and that region. We were always brought up with the idea that education is important, that you should study first and everything else comes secondary.
Uh, I had no access to motor sport. I didn't have any family or any history with motor sports it was only like in the recent years. What I could tell you is that I personally grew into me a lot more, to form and build the, the character and personality that I have now.
Andrea:
When was the first time you thought about motoring, motorsports, motorcycles?
Yulina:
That was when I actually, started joining racing schools. So there was a lot of unofficial and there's still, a few, um, unofficial racing schools in Malaysia. But I started joining a racing school and then, I didn't like it.
And then I moved on to another one. Which was from the U S actually, or they are from the U S, Yamaha channel riding school. Uh so they're pretty good. They're one school that teaches you, the importance of breaking. Because I know a lot of schools normally teach you how to be fast, or commonly they'll, or typically they'll teach you how to go faster, how to just get on the gas all the time, but this is a really good school that teaches you, the importance of braking too, and then, yeah, when I was ready, I started my racing career in 2018, raced a few times, fell down a few times too, broke a few bones, um, yeah, I'm still here. It's tough and it's difficult, but, yeah, I would like to think that, it's one sport that makes me really happy I always think about why I started in the first place.
Andrea:
And why did you start in the first place?
Yulina:
I was a grid girl. Actually, I was a grid girl, a promo girl, or whatever you'd like to call it, because I know there's a lot of terms to describe them. I was scouted, to be a promo girl first, so those girls in, really sexy outfits and stuff.
I was one of them. And, I was the girl also, you know, holding, um, the umbrella for, the racing guy, on the circuit and stuff. I was always close to the action. In fact, I never thought about it so intensively or, so deeply, but, like at one point of time, I thought, Hey, you know, wouldn't it be kind of interesting if I was Sitting in the place of the guy, who's sitting on the bike, yeah, you know, like fast forward a few years later, I have in fact switched places with them and I have my own umbrella boys now, you know, so, yeah.
Andrea:
Really? You have boys doing what you were doing for the guys?
Yulina:
Correct. Correct. And they have to be in suits as well. So, um, but yeah, I, I did think about it once, you know, like, by like, I left it way in the back of my head. And then I started riding on the street, you know, and I think there's a lot more females riding on the street now.
Um, but I, I started at a time when, uh, big bikes, uh, or super bikes as, as, as more people call 'em, sport bikes weren't so popular. Riding big bikes weren't that popular. So, eh, and at the time, I, I thought that I was good . I thought that I was good because I was a female, and I could handle and manage a big motorcycle, you know?
I thought it was good, but yeah, I think I was proven immediately wrong when my dude friends brought me to the circuit for the first time I didn't know what to expect, obviously, because I've never, I had never been to the circuit, you know, before that.
Yeah, I'm thinking I was thinking I was so good, and then, yeah, when I went to the circuit for the first time, I realized I didn't know anything. Um, and, uh, I just, wanted to go and experience, what it would be like, being on the circuit with all these guys, and they were all passing me, of course, because I didn't know anything, but I saw what they were doing in front of me, they were taking corners, they were, leaning and stuff, and they were just passing me really quickly, and I would have to say that I was really inspired By the way, that they moved.
I thought that it was the most graceful thing that I had ever seen in my life. It was like watching a ballet performance. And I told myself, and I swore to myself that I would ride just like that.
Um, actually I wanted to, I had first wanted to write a, because I thought, you know, um, the, the image of Megan Fox, she, she, she's a good example to use because she was always the kind of, um, I guess you could say film character that, um, uh, that helped the male gaze.
You know, um, That's a good way to say it, yeah. She always held the mail gaze, so, so I wanted to write first because, you know, the whole like, you know, um, she's on a sports bike, you know, in her Zara leather jacket, a film series, Zara leather jacket, and, and, you know, in knee high boots with jeans and everything.
She dismounts the motorcycle, she takes off her helmet, and then, you know, like, um, and her hair just flies in the air and stuff.
So it's just filming and obviously they would normally have a stunt double for her. You know, of course, I hadn't realized all of these things just, just much later, but, but, you know, I had wanted to ride because of that. And then I had wanted to be that, you know, but funnily enough, when, when I realized that it takes so much more skill and time and effort and, um, uh, abilities, you have to demonstrate a kind of ability to earn that respect from men, you know, uh, on the circuit and stuff.
So, yeah, I, I knew having, um, that background, you know, of, of being a promo girl and stuff. I knew that I would, that would always be attached to me, of course, you know, because people would know me as that first, you know, before ever actually knowing that, oh, okay, so this girl's actually interested in racing and this is what she wants to do with her life now, you know.
Yeah. I think I likely have, have, um, a small subset of followers who still, you know, um, connect me to my good girl days and that's okay, you know, that's okay, you know, that's something I can't remove, you know.
Andrea:
No, it's not, it's not necessarily a bad thing either. I guess that's what I'm trying to figure out too is, I think it can be tricky, right, to talk about it.
It's not, it's not that it's a bad thing, it's how you feel about it.
Yulina:
Yes, yes, definitely. And, um, I mean, uh, you pointed out and highlighted something really interesting, uh, just, just, um, a few moments ago, and when I was starting out, you know, and when I just started going to the circuit and all that, um, at the time I was, I started to take the circuit thing really seriously.
Um, so I needed the, the time on the circuit and stuff so that I could improve my timing and so that I could, be a better racer and all that. This was all the way, you know, to, to becoming. Uh, a better circuit rider and also becoming a better racer eventually, you know, um, there were a few guys that that commented and and they were super honest about it, you know, these, these were the ones that that did come up to me and approach me and talk to me about it, you know, obviously, there were more that did, you know, but these guys did come up to me and say, you know, we thought about it.
See you You know, we, we thought that you were just a pretty face and we thought that you, you know, we thought you were fake. You know, we thought that you were just doing this, you know, because of the attention and, and because you know, you would likely be the only girl at that time, at the time there's more girls now, you know, I'm happy to see it, but yeah, we thought that you thought you'd be the one who would be doing this, you know, so you would enjoy the attention and stuff like that.
But when we see that you're really doing this, and you're actually really passionate about this and plus. You also take this really seriously, you've broken, , you've broken your collarbone, we see all of this, we see all this, and when we saw how serious you were, we obviously, changed our minds and we transitioned from that perspective of you just being a grid girl and doing this for fun or for, , for crapping giggles, to somebody who really wants to do this, and that took time, of course, because obviously, Um, the image that we portrayed, to most people, even as women, you know,, and especially on my end, starting out from that, you know, from, from being a grid girl, it was very difficult, you know, it's, it's difficult to change people's perceptions of you and you can't control what they think of you, but eventually with time, people will start to realize, okay, she's really doing this, and she's not playing anymore,
I always just tell myself as well that, I'm learning, because I think one good thing about racing is that it really humbled me.
It really, really humbled me a lot, and it made me realize, Oh my God, you know, I have so much more to learn, there's more to do and there's a lot more that I can do to improve, to get faster and things like that. It was definitely a very challenging process and journey for me.
Sometimes it still is, but now the challenge comes in a different form, more so financially, because I'm sure you know as well, Andrea, that racing is very expensive, you're spending money most weekends, and the returns are mostly it at my level anyways, you know, a plastic trophy and then bragging rights, our national championship, it does reward its podium winners with some money, but the money doesn't actually cover.
Everything that you've spent for the year on tires, on training, on paying for the bike, everything, the bike maintenance, it doesn't actually cover anything at all, it doesn't even cover half of it, so, yeah, it's been very challenging for me, but a few things, I've always told myself, you know, and like you say, how do I persist?
No, I would tell myself, like, yeah. That this, me doing this is, is for everyone that's ever been told that they can't, and the two, you know, I always also tell myself that if I'm going to be, , just as good as the fast guys, then I expect to fall just as hard as them. So, apart from, from the financial, I guess burdens, or financial challenges that, that I've. undergone. Um, the physical is, is one of them as well. Uh, taking it seriously means understanding that you'll go a lot faster. There will also be higher risk, you know, you'll fall, break your bone. The faster you become, you know, you'll hurt yourself and then when you hurt yourself, you have downtime because you need to recover, you can't get the bike for a while, you'd be replaced by someone else, whatever.
And then, so you go down, and then after that, you know, it takes time building yourself back up again, physically, everything, fitness wise, and then you have to probably find that money again, and to continue the season, you know, so then, yeah, you start winning again, you know.
Go all the way down and then yeah. Like I said, only to, I don't know, break your hand or break your leg or something happens, something will happen, you know? So yeah. It's, um, it's, it's tough, and I think for us it's a little bit harder because, um, we're ex the only thing that's separating us.
Or segregating us in the air is a racing suit, you know, a leather racing suit, but you still break a bone if you fall really, really hard. I think the the minus point has to be, like I said, the downtime that you get.
After injuring yourself, so and sometimes it may not even be your fault, you know, someone Might have I don't know someone's engine might have blown or someone's brakes might not have been working They hit you from behind stuff like this happens in in bike racing.
Andrea:
Do you feel like showing others that you can handle these things and keep going, you're also giving people kind of inspiration in everyday life too?
Yulina:
Well, honestly, all I had wanted to, do was just share my story. I kind of didn't really think so hard, like, oh, you know, I want people to listen to this or I want more people to follow me. I never really thought about that, but, um what I would say is, um, I've wanted people to understand, anyone who's watching, even if three people watched it, you know, I just, um, hope that they've learned, by watching or hearing my story that, it's possible, you just have to really, really want it, and I really, really wanted it.
I worked really hard to be able to pay for my racing, um, because I'm privately, I'm funding my own racing. So, I think what I'm hoping. to, to do is just to encourage people to understand that not just in racing, but even in other areas, like maybe if you have always wanted to be a chef, , if you've always wanted to play tennis, it's possible, you know, and it's possible at any age, but you have to really, really want to do it.
And you have to understand and accept the consequences. No matter how bad they may be, they come with it, because for us, for example, like racing, it's not just the glory and the fame, there's also, like I said, the financial struggles, the emotional pressure, the social pressure, the physical injuries, these are all things that come with it and you have to accept everything that comes with it.
