With young lady Lotte van Drunen heading to Lommel to face the boys in the MX2 class, we reached a list of those women who have faced this challenge in the past.
STEFY BAU: THE FIRST ONE
Italian Setfy Bau won three world championships, two WMX (USA) titles, and a title in Loretta Lynn´s. In addition, she has also won seven Italian Championships. Also, Bau became the first-ever woman to race a MX2 Grand Prix, it was at the eighth round of the 2005 season in Castiglion del Lago. Unfortunately, she didn´t qualify for the motos (yep, those times there were at least two qualifying races). However, she was the first female to break the stereotype.
MARIANA BALBI: FIRST POINTS
Four years later from Stefy Bau’s historic debut, Brazilian Mariana Balbi, sister of former AMA Supercross rider Antonio Balbi, lined up for the MX1 class at the Grand Prix of Canelinhas, Brazil. Mariana qualified 28th and went through the two heats to take 24th and 20th. Eventually, Balbi was 24th overall in the MX1 class, becoming the first female rider to qualify and race a Grand Prix in the FIM Motocross World Championship.
LIVIA LANCELOT: FIRST POINTS IN MX2
After the 2014 WMX opening round in Qatar, French girl had stayed in Asia to contest the Grand Prix of Thailand. Although unable to match the lap times of the men, Livia chased hard to earn the respect of her male adversaries and, when a number of them withdrew from the second race, she advanced to twentieth position to historically earn a world championship point in the MX2 class.
“This GP will remain forever in my mind, as I was not really expecting to score a point. I’ve raced GPs on the same programme as the men for several years, but I never saw a track so rough ! In the second moto I just wanted to finish the race, and that was enough to become the first woman to score a point in this MX2 class.” said Lancelot back in the day.
That same season, Lancelot made another attempt at the MXGP of Brazil but she didn´t score points.
KIARA FONTANESI: VALKENSWAARD
In 2017 four-time WMX champ Kiara Fontanesi lined up in the MX2 class for the MXGP of Valkenswaard, Netherlands. Backed-up by the Spanish team Yamaha Ausio, the Italian finished 35th after a 34-32 in motos.
LARISSA PAPENMEIER: DOUBLE POINTS
The last trip to China in 2019 was also the last time we saw a female behind the gate among the boys. German Larissa Papenmeier made the long trip to Shanghai worthwhile as she finished 16th overall. Papenmeier scored points in both motos (15-16) which means he is still Today the only female to score points in both motos.
BONUS: TARAH GIGER MXON
At Budds Creek in 2007 Puerto Rico’s Tarah Gieger became the first female rider to race the Red Bull FIM Motocross of Nations. One year later she qualified for the motos alongside Zach Osborne and Gino Aponte. However, Tarah never tried to race a Grand Prix.
