Roberta Ponziani, 28, has been racing for many years but as a young child, no one would have envisaged her forging a career in motorsport, not least her parents, who run a successful bakery.
“My family has a bakery and pastry shop. It’s a family business and so I essentially grew up there and now work alongside my parents. In the mornings I’m there and in the afternoons I train.”
“No one in the family rode bikes but when I was little there was a mini-bike track near my house. One day, spur of the moment, I tried it, and I liked it! My dad bought me a bike when I was 9, and it all went from there, but he knew nothing of this world… I got into racing at a track near my home, but my father would take me, put some fuel in the bike and that was it – I would just ride like that. People there would look at us and say, yes, but you need to change the tyres or something!”
“I thought I was good. My father at first didn’t believe I was good but then I started to race and won the Italian minibike championship against the boys. I was the only girl, for many years I was the only one competing in these categories against the boys. Once I got older, some younger girls started to come up and now race in the Italian CIV. But at the beginning, for seven or eight years it was just me.”
Tides of change
Things started to change in 2019, when the MotoxRacing team took four or five girls and ran a trophy. Just two years later this developed into a women’s European championship and a lot more strong riders started to join the ranks.
“In the last years we were up to twenty girls, and now we have a world championship! Before the launch of the women-only series, I was racing but always with the men, finishing maybe tenth. I was having fun in the national classes, but I didn’t have a world goal, you know, up against the men. Now we have a world championship, I’m happy because I see a goal – I want to win. I wanted to win before of course, but with the men it’s hard.”
“Honestly, I didn’t think I’d be this strong. I came up racing minibikes and then 300s, and never did Moto3 or 600 or anything, so I didn’t have any expectations when I started last year in WorldWCR because I didn’t have so much experience. I didn’t know all the tracks or this bike, and didn’t have the level of experience that Maria or others who had already competed in world championships have. Of the strongest group, I’m one of those with less experience. But I placed fifth last year so this season I want to be in the top three, and I would like to win some races.”
Striding ahead
Considering the great steps already taken over the last ten years, Roberta is optimistic about the possibilities for women riders in the future.
“You know, someone said to me, ok, if you win the women’s world championship what do you do next? And it’s a strange one, because there’s no other category to move up to. This is it for now, the pinnacle. Perhaps they should make more categories, I don’t know. Five years ago, I was thinking about quitting. But now there’s a world championship, so maybe in another five years there will be a women’s Superbike championship. A lot can change if we consider that not so long ago, I was the only girl racing in Italian minibikes!”
“There are some girls who will say, yeah, but it’s women only and I want to race with the men, there’s still this issue, like first among the women is not the same as coming first among the men somehow. But there are a lot more girls coming up in Italy now, and we have the Italian women’s championship of course. The only thing is that, now we have a European and world championship, less girls are opting to enter the national series and so I think they need to find a way to boost those entry lists. Or maybe say that you can only come to the world championship once you’ve won a national title and so have some good experience, for example.”
Teammates, turning points and tomorrow
As for today, Roberta feels right at home in WorldWCR, competing alongside the very women with whom she has carved this ground-breaking path.
“I get along with everyone but the riders I know best are Beatriz, Sara and Maria. Maria’s my teammate now and Sara, Beatriz and I did the European championship together. Last year when Sara won her first race, I was happy because I thought, wow, we’ve followed the same path and have come this far – I finally understand the level that I too can reach. And it’s crazy because I came close to quitting. I was 23, there was no world championship, you’re spending money, you don’t find sponsors, what are you going to do? And now look where we are.”
“And as for the future, I’d like to stay in this world. If not riding, then doing riding courses and maybe continuing with the family business. Perhaps we can run a team, and the bakery can be the sponsor!”
