The 2024 FIM Women’s Circuit Racing World Championship has seen an incredible first half of the season, with every race being decided by less than a second. Part of the fantastic four at the front, Beatriz Neila (Ampito/Pata Prometeon Yamaha) fell in love with the sport after just trying a birthday present that was never meant for her. From then, she’s gone on to be European champion, World Championship podium finisher and has no plans to stop there.
GIFTED FROM THE START: a birthday present for her brother is where it all began
Spanish rider Beatriz Neila is a fierce competitor whose passion for racing comes across whenever she speaks. At just eight years of age she rode a motorcycle for the first time, jumping on a bike that her father had gifted to her younger brother.
“Since I was little, I have always liked motorcycles,” said Neila. “I saw them on television at home and at only two years old I dreamed that I was on a motorcycle. When I was eight, my father gave my brother a motorcycle for his fifth birthday and they let me try it out. It was at that moment I knew it was my sport. My first motorcycle was a minibike and from the first moment I tried it I didn’t want to get off of it, I loved it. As I got older, motorcycling became my life, everything revolved around my sport. It is something that I love and that I would choose again and again.”
After starting to race on minibikes, Neila competed the Cuna de Campeones in the 110cc MiniGP category in 2011 before moving on to ride in the 140cc MiniGP category in 2012, achieving a podium along the way towards 10th place in the standings. A year competing on an 80cc bike in the CEV was a springboard for her and in 2016 she won both the Mediterranean Women’s Championship and the Catalunya Women’s Championship.
In 2017 Neila was selected for the Red Bull Rookies Cup where she competed for one season before returning to Spain the following year to finish third in the R3 National R3 bLU cRU Challenge. This result earned Neila a place in WorldSSP300 with the BCD Yamaha MS Racing Team for the 2019 season, which also saw her riding in Yamaha Motor Europe’s Yamaha R3 bLU cRU Challenge.
WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP DREAMS: a world stage debut and four-time European champion
She participated in seven WorldSSP300 races in 2019 but dropped from the championship due to lack of funding. Her tenacity to achieve her racing dream led her to the Women’s European Cup – now called Women’s European Championship – where she has already been champion four times, in 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023. With those four back-to-back titles Neila is viewed as one of the contenders to make a mark in the new WorldWCR series. At the pre-season WorldWCR test at Cremona she had the pleasure of working with Jonathan Rea’s crew chief, Andrew Pitt. Alongside Neila at the front of the field and also from Spain are decorated riders such as Ana Carrasco (Evan Bros. Yamaha Racing Team), Maria Herrera (Klint Forward Factory Team) and Sara Sanchez (Terra&Vita 511 Racing Team).
HER HAIR-DRESSING FATHER: a manager, a rider coach, a hair-dresser and a dad
Neila acknowledges and emphasises the role that her Dad plays in her racing career, explaining: “My father is like a manager for me. He is always with me. Also my family but my father is a big person for me in my career. He was a rider, an amateur rider. He watches everything and learns everything about the rest, then gives me advice.”
RACING AGAINST VALENTINO ROSSI: dreams do come true
The 22 year-old law student from Madrid has been a Valentino Rossi fan throughout her life and now gets the chance to emulate her racing idol, competing on a Yamaha machine at World Championship level. In fact she was lucky enough to race against the famous #46 in the 2019 100km dei Campioni, in Tavullia, at Rossi’s Motor Ranch.
She says of that experience of learning from Rossi: “When you meet him, he is a really normal person, a family person. He’s a person that wants to help everyone. When I was at his ranch he helped me a lot. He loves helping everyone and that’s the main point I love about him. In the first corner I did another line and he came to me and said ‘this line is incorrect, you have to do this line’ and I did it and I improved a lot. Also at this race my teammate was Jonathan Rea and he helped me a lot.” Neila continues to have support from Rea during the WorldWCR weekends, with her being under the same structure as Rea with Paul Denning’s Ampito/Pata Prometeon Yamaha outfit.
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Source: WorldSBK.com