Media-Film Motorsport: MXLink Women 2009> 2006: Media Motorsport- Journalist, Club-Regional Events, National Starter, Motorcycling Official, Personal Trainer: Women
2009: Media Accreditation MXSports/AMA Outdoors USA and Media FIM Junior World Motocross Championship held at Taupo MCC NZ with reports on NZ’s Courtney Duncan 6th in 85cc class.
2011-2013: First NZ Female Media Motorsport journalist report in USA RacerX on Courtney Duncan’s result at Ponca City ‘011. Coupled with first Media work with TV Networks in NZ: TVOne, and TV3 which resulted in Courtney’s stories broadcast on TV Prime Sports News.
2013: Report on Courtney’s win at USA AMA Women’s Triple Crown Pro-Outdoors at Hangtown, report to Davey Coombs, RacerX.
2014: MXLink website established with articles, race reports, rider interviews and event promotions. Statistics: 2014 Unique viewers 3K Views 100K. 2015: Unique viewers 14K Views 360K.
2016: Media Accreditation for FIM Women MX World Championship debut Opening Round for Courtney Duncan. Media written report for website and social media posting, along with first Filming of Women at FIM WMX Round.
This initiative gave rise to opportunity to send visual and written race reports on Kiwi Women racing at World MX Championship to TV Network in NZ, which went to air on Prime-Sports News programme next day after racing.
Media-Film in 2016 was game-changer year for promotion of Women in Motorcycling. Not only could work focus on giving viewers visual content up-close and personal insight on Women Racers in Europe, but also tap into marketing Women who had special and unique qualities of strength, determination and courage to race in chosen sport.
2016: Main website Sponsor Pirelli from NZ’s Nationwide Accessories came on board and re-newed sponsorship for 3 consecutive years. Alpinestars from NZ’s Crown Kiwi gave support from 2018. Highlight in 2018 was visit and meet-greet Pirelli personal at HQ in Milan, Italy.
Website statistics spiked at 2016: Unique Views 17K and Views 463K and YouTube Channel films produced on Courtney Duncan, Katherine Prumm (now Obelrin-Brown) WMX Champion 2006-2007, and Kiara Fontanesi attracted over 30K views.
Media-Film work broadened reach of Women in Motorcycling around the world through visual stories, along with Production of TV Series ‘Racing Dirt to Road’ – a Series of 4 programmes 30 minutes in length broadcast on TV Network Duke Channel November to December 2016.
2017: First filming of Women in Motorsport outside actual racing began, working with NZ’s Avalon Biddle racing WSBK SSP 300 class based in Roermond, Netherlands as well as Italian Women MX World Champion Kiara Fontanesi.
Making 2 trips to Europe in ‘017, filming Avalon in Netherlands and Kiara at WMX Ernee, and Parma, Italy- there was definitely scope to expand WMX profile through in-depth look at Women Racers behind scenes day-to-day schedule.
Equally important to raise greater awareness of Women in Motorcycling was re-assessment of presentation of Media-Film work. Creative camera work producing new, fresh vision capturing Women in natural composure was key, making the decision to work with James Bennell on all Media-Film work onwards.
Most certainly, the depth of work produced working with Kiara over following 3 yaers: 2016, ‘017, ‘018 opened vistas on Women MX Champions as role models for young up-coming talent.
Media-Film work portrayed Kiara in person- the strength of her character, determination, responsibility and professional acumen to promote herself and all sponsors to growing fan-base.
Included in Films produced was closer focus on sponsor endorsement, with Kiara’s thoughts and feedback on aligning with Brand products: Sidi and Scott. These snap-shots of support business within industry highlighted full circle that exists whereby Women MX Rider attains professional status to promote Brands who support Riders racing at World MX Championship level.
2018: Media-Film work produced story on NZ’s Rachael Archer. At 16 years of age, Rachael had already achieved top results competing in NZ’s National Cross-Country and Enduro Championships, beating male peers, but also had goals set on racing America’s GNCC Series.
Opening the door to promote young up-coming talented female Motorsport athletes, Rachael had all natural personality to tell it like it is- ‘this is what I’m going to do- no matter what the barriers’.
Media-Film production prompted interest from NZ’s TVOne Sports Producer, with Rachael’s story going to air and receiving 340K views on TVOne’s facebook page after broadcast slot.
Having worked with same Sports Producer since initial story to air in 2011, was equally important for maintaining momentum on broadening audience reach of Women in Motorsport given NZ TVOne News reaches approx 450K viewers per evening.
Equally, was reaching out to America’s main promoter of Motocross Nationals Davey and Carrie Coombs, who supported sharing Rachael’s story at Daytona SX Women in Motorsport Conference in May, 2018. Feedback was nothing short of positive.
2019: Media-Film work on Women MX World Championship riders under the radar steam-rolled massive interest on stories detailing information on who these Women Racers are. Interviews pre-WMX, post racing, pre-EMX Women on top 8 Women riders has produced huge leap in website statistics plus support from FIM Women in Motorcycling.
Website Unique views peaked at 16K new viewers over first 5 months January to May, and Views totalling 535K over same period. Result holds 120% increase from 2018, attracting 3.2K new readers per month.
WMX Riders keen to promote themselves, motivated to market their career, and generate interest on Brand endorsements has provided concrete evidence that growth on promotion of Women in Motorsport has solid foundation to build on for future.
These WMX riders: young inspiring 16 year old Lynn Valk, tenacious compatriot Shana van der Vlist, Danish riders: Sara Andersen and Line Dam, Belgium’s Amandine Verstappen, America’s Avrie Berry and seasoned racers Nancy van de Ven and Larissa Papenmeier all epitomise the special talents of WMX Riders.
Taking in all Media-Film work on Women in Motorsport over so many years, it remains truely satisfying that productions: written and visual are moving forward, gaining greater traction, attracting interest around the world and prompting public awareness that Women are producing results on the track- past, present and in the future.
Words: Sharon Cox.
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