The lady has a need for speed

Maria Costello at full speed on what she calls the big old bike, the 1981 Suzuki XR69 Formula One machine of Steve Wheatman.

Maria Costello at full speed on what she calls the big old bike, the 1981 Suzuki XR69 Formula One machine of Steve Wheatman.

Published Feb 7, 2011

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Maria Costello got into motorcycle racing by accident - literally. She was knocked down while riding to work on her road bike one morning and the resultant court case delivered a compensation cheque big enough to buy a Suzuki RGV250 and go racing.

It was immediately apparent that the skinny little girl from Spratton, near Northampton in central England, had talent. She was on the pace from the start and won a novice race at Mallory Park in only her 10th outing.

The following year, 1996, she took on the world's most intimidating circuit - the Isle of Man TT course - and finished 10th in the Senior Newcomers race at the Manx GP on a Honda CBR600.

Since then she has become a star in the scariest motorcycle discipline there is: road racing. That's exactly what its name suggests - racing at Grand Prix speeds on cordoned-off sections of public road. It's so dangerous that it's only legal on the Isle of Man, in Ireland, Macau and Estonia.

Maria Costello.

In 2004 Costello entered the record books with the fastest lap yet of the TT course by a woman and she become the first lady to stand on the podium on the Isle of Man after finishing third in the Ultra Lightweight category of the 2005 Manx GP on a Honda RVF400.

In 2006, however, she crashed at Keppel Gate on oil left by a previous crash and was seriously injured, spending two weeks in hospital. That didn't stop her, however, and she finished 17th in the 2008 Manx GP after starting 48th on a Yamaha R6 she'd been offered at the last minute.

In between, under the mentorship of GP legend Mick Grant and technical genius Paul Boulton, Costello had begun competing in Historic racing on a Suzuki XR69 1000 Formula One machine, the predecessor of the iconic GSX-R sports bikes.

And that's what brought her to South Africa for the SA Tourist Trophy series, although the XR69 gave trouble at Killarney. The Steve Wheatman team promptly offered her a ride on a Suzuki RG500 Mk7 and Costello became one of a select group of very privileged riders to have experienced the hair-trigger power delivery of a 500cc two-stroke Grand Prix motorcycle.

Her comments on the bike echoed those of other Historic racers: the RG was compact and fitted her like a glove, Costello said, and was incredibly fast, but could do with better brakes!

She said she felt enormously privileged to be riding these classic machines in the company of her heroes and mentors, notably Grant and the late David Jefferies.

Maria Costello waves to the Killarney crowd during the parade lap at the 2011 International Historic Race Meeting.

When the XR69 broke a steering damper bolt at the 2010 Manx GP and became almost unrideable, she asked herself, “What would Granty do?” and wrestled the big old bike home in fifth.

Grant's comment? “I'd have stopped!”

Despite fans constantly asking for autographs and photos with her, Costello says she doesn't feel “famous”. She tries to give every one of them a little of her time because, she says, they've taken the trouble to come and support her.

And what does she do when she's not racing? This down-to-earth “queen of bikers” is building a very special Kawasaki, based on an ER-6f, for the 2011 Irish SuperTwins road-racing series, doing most of the spannering herself - something she enjoys immensely.

IOL Motoring

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