The Stars Are Aligning for Kayla Yaakov
Photo Credit: Lawren Simmons/Wall Street Journal
She’s pretty much been going fast her entire life. All sixteen years of it. In fact, Kayla Yaakov barely remembers when she wasn’t.
“I can kind of remember. You know, I remember just figuring things out pushing myself racing, flat track and even motocross. But, yeah, I've pretty much spent my whole life racing so thinking of stuff without racing is pretty hard for me. I guess I was three, three and a half years old. Can't really remember too much of that.”
Indeed, Yaakov started out on go-karts at the age of four, but quickly moved on to bikes, like her motorcycle racing dad. At age seven, she started racing MiniGP bikes and won her first championship, repeating that feat again at age eight. At age nine, Yaakov became the youngest American to race full size road racing motorcycles. Throughout the course of her career, she’s won 47 regional championships and has 410 race wins.
As Yaakov prepares for this weekend’s MotoAmerica Superbikes and Vintage MotoFest at Elkhart Lake’s Road America, about the only thing that has held her back so far in her career has been age eligibility.
“Yeah, the last few years we've been trying to go from Junior Cup, Twins Cup to Supersport but that's really all my age can allow for at this point.
“MotoAmerica has rules and so does the FIM in Europe if I wanted to go race in the world championships. So you just kind of have to wait it out and keep progressing while you're waiting. So that when you finally are old enough to get to these classes, you're prepared.”
Photo Credit: Stephen Tripp Photography
Yaakov was racing in Twins Cup last season when the opportunity to move up to the Supersport class presented itself. Yaakov promptly served notice the step wasn’t too big for her as she scored a podium finish in the final event of the season, becoming the first female to do so in MotoAmerica Supersport and the only female to podium in three different MotoAmerica classes.
“I think they're really reasonable steps,” Yaakov explains. “If you go straight from a Junior Cup bike to a Supersport bike, it's a little bit difficult, but as racers were really adaptive. So we were able to kind of learn and perfect these differences pretty quickly. For someone jumping on, say, a Junior Cup or even a Twin to Supersport, it might take a little while from a couple rounds to even a season for even a seasoned racer to adapt to the bike. But once you do, you're there and you're fast.”
As fast as Yaakov has been, important people have noticed. People like Ben Spies, Yamaha’s first World Superbike champion in 2009 and a three-time AMA Superbike champion, now the team principal for Rahal Ducati Moto. Spies began talking to Yaakov last season about an opportunity with an auto racing team looking to go motorcycle racing without revealing it who it was.
“Yeah, we kind of just were under the impression that these car guys kind of wanted to get into it. And I wasn't even sure if it was gonna be, nothing of the caliber of Rahal, but I knew it was a it was a car racing team that kind of wanted to get into motorcycle racing. And this is all the stuff that he was telling me and he wasn't really sure where it was gonna go because nothing was set in stone yet.
“Even for me, I hear ten different offers, ten different paths of where to go for the next season, so I'm not really taking anything super serious yet. So, for me when I heard that I was like, Okay, this is this is really cool. And it probably could be a really good opportunity, but we don't know until things start shaking out.
“And as that started to happen, we started to get a better picture of, okay, this is exactly what the team wants to do. This is how they want to structure it and how it's going to be over the next few years and their goal and that's what for sure sealed the deal for me is I was able to kind of see that outlook.”
Photo Credit: Lawren Simmons/Wall Street Journal
And when she found out it was Bobby and Graham Rahal?
“Yeah, you get a call from Ben, and really any call from Ben, you kind of you take a little serious, you know, most of the time you take it super serious and sometimes we just talk, but from a car guy to being Bobby and Graham Rahal, I mean, that was that was huge. You think of that name, and especially where I live (Gettysburg, Pennsylvania), they have dealerships and stuff.
“So I knew they're not just about the racing, they're about the business side of things. And when I look at the outlook of my career in racing and outside of it, it's just something that made a huge difference for me, for sure.”
Graham Rahal, an Indycar driver, a Ducati dealership owner and an avid Ducati collector with over 30 bikes, is extremely proud of Yaakov.
“I think she has all of the makings to become a star. She has all the makings to transform that sport if we help her in the right ways, and I think we're already seeing that, in every regard, every capacity. I mean, they were sending me photos of a billboard at the entryway to the race at Barber Motorsports Park, and it talks about MotoAmerica Superbike weekend, yet, it's her photo. She can transform that sport and I hope to be a big part of that.”
Some think that Yaakov could do for MotoAmerica what Caitlin Clark did for women’s college basketball. But is it fair to pile those expectations on the shoulders of a sixteen-year-old girl?
“It's up to the fans, honestly.” according to Yaakov. “I think seeing myself on a billboard in front of Barber is something that was really special for me because I remember rolling in there when I was nine years old, just starting out riding bigger bikes and seeing my heroes on there. And so now being part of that is really awesome.
“Even with my sponsors, you know, going out of their way and making these really public things and especially with Mission Foods with their cutout displays every weekend to promote the races. It's great.
“I'm really, really happy to at least be part of that because as racers we always say we want to grow the sport and I think that's what we're starting to do, so, as much as we can do it, I I'd love to be a part of it and help the sport what I think could be on a national and international stage.”
Photo Credit: Rahal Ducati Moto
Spies believes Yaakov is the best racer her age, male or female. Ducati in Europe has called her the best woman racer they’ve ever seen. That’s pretty heady stuff for anyone to process, let alone someone as young as Yaakov.
“It's hard for me to process because I'm so focused on what I'm doing and focused on getting better that it's hard for me to think about that stuff. But yeah, for sure, like, every once in a while when I'm bored at home and not riding, I kind of think about it and, yeah, I think it's pretty awesome that I have a lot of people supporting me.
“I can see that I'm doing the right things and I'm getting there,” Yaakov continued. “And it definitely gives me some reassurance that I can make it and we're gonna do everything we can and it gives me a lot of motivation.
“But, yeah, I try to block it out sometimes. too, because to have all these amazing people that have been in the industry for so long saying these things is really striking. These guys are super credible in the sport. So, sometimes we kind of have to block that out and focus on the task at hand.
“But, yeah, it's for sure something that I'm really proud of.”
Being a young woman in essentially a grown-up, male-dominated sport, Yaakov says it’s been a huge earning experience.
“You know, I’m only 16 and I know I'm gonna keep growing and getting faster and improving. I have guys around me that have been perfecting their craft for many years and are at the peak of their fitness and at the peak of where they'll have the best performance.
“For me, I think it's really, really awesome that I'm able to race with these guys because it's just gonna keep making me a better and faster rider. And if I'm staying with them now, let's see how it's gonna be in five years when I'm at my peak level performance.”
And where does Yaakov hope to be in five years?
“In five years, I'd like to be on Superbikes, whether it be here or in World Superbike. And from there, we kind of want to keep improving on the world stage, and obviously, if opportunities come up, maybe even make a jump to MotoGP. But for sure in my case, I'd like to see my end goal being in World Superbike."