PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – She can’t legally drive on the road, yet she’s driven a motorcycle upwards of 160 miles per hour. This weekend 15-year-old Kayla Yaakov is at the Pittsburgh International Race Complex for what she considers to be her home track.
Yaakov is not exactly from Pittsburgh, she’s from Biglerville, Pennsylvania (near Gettysburg) and at 5’3”, 120 pounds this teenage girl is one of the best motorcycle riders in the Junior Cup Division of MotoAmerica.
She is not only the youngest in the division, but the only girl.
Yaakov says that hasn’t been an issue, the series is very welcoming. All have been very respectful and she feels she belongs in the paddock. She said it’s ‘kinda cool’ that they see her as more of a threat now and not the only female.
The reason she is a threat to them is she got her first two wins this season, one in June and another in July. She won while dealing with a torn ACL.
“Definitely a huge boost in confidence knowing that I can actually do it,” Yaakov told 93.7 The Fan. “I’ve been lucky enough and worked hard enough to get another win this season. Hopefully we can head into the Pittsburgh round and do it again.”
Yaakov’s father raced professionally for 15 years, which is where the passion began at a young age.
“It was always something I wanted to try,” Yaakov said. “I started racing flat track at three-and-a-half or four-years-old. When I did that I was having so much fun, then got into MotoCross and road racing at (age) seven. Once I started to do really well in road racing on the smaller bikes, that’s when I knew I was going to keep doing it.”
She travels the country with her father doing most of her schoolwork online. Her dad is her mechanic, but as you can imagine it’s a deeper relationship than that.
“My father and I like to travel to the tracks,” Yaakov told 93.7 The Fan. “We do that a lot, some of my family and friends have been doing it and it’s been great.”
“It’s definitely special. It’s allowed us to grow together. We learn through this whole process together. It was a really bonding experience and to drive across the country with him is great.”
She is known as one of the more aggressive riders in the series. Some of that comes from her father, some comes from her training in Georgia with MotoAmerica driver Josh Herrin. Once she learned that attack mindset, it’s helped her to where she is now, third in the standings only 31 points behind the leader, Cody Wyman.
If you haven’t seen MotoAmerica races, the juniors travel around 135 miles per hour on the straightaways and the riders get so low to the ground on the turns you can barely see daylight. Yaakov said when she is in the race, it really doesn’t seem that fast.
“I’ve never really been afraid,” Yaakov said. “The only time I would say I was nervous was my first time on a bigger bike. After I went out and did my first lap, I was like ‘this is really fun’.”
MotoAmerica races from Daytona to Washington, California to New Jersey and this is the only stop in Pennsylvania, making it special for the 15-year-old. You’ll hear her family and friends in the stands this weekend. You’ll probably also see some young girls in amazement of what she does. And Yaakov embraces the opportunity to influence someone else.
“It’s a really cool thing,” Yaakov said. “That’s one of my goals is to be a role model, whether it’s younger girls or anyone else. I just want to try to be a good role model and be the best I can be. If they are not into racing yet, I try to talk them into racing because to see more girls in the paddock would be great.”
Practicing and qualifying at the Pittsburgh International Racing Complex outside of Wampum begins Friday morning with racing starting Saturday afternoon and running through Sunday.
Yaakov was the first female to ever win in America’s premiere motorcycle racing series. Now she’s ‘home’ and looking for a home crowd advantage.