Last year Bristol born Lizz McCarthy became the second female drag
bike racer to win an ACU class championship.
The first lady was Helen Curran who won the 2001 ACU Comp Bike
Championship. Lizz won the 2013 ACU Comp
Bike Championship and she did it on her first full season of competition after
a layoff of 13 years, when she last competed in 10.90 and 9.90 bike classes.
Lizz McCarthy was born into a competitive family; her father
played County Cricket for Gloucestershire, her brothers and sisters used to
compete in local Horse Trails. As for
Lizz she played Lacrosse and Hockey for the County of Devon and Exeter. Her mother was there to encourage all of
them, even when they used to break bones regularly whether it be riding horses,
or hooning (messing around) about on 50cc mopeds, sometimes catching fields on
fire, skateboarding, roller skates, bicycles, go-karts and ponies. She was always
there when needed. It was a happy
childhood with lots of laughs and always in trouble for something or another. Lizz
misses her parents terribly and thinks they would be quite proud of her now.
Her first boyfriend had a motorbike, he also had long hair and a
leather jacket! Parents went spare! said
Lizz. In total defiance they stayed
together for a few years. Encouraged by
her boyfriend Lizz took her bike test in 1982 on a 250cc Honda Super
Dream. She got a few points on her
license for her troubles.
Lizz trained and eventually became a qualified horse riding
instructor and went to work in Florida.
Taking rich holidaymakers horse riding on the beach and while over there
she worked for various hotels, in Orlando, Miami and Naples.
She then returned to the UK and went to work for Lord Vesty at
Stowell Park looking after polo ponies.
She then had two seasons working in Chertsey for Sheik Mohammad.
Lizz had a horse riding accident, which stopped her from doing the
schooling and training. Forcing her to go back to College to be re trained and
worked as a quality controller. Her job
now is a Service Advisor for a car dealership.
Her first exposure to any form of motor racing was getting a
weekend job working as a Track Marshall at Brands Hatch. In 1995 she attended her first Bulldog Bash
event at Avon Park (now known as Shakespeare County Raceway) with a friend of
hers who was crewing a for a Comp Bike racer by the name of Paul Callow. They got her involved and she started helping
out. From there Lizz started to crew properly and the following year she crewed
for 10.90 bike rider Sandra Chaplain.
1997 Lizz moved over to crew for Super Street Bike rider Pete Bellenie. Eventually Lizz had the opportunity to race
in 1999. Paul Wing offered Lizz a chance
to ride his Suzuki EFE in 10.90. Bracket
racing and Lizz did not get on (breaking out) and soon she went from 10.90 to
9.90 bike class and still kept breaking out.
Financial constraints stopped her from going any further at that time,
so she started crewing again for a drag car team of Paul Marston, which she
learnt a lot during that period, but she really missed racing on the track.
As the years went on and although riding a bike on the road, Lizz
was still not racing. That changed when
Lizz met her now partner of 7 years Kevin Charman at the track. She used to follow the progress of Kevin
because he raced a nitrous Bandit in Super Street bike class and the colours of
his bike were the same as hers.
In 2008 Lizz crewed for Kevin and at the Bulldog Bash meeting,
Kevin offered her a go on his Pro Mod bike, which he was racing in the
Funnybike class of the ACU Championship.
She rose to the challenge and Kevin and crew-chief Chris Pyke set the bike
up on normally aspirated. This was the
first time Lizz had rode a slick and wheelie barred bike and ran a time of
9.1sec at 143mph, she was hooked!
Over the seasons she has been very proud of him and to see him win
three ACU Championships in three different classes (the only rider to have done
it) Comp Bike, Funnybike and Top Fuel Bike.
She has also seen him crash at 171mph on a Top Fuel Bike and survive.
In 2012 Kevin and Lizz talked over plans for the new season and
decided to put Lizz in the saddle on a loaned a bike off John Austin the same
bike Kevin rode when he won the Comp Bike Championship. Lizz made her competition debut in Comp Bike
at the National Finals at Santa Pod Raceway.
She had a power ring fail during qualifying which put her out of the
competition. She then she reached the
final of the Extreme Performance Bike Weekend again at Santa Pod and got
shutdown on the start line due to an oil leak, against Nigel Barker riding Paul
Wing Comp Bike.
The 2013 season kicked off with Lizz winning her first ever ACU
event at the Power Festival meeting held at Santa Pod Raceway.
That followed with a runner up finish to Tony Clark at the Springspeed
Nationals at Shakespeare County Raceway.
She suffered a few problems with the motor before and after round three
at Santa Pod. Help from her engine
builder Ken Cooper they set the bike up for normally aspirated and did a test
pass and ran 8.7sec (bikes quickest run on that set up).
The bike was ready for round four of the Championship and Lizz
finished runner up to Alan Davies at Shakespeare County. Which helped her win the APIRA
Championship. She didn’t qualify at the
next round and going into the final round of the Championship at Santa Pod, she
held a small points lead over Alan Davies and Jemma Venables. Lizz qualified with a personal best of 7.433-175. Number one qualifier and won the first round
of the eliminations to win the ACU Comp Bike Championship. What is more remarkable was that
Lizz had a broken ankle after she tripped and fell on the
Friday. She raced all weekend and by
Monday she couldn’t walk. So she went to
Casualty and had an x-ray and was told she had broken her ankle.
2013 is the year she is especially proud of, to have her name on
the same plaque as Kevin and having him come to the ACU presentation with her,
instead of the other way round.
She is also a little smug she has gone quicker on the same bike
which Kevin raced in 2006!
What is more remarkable is that she used spares that Kevin had
took off to go quicker and these parts are what helped them continue racing
till the end of the season and resulted with best figures of 7.433-175mph.
Lizz has had her fair share of disappointments over the last few
years. Her eager, but also her rookie
crew during her first season of racing, took turns in lapping valves to give
her a chance to qualify the following day of the National Finals. They carried on until after midnight after
taking the cylinder head off at 3.00’clock that afternoon. With blistered hands they threw the towel in
and watched the racing the rest of the weekend.
It has been one heck of a learning curve for all of them. Lizz passionately believes that although she
is the rider, without her brilliant crew, she wouldn’t get out of the
awning. She says she is lucky to have
inherited a fantastic team and a wealth of knowledge from some very lovely
people.
Report by Steven Moxley.