Maria Costello MBE has recently returned from a very successful FIM Women’s Road Racing training camp at the Circuit of Almeria.

Maria was one of the instructors, alongside Ismael Bonilla (GP rider & Spanish Champion in Superstock) and Jürgen Fuchs (5 podiums in 250cc) at the three day event, organised by the FIM Women in Motorcycling Commission. The event, supported by Bike Promotion and BMW, saw twenty female riders from eight different countries take to the Spanish track.

Costello explained:

“The idea of these training camps is to help and support women who are taking part, or want to take part, in competition by providing on track tuition and off track tutorials to give them the tools to become professional racers. We’ve got some incredibly fast ladies and it’s important to see what level they are at, so that we can hopefully provide them with the right help and support to see them go further in their chosen sport. All who attended used the BMW S1000RR, including the instructors and we were very impressed with how easy the bike is to ride. Having these bikes and the experience of Bike Promotion made for a really successful camp.”


Michael Dangriess, CEO of Bike Promotion added:

“I am very pleased with this co-operation. It’s important to understand that women represent an important target group for the motorcycle industry. The number of women riders has increased and it is great to realise that, even if motor sport was originally dominated by men, it’s changing now. It’s very important to see women get respect from the men.”


Maria, having been appointed to the Women in Motorcycling Commission (CFM) last year, was selected as an instructor for the camp due to her vast experience in circuit and road racing.

Following the final day of the camp, she reflected on the success of the event: “We’ve had a great time. It’s been a fantastic experience to be on the track with so many talented female riders. I think we may have found a future star too! In addition to the track time, we’ve also looked at off-track areas including sponsoring, physical training and nutrition. We also learnt a lot about how we want to move forward in future with these events and I'm very excited about that future. I’m looking forward to announcing the dates of our other 2014 camps soon.”

Ms Nita Korhonen, Director of FIM Women´s Commission, was also delighted with the camp:

“I could not be more satisfied. All the ladies really had a great time and learned a lot during these three hectic days. It was also a fruitful experience for the FIM: it was an opportunity to learn more about the expectations and needs of women in road racing and see how to better develop road racing projects and get more women involved in the discipline. The short term objective of the FIM Women’s Commission is to have more training camps this year in different countries and continents and get more and more women enhancing their road racing skills.”

Next on the agenda for Costello is a trip to Australia next month where she will take part, by invitation, in the Barry Sheene Festival at Sydney Motorsport Park.



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