Maria Costello MBE got her 2016 race season off to a dream start at Sydney Motorsport Park as she claimed a number of podium places at the Barry Sheene Festival of Speed.

The Northamptonshire racer enjoyed big success on her return to the Australian event for the third year running as she was reunited with the Peter Beugger Racing Paton that she has ridden to great success at recent TT Classic races on the Isle of Man.

Costello was thrilled to ride the Paton, which the organisers shipped Down Under for her, saying: “I can’t thank them enough. Having the beautiful Beugger Paton here in Australia to compete on was a real dream come true for me and having the owners, Peter & Barbara Beugger from Switzerland, to run the bike was the icing on the cake.”

Wet qualifying conditions were replaced with perfect sunshine on Saturday and Maria claimed fourth place in the P4 500cc class, setting a fastest lap of 1min 55.479sec, before claiming an excellent second place in her final race of the day. She finished just half a second behind class winner Peter O’Neill on the Roberts TR Suzuki as she clocked a best time of 1min 53.009sec on her last lap. “Having not ridden for over three months I was more than a little rusty in qualifying but I started to feel more at home in the actual races despite it being my first time on this bike on a circuit.

Image by http://www.throttleroll.com

Sunday proved even better for Costello as she contested two races in the P4 500cc class, leaving the previous day's winner O'Neill in her wake as she clocked a race best time of 1min 50.308sec to claim class victory by a comfortable 15 seconds. Her final race culminated in another superb second place as she finished five seconds behind class winner Cameron Donald on the EGLI Vincent. Despite competing in only four of the five scheduled races, Costello’s consistency saw her claim second place overall in the P4 class.

Maria again onboard the 500 Paton also took to the track as part of the ‘GP Legends Clash’ racing against GP machinery from various eras, alongside some of the biggest names in the sport, including Freddie Spencer, Kevin Schwantz, Jeremy McWilliams, Graeme Crosby, Steve Parrish, John Boote, Murray Sayle, Freddie Sheene, Kevin Magee, Chris Vermeulen and Kork Ballington, and admitted: “I had to keep pinching myself. Lining up on the grid and managing to hang on to them in to the fast turn one was just incredible, I definitely had the best seat in the house.”

She said: “I was so grateful to the organisers for inviting me out here again to be a part of a unique event which excels at celebrating Barry Sheene, a man who changed the face of motorcycling. You only need to look at the line up of legends to realise just what an impact Barry had on motorcycle racing and just what a special event this is."

“I loved every minute on and off track. Everyone was so welcoming, making me feel so at home. There are so many that I need to thank – firstly the organisers and people who invited me and made the event possible, the fans and spectators for making me feel so welcome, the volunteers and marshals for whom we can’t race without, all the other competitors who made it so memorable, and especially Peter and Barbara Beugger for giving me the chance to race their beautiful machine in Australia. It was overwhelming at times for me to be out on track with such iconic racers as I’m just a girl from Northamptonshire that got into motorcycle racing by accident. What an incredible start to the 2016 season!”

Image by http://www.throttleroll.com

For more details on Maria’s racing and other activities, including upcoming events, track days and opportunities to support her racing efforts, please visit her website here.

If you're female and want to be part of Maria's 'Woman on a Motorcycle' Facebook group join here.