Mallory Dobbs: From Club Racing to the International Stage!

In this episode of KiwiMoto72, we catch up with Mallory Dobbs, a rising star in motorcycle racing, to explore her incredible journey from U.S. club racing and MotoAmerica to competing on the world stage. Mallory shares the highs and lows of her debut season in the inaugural FIM Women's Circuit Racing Championship, where she faced a steep learning curve and ended the season with six consecutive top-10 finishes.

We also delve into her participation as the #1 female in the Supersport class at the FIM Intercontinental Games, reflecting on how this milestone fits into her career trajectory. Join us for an inspiring conversation about resilience, growth, and what it takes to compete internationally in one of the most demanding sports in the world.

Whether you're a seasoned rider or a fan of motorsport, this episode is packed with insights, stories, and Mallory’s plans for the future as she transitions to the MKD Racing Team for the upcoming season.

Contact & Sponsorship Details:
Mallory Dobbs
📩 Email: MalloryDobbsRacing@gmail.com
📱 Instagram: @maldobbs126
💻 Facebook @Mallory Dobbs Racing

Interested in supporting Mallory's racing journey? She’s currently seeking sponsors and partners for the upcoming season! Reach out via email or DM for collaboration opportunities. Be part of her success as she represents women in motorsports globally!

#MalloryDobbs #WomenInMotorsports #MotorcycleRacing #FIMWomensCircuitRacing #MotoAmerica #RisingStar #SupersportRacing #IntercontinentalGames #MotoLife #MotorcycleCommunity #RacingJourney #KiwiMoto72 #FemaleRacers #MKDRacingTeam #Motorsport #RacingPassion #Top10Finish #MotorcyclePodcast #RiderSpotlight

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Mallory's Journey
• 2:25 Mallory's International Racing Experience
• 5:42 Adapting to New Tracks and Competition
• 9:47 Selection Criteria for Future Competitions
• 12:07 Funding and Managing a Racing Team
• 15:27 Mental Toughness and Preparation
• 20:24 Growth Through Competition and Training
• 25:08 Nutrition and Fitness in Racing
• 29:32 The Why Behind Racing
• 33:05 Journey Through Equestrian and Motorsports
• 35:29 Breaking Barriers: Women in Racing
• 41:34 Season Highlights and Performance Insights
• 53:41 Transitioning to Team Ownership and Future Plans

Transcript

Angus Norton (00:01.294)
Mallory Dobbs. Well, you had the distinct, or I had the distinct honor of seeing you again because you were the first ever podcast I ever did. That was a year ago. Didn't know what I was doing. Still don't really know what I'm doing, but obviously A, you're a local racer here in the U S for my, for my region, but you're also now international racer for the U S.

Mallory Dobbs (00:16.667)
Yep.

Mallory Dobbs (00:28.966)
Yeah. Really good. Yeah. was a crazy year. It's crazy to think that that was not even like, I mean, it was a year ago, but it feels like even maybe less than that. But, yeah, I mean, it's been a crazy summer. I never really traveled outside of the country and now I've been to all sorts of countries. So, never would have thought that my racing would take me out of the U S but yeah.

Angus Norton (00:30.402)
So things have changed a lot, right? How are you doing?

Angus Norton (00:55.586)
Wow, so this year has been the first time you've ever traveled to Europe or internationally ever?

Mallory Dobbs (01:02.35)
Really internationally ever. had been to Mexico once or twice with my family for like a holiday, right? But we went to Kenco and we went to the resort and so it was very much like you'd get there and they'd take you to the resort and you'd just be at the resort, you it's all inclusive. Didn't really leave or anything like that. So it very like less intimidating. And so the first time I actually flew to Italy for our test, I was in Italy for a week on my own and it was...

So crazy, like just being in a place on my own, like traveling to another country that I don't speak the language, right? Like I don't speak, I tried to learn Duolingo for like two months and didn't know anything. And so I went to like a cafe and the guy was like, I don't speak any English. And I was like, okay. And then I just like walked out. didn't know what to do.

And so as the season went on, definitely got easier. you know, was, that's my first time really traveling outside of the country on my own and to other places, you know, that I don't speak the language.

Angus Norton (02:03.31)
Well, folks, for those of you who didn't watch the first podcast, and I'll put a link to it, this year for Mallory, as she was saying, she competed in the inaugural FIM Women's Circuit Racing Competition, the World Championship, representing the US. And she not only in the last few years did that, but she transitioned from US club racing to Moto America class, supersport, and also, and that was a huge deal.

And so obviously a lot of growth and so also international. Now, when you went to Italy and Spain, I hope when went to Italy, you didn't ask for a latte.

Mallory Dobbs (02:31.735)
Mm-hmm.

Mallory Dobbs (02:45.959)
I'm such a sugary coffee drinker, but yeah, we'd go there and I like I did I did get lattes But then I get my one pack of sugar, know and just and there was times I drink like espresso I can't do without one sugar. But yeah, I learned how to I learned how to order that in Italian and Spanish important thing

Angus Norton (02:57.838)
That's it.

Angus Norton (03:02.318)
Excellent. First time I asked for a latte in Italy, they gave me a cup of warm milk because that's what it is. Yeah. Cafe latte. Yeah, that's right. Well, hey, look, so it's been a really big year. So, um, I was reflecting on, obviously you had new tracks in Italy and Spain, um, different competition. What, when you...

Mallory Dobbs (03:08.548)
Yes, because it's without coffee, right? Yeah, latte is just literally warm milk. They don't put coffee in it. No.

Mallory Dobbs (03:23.483)
Mm-hmm.

Angus Norton (03:29.474)
When you first arrived and had to adapt to new tracks, how did you prepare for the circuits you'd never raced before?

Mallory Dobbs (03:36.779)
Yeah, so I mean like when I did Moto America full season in 2023, I bought Forza 7 for Xbox because Forza 7 had the most number of Moto America tracks on it. And what I would do is I would play and it was like a card game, right? But at least it was a way they like learn which way the track went. So I did that a lot when I went into Moto America. And then when I went and did this whole thing in Europe, it was

It was a little bit harder to kind of do that. I didn't really have a ton of time to prep and things like that. like, know, the Primona is a brand new racetrack even to World Superbike. And so there isn't really a lot of games or anything like that. It's a brand new racetrack. So, um, and luckily we tested there before the season started because no one had been there. Um, but yeah, I mean, there's a lot of just like looking at track maps, watching onboard footage. Um, you know, it's like a lot of just watching some YouTube videos and

And kind of the hard thing is like the championship is on our sevens, right? So it's helpful to be able to watch a small bike go around the racetrack, but not a lot of people put together our seven videos. I don't think that that's something you want to watch, you know, cause it's like, we want to watch a super bike. We want to watch him go really fast. It's crazy. You know, we want to watch kind of a go around and rip and you know, that's not quite the same about it. Our seven. And so it was really hard to find like references for that. And so,

I tried to get to some of the tracks to do some track days. a lot of it is, you find it's really hard to find where the track day companies are. Like if you just search like, you know, harass track day, like not all the companies come up or not all the dates. And so you really have to kind of know people over here and it kind of be like, hey, there's a track day that's getting put on by this company and this is what can happen. And then these people can bring you a bike. And so it was definitely difficult. mean, Misano was the first round and.

You know, we get 25 minutes of practice and 25 minutes of qualifying, that's it. And so a lot of these girls that hadn't been to these racetracks, you had to learn it so quickly. like, it was just a lot, right? Like in Misano, like there were so many crashes and so many people just pushing to the limit because none of us want to be like, you know, bad at it, right? None of us want to, and my whole thing was like, when we went to Misano, we actually had like a talking to at one point where they were like, you guys need to stop riding so crazy and stop crashing.

Mallory Dobbs (05:52.703)
And because that first race was just chaos, right? You could feel the anxiety on the grid. Like it felt like a novice race. Like when you like any novice, any racer could say this, like when they grid up to their first race and they have all the anxiety and the tension, you can feel it. And so that was what it felt like. But my opinion was that like you took the fastest girls from every country, right? Or every girl that had ever been like, I'm the fastest in this country, in this country. And I've done this races with all the guys and I'm going to do it like.

You took in the mentality of the egos and all these women is probably I'm going to win this thing. And so, and I mean, I mean, I thought I was going to do better. Right. And I think we all did. And so we get there and that's kind of the mentality of what everybody was kind of doing. And so, I think it was, it was kind of eye opening at that first race round to see that. And then after the year, as the year went on, girls got to do more testing. We got to see kind of how things worked and like the year was way better, at least like even for me personally.

Like the year was just way better in the second half. And so after somebody people got to like do some of the track days and everything and kind of figure out their teams, it was definitely a lot better. So I'm really excited to see next year, kind of what it looks like, because I think it'll be obviously everybody kind of knows how it works now. And so it'll be a little bit easier, I think for everybody.

Angus Norton (07:04.632)
Congrats for getting selected for next year. What's the criteria to get selected? It is public now, right? You announced it, I think, on Mallory Dobbs Racing on your website. What's the criteria to get selected for the following year?

Mallory Dobbs (07:08.058)
Thank you. Yeah, sorry. Drop the news. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Mallory Dobbs (07:22.72)
you know, it was, just asked us to reapply. So even last year, it was an application process where you just applied. they posted about it publicly when last year they posted about it said, Hey, everybody applied. and this year it was like, they sent emails out and I don't know exactly who the emails went out to, but they basically sent out the emails and then everybody got the application and they picked, mean, basically like 16, I think, or 15 girls from last year. and then they picked like, I think.

six girls that did wild cards throughout the season last year. And then they picked three girls that are like new to the championship that haven't done the championship at all. And so, and I haven't done a ton of research or anything, but I think one of the girls like won the women's European championship last year. And so there's definitely some girls with like, basically it's a resume thing, right? They're like, hey, if you've done something or are doing something or have a good backing team, like I think the big thing for them is that they wanna make sure that

It's a serious thing. It's taken seriously and everybody treats it that way and pays their bills on time. And so they really like to work with the big teams, which is really cool that there is like, know, how to promote Tion, know, Crescent, Yamaha, like those teams are backing, you know, other teams in there. Like, who was the other one yard supported a racer last year. And so you got some really big like world super bike teams are getting involved. GRT Yamaha.

So well-known teams are now supporting women in the championship, which I think brings a lot more validity to it as well.

Angus Norton (08:54.04)
Yeah, that's fantastic. And since you mentioned that there has to be some level of verified credibility for the rider, you don't want to end up like the Australian break dancer at the Olympics.

Mallory Dobbs (08:59.953)
you

Mallory Dobbs (09:05.107)
I mean, basically

Angus Norton (09:07.824)
come on. Well, let's just, let's recap a little bit here. so, you know, the early rounds were tough for you. You had a few retirements, but like I always, you were, you were competing aggressively in the top 10 and a lot of those early rounds, right? I remember you and I were texting back and forth about it. And so like, there's always the, well, if you'd known the track, if it wasn't your first year in Europe, you like, I mean, for me, I'm an optimist, but.

Are you racing for the same team this next year or? Okay.

Mallory Dobbs (09:39.5)
No, no, I'm running my own team this year.

Angus Norton (09:42.198)
Wow. Okay. what does that look like? We're going to get into Europe more, what does that look like? Because everyone I've spoken to, I interviewed Cormac Buchanan, who just made it into Moto3 now. He's going to Moto3 next year and he came up through Red Bull Rookies Cup. And when you look at these folks, think, they must have all the support and it must be so easy. No, like Moto3 even, he still has to scrape to get money. So how do you fund your own team? What are you doing? What do you need?

Mallory Dobbs (10:03.44)
No.

Mallory Dobbs (10:07.59)
How do they?

Angus Norton (10:12.142)
All the listeners here.

Mallory Dobbs (10:12.514)
Yeah, I mean, it's it's cool because now that we've done the program, we've done the championship, it's a little bit easier to talk to someone about what it looks like and the exposure of what it looks like. Right. As anything, when something first starts out, it's hard to really sell that to a sponsor when you're like, this is what's going to happen, I think. And so now that it's happened for a year, I think there's a lot of people that are really interested in what's happening. And so me personally, you know, I've raised now nationally and

seriously, I guess since 2022. for the past two years, um, and really put together a really good program and, really just kept my relationships with people really good. Um, so, you know, I raised in Super Hooligans back in 2023, I did a full season on a Ducati Hypermotard and I was sponsored by Ducati Richmond, which is actually in Canada, um, and Doreen and I have a very good relationship. And so, you know, she's going to be on board with Diva Racing this season. Um, and a couple other things that haven't been, um,

Angus Norton (10:59.011)
Yeah

Mallory Dobbs (11:08.824)
I haven't been posted yet. I'm still waiting on some ink to dry, but some really cool like support motor racing, Fuel Injected 21. They're a person who actually sponsors Joe Roberts. Yeah, so they're trying to get more involved in motorsports and trying to give back to the community. And so they're supporting me and Joe this year. so, you know, stuff like that where it's just, building relationships with people and just trying to get more people in the world super bike paddock. I think it is something that I can actually give.

at them like other people, know, because it's like world super bikes for me, at least was really daunting for like saying I was going to go to Europe and race world super bike seems terrifying. Um, but honestly, this championship is one of the easiest things to coordinate. Um, as far as the, as a running a team perspective, only because I don't have to worry about the transport of the bike. I don't have to worry about making sure I have all the spare parts. I don't have to worry because all that stuff is there for me. like

It's a spec class, they transport the bike for us. So it's like, basically you have a bike with a number on it, it's yours for the season. Like you lease it from them, from JIR. And they take all the bikes and they take the trailer and they move them around to all the rounds. You show up, they set up all the things, they unload the bike and then you get your little pit space and you're good to go. And so then at that point you just have like your crew there to do all the tires and the warmers and you know, they fuel the bikes. Like it's...

so much easier than like Moto America, right? Where like I was running my own team and I had my super sport bike and my super hooligan bike and I had to figure out how I was going to get that from here to New Jersey, you know? And so it's really like as far as a team owner and like running perspective, I mean like based from the Moto America to the World Superbike thing, like for this championship in particular, as a team owner, it's a lot easier.

Angus Norton (12:39.555)
Yeah.

Mallory Dobbs (12:52.423)
And then it's just like, can focus a little bit more on the, on the funding aspect and kind of bringing more people into world zero bite that wouldn't be there originally. So.

Angus Norton (13:00.801)
You're an engineer by training,

Mallory Dobbs (13:03.234)
I am, yes, I went to college for four years before, in a past lifetime before I got into motorsports. Yeah, I went to college for civil engineering.

Angus Norton (13:06.894)
Yeah.

Okay, explains a lot. Okay. So you think like an engineer and you've used sort of a system thinker? Yeah.

Mallory Dobbs (13:13.114)
Ha ha ha.

Mallory Dobbs (13:18.21)
Yes. Yeah. When it comes to my racing program, it's like, almost like enjoy it when I could coordinate and do all that stuff, you know, and people actually ask me if I, if I ride like that too, which I don't. I'm not a very analytical rider. Like I'm not about the numbers or like how much everything is. Like I can look at the data, but I'm more of like a feel type rider. And it's so funny because it's like very different from how I operate as a, as a professional.

Angus Norton (13:30.894)
Hmm.

Angus Norton (13:35.522)
Yeah. Yeah.

Angus Norton (13:41.164)
Yeah, this is, yeah, I see that in you. mean, even at track days when you, when you let me, like it's weird because you're like, at a track day, but it seems like you're really competitive too. You just, anytime you're on a bike, you don't want to be passed. Like, I don't know. Maybe it's just me, but I, okay. All right. Well, since we're talking about competition, like real competition, not old white guys like me, tell me about the competition in Europe. what was the most significant difference? I know it was global competition, but.

Mallory Dobbs (13:57.606)
True.

Angus Norton (14:11.33)
What was the most significant difference between Moto America where you're racing with competitive men and women and international racing and what was it?

Mallory Dobbs (14:20.178)
You know, it was a bit ruthless at times, to be honest. It was my first time racing with all women and it's a very different mentality. Like women racers are just a different way of thinking. But I think that like it was interesting to see like the championship did a really good job of picking the people that they brought into the championship. Like I don't, I can't even imagine how hard of a feat it was to find 24 girls across the entire world that were similar in experience.

So there definitely was some gaps in like experience levels. Like I think that, you know, you have somebody that's been racing for a year and then somebody has been racing for 10 or, you know, like there is definitely some discrepancies. And so, and with the R7, like, I feel like it's a less intimidating bike. And so some of these girls, like you just watch them ride and it's like they're riding above their skill level and you can see it. And so that's why there's some, there were some of the crashes we saw, like granted it's racing, there's going to be crashing, but like,

It was kind of all over the place as far as like that front eight or nine girls were very consistent and like hardly ever put a wheel wrong. And then you have that like middle group pack that's like sometimes would be good and sometimes would be crazy. And I kind of rode in the, like at the end of the year, I got at the front of that group. but during the middle of the year, you know, I got taken out three times last year. And so, and I had never been like, I had been hit a bunch in Moto America, like a couple of times in Moto America. And I blamed that on.

guys seeing the braids and getting angry.

Bye.

Mallory Dobbs (15:53.575)
know, sometimes they were just like making hairball moves, you know? just... You're like, do it! But yeah, so I mean, definitely was some discrepancies between the two, but like I got to spend, and we can get into this more, but I got to spend some significant time with like Anna Carrasco and lived with her in Spain for a couple weeks and got to train with her and you know, she's an amazing human being and like...

you know, getting to train with her and see her riding ability all the time is just so cool. Like, okay, like, and she was so helpful, you know, like, and see the little things that I was doing wrong and to point them out. But my riding personally, throughout the year, versus in Europe has, think, done exponentially up. Like, you know, my skill level, the things we worked on this year, like, you know, coming from the ZX6, the ZX6, racing and super sport, I didn't have to worry about my

how good my tuck was on the front straight. I didn't have to worry about how slow I released the clutch on, you know, corner entry or how much I was on the side of the tire versus accelerating on the center part of the tire. Like things like that, that I never really thought of, but like, you know, we'd looked at the data and like you're talking about like a couple of tens of a second of like, I would tip in, like there's a back straight at Esquirol and like you would go through it and it was like, it was a little bit of a kink, but you're full gas. I was chipping in later.

and not holding on the side of the tires long. And I was losing like six kilometers an hour on a front straight full gas because the girl, the other girl that had the fastest lap time was tipping in sooner and then was staying on the side of the tire longer and was accelerating all the way out to the curbing. And it was just like stuff like that that you don't think about. And so like I had to think about a lot of little things like that and work on my braking technique, like throttle to gas, like how quick, you know, stuff like that. It like means like tenths a second.

Angus Norton (17:31.906)
Yeah.

Mallory Dobbs (17:41.819)
But when you're riding a bacteria where everybody has the exact same bike, it means everything. And so, you know, me as a racer, like I had to work on so many personal things that like, you know, maybe some other people already knew and already have been doing, but that habits that I had to fix from racing a super sport bike for so long. So yeah.

Angus Norton (18:00.222)
so much there. Wow. I don't know. I to go straight into like track, track riding skills that you're not going to do. Let's go back to Anna. So, yeah, I mean, now didn't she race in Moto three as well. Okay.

Mallory Dobbs (18:06.988)
It's crazy.

Mallory Dobbs (18:13.376)
Yes, and then she had a really bad crash, high-fived and broke her back.

Angus Norton (18:17.262)
Okay. So how did, how did that relationship start? Cause I, correct me if I'm wrong, but people tell me that races are killers. They just want to kill each other. So how do you become friends with a competitor? How did that happen?

Mallory Dobbs (18:26.182)
I've I yeah, I mean, I won't take it away from her. She's definitely still a killer. see, yeah, you know, I didn't have a bike at a track day that we went to and I was riding an R6 from Sheridan Marais, who's a very well known racer as well. And he was helping me out and you know, she actually had a spare R7 at the at the event. And so she let me ride it one of the sessions or the next like we were racing at the Portuguese national event. And

Yeah, it was, uh, yeah, she does ended up offering that to me. And she said, Hey, like, let me know if you need help with anything. And, know, I texted her and I actually took her up on the offer. said, Hey, listen, I'm trying to ride these two raceracks again on the R7. Is there any way you can help me out? And, know, she, yeah, she made sure and she got it all hooked up for me. And I just showed up to this track day and, know, we got to venture around in her van, drive like 10 hours from Estero to her rest in a day.

We rode Esceril and then we got in the van and we loaded the van all up with all the shit and then drove down to Herres, which is yeah, it was like, I think it's like seven hours. Rode to Herres and then rode the next day at Herres and then we drove from there to Barcelona, which was I think 10 hours. And so rode around in the van, traveled across the countryside, rode through the circles. But I kind of, no, no. I'm so like, I.

Angus Norton (19:41.966)
Did you do any street riding over there? No, you don't ride on the street anymore, right?

Angus Norton (19:50.638)
Okay. Yeah. Yep.

Mallory Dobbs (19:51.239)
use for coaching but I'm not home enough to really do it anyway and I don't mind riding at home but when I see all the bike culture in Spain and Europe like it terrifies me. Like I don't know, like the scooters zip around.

Angus Norton (20:00.334)
They're so good. I rode from the south of Italy all the way to Spain on a Ducati Multistrada a few years ago, did the Dolomites and stuff. And there's something about the riders there. They just all know how to ride. But staying on the topic of Anna and the competition and sort of, as you think about your growth as a racer, I'm curious about nutrition. What have you learned about nutrition and physical fitness that was surprised? I mean, I know you've

Mallory Dobbs (20:14.63)
Crazy. Yeah.

Mallory Dobbs (20:24.005)
You

Angus Norton (20:29.346)
But you've been competitive your whole life. know you've competed in horse racing or questering. mean, you've done a lot. You're competitive, have you learned things about nutrition as well or that were different from other America?

Mallory Dobbs (20:33.434)
writing with me

Mallory Dobbs (20:43.047)
Really, so I'm the same physical trainer as I did when I was in Moto America. I did get to go to her gym and train. So actually going to like the competition portion of that comment was like, know, Anna is super helpful and everything, but she did joke that if I got the moment I got faster than her, she was done helping me. But I'm not really that like, I wasn't really like near her enough for her to be worried about it. But yeah, so she actually, I went to her gym global performance.

Angus Norton (21:00.312)
Yeah.

Mallory Dobbs (21:12.864)
And they actually train, they're in Barcelona and they train a ton of professional athletes, like soccer, like football, and a lot of other like professional athletes that are in Spain. And yeah, they failed me. Like it was just like, you know, their workouts and stuff was really cool. Cause like they actually tailored a lot of the workouts for motor sports. So, you know, we do a workout where like we'd have like a handlebars on like a rope.

And then we would be like, you'd lean on it, like on the ground and you'd be like engaging your core. And then you'd have to like, you know, go through like a racetrack. Like you would show us an onboard lap or like Estoril and we'd go through the whole thing, you know. and different stuff like that, that like, actually they trained a lot, like specifically for motorsports, which was really cool. and really kind of showed me that I was like, you know, I hadn't had a chance to really train because it's traveling. It's so hard to find somewhere to train. Like, I mean, I was running, like I'd run wherever in Italy or something.

but you can't find a gym that'll let you do any sort of like, you know, day pass or anything. Like I emailed this gym in Italy and they were like, no, we only do yearly passes. And it's like, okay, well that doesn't work for me. And so it was definitely hard on the road, like while I was traveling and staying alone and wherever I was to like find somewhere to be consistent with the program. And that was, I think one of the things that like kind of hurt me this season too, is it's just so hard to like find a consistency and eat healthy and.

Angus Norton (22:21.454)
I like it.

Mallory Dobbs (22:40.71)
Granted in Europe, it's a lot easier to eat healthy. Their food is just so much better. Everything is so much cleaner. You just feel better. So that's definitely cool. But yeah, was really hard for me to find consistency with the training while I was there.

Angus Norton (22:54.22)
Yeah, yeah, that's it. mean, you you're clearly fit because you took some big hits and like you haven't broken anything this year, right?

Mallory Dobbs (23:04.422)
Yeah, it was a good year of lots of crashing and I didn't get any serious injuries, which I'm very thankful for because there was a lot of people that did have some serious injuries along the way.

Angus Norton (23:15.138)
What do you think? some people break more than others. mean, I know you're not a doctor, but, it's clearly a way to fall, right? And I know it all happens really fast, but like, is a way to tumble is a way to fall. Like, do you think it's just luck on your side or is there something like, yeah.

Mallory Dobbs (23:26.086)
Hopefully.

Mallory Dobbs (23:29.685)
Yeah

it's luck. think a little bit is some luck and then some of it is like most of the crashes I had were pretty minor. You know it was like I was on the brakes a little too hard I tucked the front and you're just like going in the slowest corner of the racetrack you know. I had a pretty big one in her ref. The curbing there is like stair steps and then as you go out on the edge of the curbing it drops off like six inches.

and there's a section where like, basically going out onto the curbing and then you're coming back. Right. And as I was doing that, my rear tire came off the edge of the curbing and went down that six, six inch drop and just like, and it was like top of fourth gear. Like I tumbled and that one I like got up and I was like, I don't know. Like, am I okay? Like I to assess and I ground my finger down a little bit, but, otherwise I was fine. And yeah, I don't know. think that they all like think they're some of it is like the racetracks have a lot of.

Angus Norton (24:04.024)
Bye.

Mallory Dobbs (24:24.054)
know, runoff and gravel and things to slow you down. And like I said, I think most of my crashes were just minor in nature. So I got really lucky. But when I, when I got taken out for the first time in Misano, I took a foot peg to the inside of the thigh and it, I got really lucky on that one. Cause it like scratched it, it like ripped through my suit and scratched my thigh. But it left like this big of a bruise and it was instantly like red and purple. And I'm really lucky it didn't like actually stab me.

So yeah, it was a lucky one for sure.

Angus Norton (24:53.644)
Wow.

You're sponsored by Bison, right, for your suits. So what happens when you puncture a suit? they send you a new suit or do repair it?

Mallory Dobbs (25:04.474)
it depends. Over here they haven't quite gotten the structure to be able to help support, because like when we're at Moto America they have Sage tailoring and they fix all your suits. I was actually really surprised, so like, they actually don't have someone there to fix suits unless like Alvin Starr has a guy there. but nobody has like a- there's no person there to just fix everybody's suits, so like, there isn't really a way to fix it when you're there.

Um, and so, you know, it's definitely like you have to have two or three suits because you have to be prepared for ripping all of them. Um, but, but they definitely like, so when, uh, Rob with Bison was there, one of the rounds he actually found, um, what is there? Uh, it's like Vanna. I can't remember the name. There's another suit company that they've partnered with that does like vegan suits and stuff like that. Um, and they actually helped repair my suit one of the times.

Angus Norton (25:35.678)
okay, yeah.

Mallory Dobbs (25:56.551)
So Rob made friends with them and was like, hey, can you fix this? No, but they, no, so they are there at the World Tour by grounds and Gwyson is trying to pair with them to maybe do some new ones in the future. You can't remember, I can't remember the name of them to save the life of me, but that's

Angus Norton (26:05.719)
Okay.

Angus Norton (26:09.262)
Got it, got it. yeah, suits are amazing. I noticed that Simon Crayfier has this charity called Writers for Dogs. And he really loves dogs. And he auctions off very famous writers' gear. So he's just doing an auction on Pico, sorry, Acosta's suit from Phillip Island. And then he was, yeah, yeah, yeah, anyway.

Mallory Dobbs (26:27.47)
I love that.

Toss a suit. Yeah, okay. I saw that somewhere.

Angus Norton (26:38.094)
And I actually just made a bid on on his, on Acosta's suit. And actually up here to my right, I Alay, Alaycia Spargaro's, a knee pad from, um, one of his races. like, I like this sort of stuff. So staying on you, staying on you. Um, so we talked about your growth as a racer on a track. Um, tell me about mental toughness. Like, do you describe yourself? Do you have a, do you have a, a regime for mental, like preparing your head?

Mallory Dobbs (26:41.38)
Hahaha

Mallory Dobbs (26:46.928)
Love that. Nice.

Mallory Dobbs (26:51.61)
Love it.

Mallory Dobbs (27:07.712)
Yeah, yes and no. There's definitely been, I've had a lot of conversations with my coach about this because my performance coach, Ethan, at Southern Pride Performance, he talks to lot of racers. So he works with like Maddie Schultz and Camp P and a lot of the guys over here at Moto America. And so, you know, he kind of takes what they do or what they can learn and then kind of applies it to all his other racers. And so we've talked a lot about ways to do that, you know, like

taking my like career highlights and having a highlight reel. So in moments where, okay, so I had a really bad crash and I'm starting to myself. And I'm like, my God, can I do this? Like this sucks, blah, blah. I can sit and like, before I go out, go over my highlight reel and be like, remember that one time I got seventh at, you know, whatever Laguna on the hyper mode card. Remember when I finished 13th at, you know, like, okay, remember that time that this thing happened or when I signed this deal or.

Whatever positive moment I have in my life or racing career that could make it so I remember I'm supposed to be here. I do have those moments a lot where I'm like, why am I doing this? Why am I spending all this money? I'm putting myself at risk. I'm putting myself through so much stress for something that may not always be fun. sometimes I don't feel like I'm very good at. And so I have to sit there and remind myself of why I'm doing it.

That's definitely something I've had to work on over the past year, like this year, like even last year too. But it was last few years have been the hardest of my race career and they just keep getting harder and harder. But at the same time, doing harder stuff, right? Like it's harder for everybody. It's not just me. And so, you know, it is, it is a difficult thing and it is something that I get to say that I've done. And so it's, really exciting. And I had to remind myself of that. Like I'm doing something that a lot of people wish they could be doing.

So it's something in the works. It's always, it's always changing. Like we always talk about like what I could do to improve my mental fortitude.

Angus Norton (28:52.792)
Yeah, yeah.

Angus Norton (29:00.59)
I'm glad you said that. There's a couple of things in there you just said. Sometimes when you're talking to people, you don't realize it, right? Sometimes what you're saying, but like, there's a couple of things in there. I remember trading notes of you on WhatsApp, I think of a second race. I was like, girl, like you're racing with the best in the world. Like a few years ago, had club racing. like you're in the, like the 1 % of people, not even that. And you also mentioned like, why am I doing this? Like, why are you doing this?

Mallory Dobbs (29:07.316)
Thank

Mallory Dobbs (29:17.542)
Thank

Yeah.

Angus Norton (29:29.698)
Like, do you have a clear answer to that? is it, I mean, it's just you're, you love it and that's all you need. Like, I don't know.

Mallory Dobbs (29:38.599)
think it's something that like, it's always us, I mean, as racers, we always try to find that answer, right? Because yeah, it is something that we're crazy. We keep doing it over and over again. I think for me, it's like, one is I always enjoy being that role model for other women to do this. You know, I get messages from people from time to time that say like, you're the reason I got a motorcycle or you're the reason I stayed in this or you're the reason I want to look into racing, you know, because I thought I could do it, but I was scared.

I really enjoy being that positive role model to show people that they can't do it. so that's kind of like an extrinsic thing, but like intrinsically, I just want to see how far I can go. Like, I want to see how good I can do. Like I, you know, we are always improving that little itty bitty bit, you know, and it's like, I, I'm so competitive and I, and I want to win. And, you know, if it's possible for me, I don't know, but it's like, that's kind of my goal is like, I want to win and show myself that I can do it.

so it's always that's kind of like intrinsically is like, just want to win.

Angus Norton (30:37.966)
Were you that way in your other career as well or other sports? I know you did competitive. Was it equestrian?

Mallory Dobbs (30:45.271)
Yeah. So I showed horses in performance. basically, which is so funny because it's like the slowest horse event possible. Cause like basically it's just riding around in circles and looking pretty. So I trained my own horse when I was in my teens, I got my last horse when he was four, he's now 18. So it was 14 years ago. I got a horse that I trained and took to the world championship show in Tulsa, Oklahoma. And at the age of 18 or 19, I became a world championship.

horse shower. Yeah, yeah, so it says World Championship, but it's mostly just in the country. But yeah, so the Pinto World Championship show is once a year, it's two weeks. And you know, you pay a lot of money for a belt buckle you could have bought, you know, for way cheaper, right? It's just like racing, you know, you could have bought the trophy for cheaper than what you spend, but it's about what you have for it, you know, so.

Angus Norton (31:15.854)
Wait, I didn't know this. Okay, okay, okay. All right.

Angus Norton (31:24.215)
Mm-hmm.

Angus Norton (31:33.176)
Sure.

Mallory Dobbs (31:40.363)
it was really cool to be able to train my own horse and do that. And so there's a lot of time I've spent every day at the barn, you know, riding at least an hour, training, getting him ready. Cause at that point it's not even physically fit for me. It's also getting my horse physically fit to be able to do what I want them to do. And, it was a lot of fun. And that's, mean, I attribute to who I am today as a person because of horse showing. it taught me a lot of about being independent and strong and

Angus Norton (31:47.278)
Hmm.

Mallory Dobbs (32:06.982)
being consistent and, you know, being responsible and all those things that, you know, I got my first horse when I was 11 and which was pretty late for girls that showed horses even too, you know, cause some girls started when they were like six, just like motor sports. Yeah. And so, um, yeah, I mean, I had to, I had to train really hard and it was, you know, something I sacrificed a lot in high school and like even where I chose to go to college was because it was local to my hometown where I could still.

Angus Norton (32:20.258)
Yeah, right. Yeah, there's a parallel there. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Mallory Dobbs (32:36.741)
get him ready for the world show. Cause I went to the world show my freshman year of college. And so, you know, I basically planned it where I was like, okay, I can stay here in town. I can go to this really good engineering school and I can still go to the world show. Like that was always my goal. And, and so, yeah, that was something I did. And then, you know, I showed horses up until I was 24 or 25, up until I really started getting more into motor sports, but yeah.

Angus Norton (33:02.894)
It's interesting that you touch on a few things and you raise your role as what you've become more of a role model for women. raise that. So I'm kind of going to go there a little bit if you don't mind. You've chosen two careers as one as a professional road racer and one as an engineer that are traditionally dominated by men. I work in engineering myself, software engineering. And so that's interesting.

Mallory Dobbs (33:21.318)
Yes.

Angus Norton (33:32.078)
You know, some women I talk to just don't want to talk about it. They're like, hey, I'm a racer. It doesn't matter. Others understand that maybe they don't want to talk about it, but they feel like they have a responsibility because they are doing it. And in the interview I did with Matt Oxley recently, he talked about the woman who, the first woman ever to compete at the TT level in the Isle of Man. And she, at the time, what the men did, the old white men at the time did, they just...

They said, well, you're too light. You need to be this weight. So she spent like three weeks eating chocolate to put on weight for the TT and she raised him a TT. Right. And so from the early beginnings, but as you think about like, you know, I'm a huge sport of women, right? Like I was, I was raised by a single mom. Like I never really had a male influence in my life. So I was raised with a level of respect for women just in general, you know, and for me, motorcycling.

Mallory Dobbs (34:02.48)
Hmm.

Angus Norton (34:29.196)
I know that there's a physical element to it. It's very physical. But other than that, you know, you're sitting on a gyroscope that reacts the same way, no matter who's on it, doesn't want to fall over. A gyroscope wants it, like all of these things. So in your mind, what is, is it a supply to mom thing around the reason why we haven't seen women at the very, very top yet? Just there aren't enough women or is it something else? Like I, I know it's kind of a hard question, but

Mallory Dobbs (34:37.894)
Thank

Angus Norton (34:58.478)
How do you, I mean, how do you think about, cause you, like, I'm just a track day guy, right? So, but I see you, I mean, I see women pass me all the time and kick my ass all the time at track days, but help me understand, like, what do you think's going on? Like, are we at a point, a turning point or not?

Mallory Dobbs (35:07.726)
you

Mallory Dobbs (35:15.062)
I think the fact of the matter is like, you look at the number of people who are in MotoGP, like the number of racers that are there, MotoGP and the number of racers who probably could also compete at MotoGP that just don't have, like they don't have the grid spots or the capability to get there. There's so many more, like so many more people that I think are MotoGP capable. but the fact of the matter is it's limited, right? The number of people is so small. Like you're taking such a small percentage, even of guys to MotoGP.

let alone like a such a small percentage of already a small percentage of women racers, right? And I think with the technology and everything like that, think could someone definitely, could some girl go and compete in MotoGP? Totally. But is that gonna happen when there's this many other guys waiting for their ride for MotoGP? Probably not. I think it's just a matter of like, you look at the percentage of people doing that, that level of racing, and it's so small that like the...

chances of getting a female like that out there is just so difficult. Yeah, it's physically demanding. But like also you look at some of these races that are so tiny, like, know, some guys are really tiny and it's something that we can't train, you know, something like even for me physically, like I've had to train, I had to train a lot on upper body when I was racing my ZX6 because, you know, I have really strong legs because I've had horses for so long, but like I have a better lower body capability of moving my body around, but I just don't have the

the physical like upper body strength. And so I had to train a lot on that. I'll be interested to see how Anna does this year on a super sport, because she's moving on up to 600 this year. So she's doing world super sport on a Honda CBR. And obviously a lot, there's a lot of factors, right? There's the team, the bike, the whatever, but I actually talked to her a little bit about it she says, the size of the CBR is actually pretty similar to the R7.

it feels like that way to her anyway. And so she's really excited about it. And so I think that there is opportunities for women to do it, but there's just not a lot of women that are at that capability either or that push that hard, right? You touched on the fact that it's like, I'm in a male dominated sport in both my job and my sport. But that means that I've had to have this mental fortitude even for that. People ask me all the time, like,

Mallory Dobbs (37:33.063)
What is your advice to women and I'm like my biggest advice is just to like one find somebody you can trust to get advice from don't take advice from the general population because I get unsolicited advice all the time, but she is is that You have to have really strong skin and you have to like really thick skin and you have to know what you want and not let other people falter that Because I've had plenty of people that have told me I only get what I want I only get this because I'm a girl must be nice because you're a girl

wow, you you're not gonna ever make it. You're not gonna, you don't take this seriously enough. Like people actually told me that and, and some people that I actually dearly loved told me that. And, you know, I had to take it and say that that's your opinion and I'm going to keep doing what I want to do because that's my life and that's what I want. And so, and I'm sure it's happening to every girl or even some guys, right? It happens to everybody. It's not even just a gender specific thing. it's just worse with

gender right? I am a female, I like am that way, that is who I am, I'm a female racer, there's no doubt about that, like that's a fact. I can't say like I'm not, like I can't ignore that right? I can take that embrace it and use it for you know one of my selling points as sponsorship like sure I can I can take that and have that be I'm a minority right? That's cool but at the end of the day it's like I'm still a racer that wants to do well so I got a little off-tainted there but like

Angus Norton (38:55.394)
Yeah. No, no, no, no, but talking about doing well, first of all, I'm really, thank you because I know that not everyone wants to talk about those, those topics. but talking about doing well, let's talk about that because, you really turned around the last half of the season in Europe. I was watching, I was up just so you know, I don't watch on demand. Like I was up watching you every race.

Mallory Dobbs (38:58.235)
That's basically like I think that.

Mallory Dobbs (39:04.282)
you

Mallory Dobbs (39:15.782)
Yeah.

Mallory Dobbs (39:21.926)
Thank you, thank you. Yeah.

Angus Norton (39:23.692)
Cause I have a five year old and he wakes up really early so it's real easy. But I keep going like if only, if only there were so many if onlys where you were like competing at some, some, some rounds you were like in the top five in the race and dropped back to under 10 or whatever. But that a lot of the times your falters, if you took away the areas where you were either wiped out by someone else or not, you would have like, I think you just missed out on top 10, right? You had a really big turnaround in the second half. You came 11th, I think.

Mallory Dobbs (39:50.779)
Yep. Yeah. And yeah, so we finished 11th in the season and in the last, in the last five rounds, I think we were top eight. So like we were one of the top eight like score per in the last, like last half of the season, the last three rounds, I guess. the last six races, I was in the top 10, five out of the six of them. so yeah, the second half of the season was much better than their first half. and I think that's attributed to

You know some of the tracks I got to actually do track days at so I got to ride the r7 at those racetracks a Couple of them I stayed over in Europe in between the rounds so didn't go home and come back So there wasn't the jet lag issue And I think yeah a lot of it was just the track time getting to ride the racetracks.

Angus Norton (40:36.302)
You know, I thought a lot about you at beginning of the track season, cause the first four days I did it was raining at the ridge, our local track. And I used rain tires for the first time. And to the point now where I actually, it sounds like such a first world problem, but you know, I have two RS 660s. One is a Trofeo, which is the track only version. And the other one's one I built, but I'm turning that into a rain bike. And the reason is cause I live in Seattle, but I'm like,

Mallory Dobbs (40:48.57)
Yeah.

Mallory Dobbs (40:55.622)
Friend.

Mallory Dobbs (41:02.177)
You know?

Angus Norton (41:04.95)
You did really well in the rain over there, right? Was that because of your experience riding in the US here in the rain, you think?

Mallory Dobbs (41:11.746)
I would say so. Yeah. mean, some of those girls haven't really ridden much in the rain at all because they don't, they don't race in the rain or they don't get rain. so yeah, I think I have a lot more comfort and I think honestly, I just have a lot more experience with like the mixed conditions too, right? We had like a pet, had our practice at Cremona that was like mixed conditions. And then we had, you know, Donington and mixed conditions. And it was like, I was like, like I've done this. Like, I know exactly, you know, what we're kind of like dealing with.

So definitely I got a little more confidence or more speed a little quicker in those conditions just because I have so much experience in it.

Angus Norton (41:45.71)
Didn't you, didn't you top one of the FP rounds, one of the practice rounds that you come fastest in one of them? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Mallory Dobbs (41:50.987)
Yeah, so then Cremona and I was in P1 up into the last lap and Maria threw in a fast lap at the very end so I finished second but and it was just practice so it's like I didn't mean anything but at the same time I was like

Angus Norton (41:59.692)
Yeah, but.

Angus Norton (42:04.756)
There weren't any races in the rain, were there? No.

Mallory Dobbs (42:07.362)
No, everything like at Estoril, it was so weird because like the weather was so crazy. Like we showed up to the track and everything's flooding, everything's pouring down rain. And then by the time that our like qualifying time came up, was like, it's like dry enough for slicks. And so we went out in slicks and there was just like wet spots that you had to like avoid. but yeah, there was never a rain race. So it wasn't until the intercontinental games that I got to actually like ride in the wet, actually race in the wet.

Angus Norton (42:32.28)
Well, I'm going to put, okay, so I'm going to make a bet. I want you to do really well next year, regardless of conditions. If there's a race in the rain, I'm going to bet you're going to be in the top three.

Mallory Dobbs (42:38.426)
the

Mallory Dobbs (42:42.47)
Alright, alright, I would love that.

Angus Norton (42:43.566)
I'll bet you like $200 in sponsorship for your team. And if you win, I'm going to make a commitment now. If you win, I'm going to give you a thousand dollars. Okay. From my company, not my YouTube channel, my company. My company is a company that probably doesn't really align with motorsports, but maybe you could talk me into sponsoring you. Hey, so let's talk about tires.

Mallory Dobbs (42:48.135)
Nice. perfect. You're out of here, guys. All right, all right. All right, done.

Mallory Dobbs (43:09.904)
Yeah.

Angus Norton (43:11.374)
So I'm learning a lot about tires. Obviously it seems obvious, but you're real running Dunlop's and Moto America, right? And you're running Pirelli's in Europe. So how much of a change was that?

Mallory Dobbs (43:18.192)
Mm-hmm. Yep.

Yeah, so it's hard because like it was a whole big change in general, right? Like when I came over to Europe, it was a new bike and new tracks, new tires. Um, I had raised some Pirellis when I was a club racer back in the day, and then I switched to Dunlaps for Moto America. Um, and so the Pirellis are definitely like, I really enjoy the consistency that they offer. Like, you know, they're just, they just operate differently and I really enjoy, like it fits with my riding style a little bit better. Um, it was actually really interesting because when we did the Intercontinental Games, um, which we can probably talk about, but like,

Angus Norton (43:52.77)
Yeah, see ya.

Mallory Dobbs (43:53.439)
the, they did Japanese Dunlops for that event. And so we went from, I rode the same bike, the championship bike, because those bikes that we rode for the intercontinental games were the same ones from the women's championship. so I the exact same bike on Japanese Dunlops and it was interesting because they like, they like operate a lot differently. It felt weird. The front had a different tire profile. and in general, like the weather was about the same.

And the fastest guy in the Intercontinental Games was still two seconds slower than what Anna did in qualifying. So the tires were just like way different than the Pirellis, but I really liked them. I had no complaints. And like we were swapping them. Like we didn't get like we didn't get to do like a tire plan or anything like that because everything was very regimented. So it was like you get a new set of tires for practice and then you get a new set of tires for qualifying and then.

You scrub those tires in, like then you have a new set for the race. And so everybody had to swap tires at the same time. So no one had like any sort of advantage on the tires. So. Yeah.

Angus Norton (44:57.902)
I have a stack of Pirellis in my garage that I'm going to try next year. Cause I've been running Dunlops. But Sage, you know, our local Pirelli guy, taught me into them. yeah, so it is probably good to transition to the, the, the internet intercontinental championship too, because is this the first as well? Like, is that, I'd never heard of it before. Okay.

Mallory Dobbs (45:07.163)
Yep.

Mallory Dobbs (45:21.627)
Yeah, first year. Yeah, so my whole year was full of inaugural events. But I, yeah, basically, so it's like MX of Nations. if anybody that watches any sort of dirt bike stuff, it was so basically they took all the continents. And they said they had, let's see, what do we have like 16, I think. So we had Asia, Europe, Africa, Oceania, North America.

Angus Norton (45:25.378)
Yeah. Yeah. What was this event about? it like the Olympics or something kind of thing?

Okay.

Angus Norton (45:52.696)
America, South America.

Mallory Dobbs (45:53.626)
and South America, I think. So we had six different continents and each continent had eight riders. So four riders were on an R3 and four riders were on an R7. they basically, was a points, a cumulative points thing. So basically the team, the continent with the most number of points wins the trophy, which was combined R3 and R7. So basically your entire team.

count towards your points and then the continent with the most number of points gets the trophy. And so it was at Hares. It was a like three day event still. So it was like we practice. just did open practice on Friday. We got a lot more track time than like any of the women's championship events. And so Friday we got practice and then Saturday we did practice and qualifying. And then Sunday we just did two races.

And yeah, it was interesting. mean, we had, unfortunately, our team got taken out a couple of times. So we had basically a bunch of Modo America people. So Avery Dreyer, Matthew Chapin, like, you know, the Junior Cup kids that won championships. We have to have one female on each team. So each of the one R3 and one R7. So we had Michaela Moore as our female for the R3. Yeah. So she came over.

Angus Norton (47:07.501)
Yeah, so here.

Mallory Dobbs (47:11.972)
And then Max Toss got to ride the R3, which is funny because he's so tall, but he was so good. And then we had Hayden Schultz on the R7, Blake Davis, Andrew Lee, and then me. So Andrew was a fill-in because Rocco got hurt last minute. So literally two days before we were leaving, America sent out an email about it. And so we jumped on it. JP and Andrew and I are up calling them, talking to Michael and Bill, and Moto America going, we need Andrew, we need Andrew.

Andrew ended up coming last minute, which is really cool because I never thought I'd be on the same team as my boyfriend in my whole entire life.

Angus Norton (47:46.872)
Yeah, well, wasn't going to go there because I know it's, know, but it's funny if you're meeting Rocco because I actually got to hang out with him at a Christmas party in LA at Keefe Codes house. know, Rocco was there and also Kenzai, who's a young Japanese American kid that the California Suit Bike School both trained both of them. They also trained Joe Roberts, by the way. Keefe Codes, yeah, Keefe trained Joe over in Europe and stuff.

Mallory Dobbs (47:50.109)
it's fine.

Mallory Dobbs (47:59.225)
that's fun.

Mallory Dobbs (48:10.662)
Nice. He's risen over in Europe too, right? Can't I did.

Angus Norton (48:17.126)
The school, they don't get enough credit for the great writers they produce. It's funny. I really am a big fan of the school. now you also got, that's cool. You got to compete with your boyfriend. everyone, Mallory has a boyfriend. Sorry. You're breaking a whole lot of hearts now. I'm probably going to lose a bunch of viewers now. Hey, but you also got voted the number one female in the SuperSport class at the Intercontinental Games, right? Yeah.

Mallory Dobbs (48:22.404)
Yeah.

Mallory Dobbs (48:30.79)
Sorry. That's okay.

Mallory Dobbs (48:43.399)
So I got most of her points for any of the females. Yeah. So it was actually crazy. So we raised the first race and it got red flags due to a crash that put a bunch of gravel on the track. So I finished second female behind Roberta Ponziani, who's Italian. She raced in the championship. She was in the top five every single race. Right. So I finished right behind her and I was like, it was so fun because it was like Roberta and Hayden and Andrew and I, and we were all like

Angus Norton (49:02.67)
Yeah.

Mallory Dobbs (49:10.598)
Hayden kept passing Roberta on the brakes and then she passed him on the gas and then Andrew and I were sitting back and Andrew would make a pass and then I'm gonna sit back like watching it all. It was so cool. And I really wish that... No. Yeah. So we don't get to have any cool onboard footage or anything. But it was really fun race and I was bummed it was red flag because I really wanted to make a last lap pass on Andrew. Like, huh, just to show him a wheel just because, you know? But yeah, so...

Angus Norton (49:19.342)
That is great. You're not allowed to use cameras, right, in those competitions. No. Yeah. Yeah.

Mallory Dobbs (49:38.087)
You know, the first race happened then and then the second race, we started it and then literally like two, I think two laps in, it starts dumping down the rain. So we're like, we get down the back straight to see a couple of raindrops. You're like, oh, that's kind of weird. And then you get to the next corner and it's like, everybody's like, yep. Like everybody almost crashes and then they red flag it. Two people crash. And so there was a whole thing. And then we ended up swapping to rains because it was like still kind of raining. It ended up stop raining. So then it was like this weird condition where like half the track was dry and half of it was wet.

and so yeah, we worked our way up and, yeah, we ended up, I had a little bit of a mistake. I almost crashed once or twice. I had like almost a moment where I was like, the rear like kind of split out and, kind of lost two spots to two of the girls, Roberta, and then, the girl from, Asia. And then I like kind of my way back and yeah, finished the race in, first female. So then I got the most number of points, over the weekend for female racers. So.

Angus Norton (50:16.76)
of that. Yeah.

Mallory Dobbs (50:35.974)
won the SuperSport award, which was really cool because it's like, you know, all the, most of the female racers on the R7s were girls from the women's championship. And so it's just really kind of validating. And with such a positive note to end the season on after everything that had happened to like, you know, end it with that with like a gold helmet. It was cool.

Angus Norton (50:52.642)
Yeah, well, you know, that's, that is great. And thinking about now you're transitioning to your own team as MKD, right? Racing team. So that's going to be interesting. okay. Being an owner and a racer with your name on the bike. I obviously, you know, I'm a super one-eyed proud Kiwi because, know, Bruce McLaren did that McLaren motorsports Formula One, New Zealand founded team, just in case you're wondering. And he will race for his own team and, and Formula One. it was.

Mallory Dobbs (50:59.878)
Yeah.

Mallory Dobbs (51:05.446)
Yeah.

Mallory Dobbs (51:13.914)
Mm-hmm.

Angus Norton (51:21.23)
You don't see that happen very often. And I'm a topic of Kiwis because you know, I'm a Kiwi guy. That's the name of the podcast, right? There's a few, there's a couple of Kiwi women that are competing now, they're wild cards. And one of them is going to be racing. So one of the things you don't know about me, the reason I wear black all the time is that I love techno and house music. Not that EDM shit. I'm talking real underground house music, right? You're too young to know what that is, but real house music.

Mallory Dobbs (51:30.596)
Yes. Yeah.

Mallory Dobbs (51:44.358)
Real house music. All right.

Angus Norton (51:49.598)
And I'm one of the pioneers of that is Kyle Cox. And Kyle Cox is like the, like probably the most, the biggest DJ on the planet. And he has a race team, Kyle Cox racing. And he is, he's going to have a team and he's like, yeah, next year. And his race is a Kiwi girl who I don't know. And so I need to meet this person and speak to her. Maybe you know her, but yeah. Avalon. Yeah, I don't know Avalon.

Mallory Dobbs (51:53.456)
Really? Interesting.

Mallory Dobbs (52:04.378)
Yeah, yeah, Cox motors. Yep. Yeah.

Mallory Dobbs (52:15.942)
Yeah, Avalon. Yeah, she, um, yep. Yeah. So she did a wild card around at Cremona. Um, so she did a race at Cremona and she did really good. Um, and yeah, I mean, she was a racer back in, she said back in the day, but like, she raced like a different, I can't remember exactly what it was. It was like some 400 women's championship or some other women's championship a while back in world super bike. And then, um,

Angus Norton (52:24.397)
Okay.

Mallory Dobbs (52:43.43)
Yeah, so then she hasn't really raced since and then she recently had a kid and then she heard about this women's championship thing and she's like, I'm in, I wanna do it. And so, yeah, it like she's doing the full season this year. So it'll be good. She's gonna be great competition. Yeah, she's ruthless. There was a couple of times I passed her on the back straight at Cremona and I was like, all right, I'm past her enough. And she was like, around the outside. was like, she's so good, nevermind. She's a good racer, it'll be fun.

Angus Norton (53:08.398)
New Zealand's only five million people, not many race tracks. It's a very hard place to do well in. In Cormac, the Canos we were talking about, he's the first Kiwi since Simon Kreyfar to make it to MotoGP class, to the GP class. So he'll be in Moto3 next year. And so I'm conscious of time because you're so busy and I know you're out of state right now. But we talked about your year transitioning to international racing.

We talked about you setting up your own team. You talked a lot about women and racing, which was great. And I've got a lot of ideas around that because I know that Royal Enfield have been sponsoring a women's cup in the U.S. and which I think is great that they're doing that. It's almost like a Red Bull Rookies Cup for women in the U.S. Are you going to race in Moto America next year?

Mallory Dobbs (53:56.262)
Thank

Mallory Dobbs (53:59.621)
The plan is to do the Ridge round. It's a twin step round this year. So we might try to put together the R7 for that. Cause I do have a street bike or I had a street bike R7 that we've kind of made a race bike now, but it's stock. And then also probably race the hyper motard and super hooligans because we still have that. So that's the plan. It's a race there for sure. It's just a matter of which class and what we're doing, but that's the plan. There's a really big schedule in the women's championship this year. it's.

Angus Norton (54:11.906)
Yeah.

Angus Norton (54:15.362)
Really? Okay.

Mallory Dobbs (54:26.224)
We do the first two rounds and there's nine weeks off in like June and May. And so, or yeah, May and June or June, July. So if it's right in the schedule for the bridge round in June. So.

Angus Norton (54:37.998)
Okay. And my last question on that topic of, you're trying to balance both, you know, is like, I see you have a track days cause I'm lucky enough to be at the same track as you. Do you, do you still enjoy track days or do you find them to be a bit amateurish?

Mallory Dobbs (54:45.062)
You

Mallory Dobbs (54:50.726)
you

Mallory Dobbs (54:56.804)
Hahaha

mostly go to track days to do coaching now, right? So when I'm out at track days, I'm normally coaching somebody. cause I do one-on-one coaching. I work for two fast track days still. I try to keep up on that stuff as much as I can. And I have some really great friends that still always want my help. And I love giving back to the sport and teach people what I know. and then sometimes I go to track days for some testing, but normally when we go to track days for testing, it's, have a purpose. we're going there with a, with a goal in mind of, we want to test this thing and this is what we're going to do for it.

Angus Norton (55:01.421)
Okay.

Mallory Dobbs (55:29.574)
Um, so last year we did a little bit of testing on the R7 once we got it, you know, and so Don came out with me and, yeah, we just kind of worked on some testing. Yeah. So, yeah, so Don, Don and I had the R7 and that was when we first started doing a little bit of testing. We didn't get our bike until May, so it was a little bit late, but we tried to get some riding time out on the R7 just so we could get used to the way it acted and how it worked and, and that kind of stuff. So really when we, when I go trucking now, like back in the day, I used to go just to like go around and try to go faster.

Angus Norton (55:36.215)
I swear I you.

Mallory Dobbs (55:57.189)
Now it's like, I need to go around and like test this thing out and see what happens when we change this. And so it's a little bit more about testing stuff now. There's a lot more of a purpose in my writing. So sometimes it's nice just to go out and do have no agenda, but it doesn't happen really much anymore, right? Cause there's so many things that have to happen. And you know, I, I'm still working a full-time job while I'm doing all this. So.

Angus Norton (56:19.129)
Yeah, I get tired just thinking about it. All right. So I've booked, have 22 days booked next season on the track between here, know, seven, Northwestern California. And, you know, I haven't actually booked any with Mark. Maybe I should hit you up some coaching. You're probably already booked. I want to spend more time riding in the rain. Like I want to learn to get better in the rain. I know it sounds weird, but like all the fine inputs and all the things, just everything has to be more smooth, right?

Mallory Dobbs (56:25.616)
Wow, nice.

Mallory Dobbs (56:29.733)
Mm-hmm.

Mallory Dobbs (56:37.488)
Mm-mm.

Hahaha!

Mallory Dobbs (56:44.386)
Yeah. Totally. Nope. Yeah. I mean, it ultimately makes you a better rider in the dry too, because everything should just be just as smooth in the dry as it is in the wet. But you typically don't ride as smooth in the dry because you don't have to. But yeah, I will. So there's a new coaching portal for Too Fast Going Up soon. And basically what's going to happen. Yeah. So basically what's going to happen is there's going have all the coaches and everything on there and you can just click a coach and then that coach will have all the dates that they're available and you can just click a date and book it.

Angus Norton (56:57.506)
Yeah.

Angus Norton (57:03.022)
Kind of more for them.

Mallory Dobbs (57:13.578)
so it'll be all live and it will have everything was like active of like what dates I could actually be coaching. there's a lot of things up in the air right now with my summer, just because I'm considering moving to Europe for the summer and trying to try and stay over there. so I'm still trying to figure that out because I got to get a visa thing figured and then, some other stuff. So I'm working on it. We'll see. also waiting on the, whether or not, you know, my boyfriend has a ride for next year gets to race. And so there's a lot of moving parts. Our life is a bit chaotic. So.

Angus Norton (57:22.22)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Angus Norton (57:43.16)
Yeah, you're gonna go live in Andorra like everyone else.

Mallory Dobbs (57:46.963)
Not in Dora because there's not really a whole lot to do there. There's like, know, some you could like hike and mountain bike and whatnot. I was actually going to probably stay probably somewhere near Barcelona and training at global performance again and try to be somewhere near there. And then I've got maybe some support from a dealership that will hopefully help me get a bike to train and move around through Europe. So kind of like I said, lots of moving parts, but that's hopefully the plan is Barcelona.

Angus Norton (57:49.314)
Yeah, yeah.

Angus Norton (58:12.29)
Okay.

Okay, well, let's close on this. So those of you that are listening, like what I've learned about motorsports is that even at the highest level, maybe not at MotoGP level, but definitely at like the Moto2, Moto3 and the FIM level where Mallory's racing, like you see all these sponsors, you think, it's such a great, it is not a free ride. Like these guys hustle, it is hard work and it's expensive, right? So.

Mallory Dobbs (58:40.08)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Angus Norton (58:43.566)
When you and I talked a year ago, you were professional, but you were still figuring out the international stuff. now you've, congratulations on how much you've, like, you're still Mallory, but you're clearly, your focus is different. Like how, how can folks contribute to your effort? Like we'll put stuff up on the screen, but you've got your own team, you're looking for sponsors for you, there's a whole lot of things. So let's just talk about that.

Mallory Dobbs (58:52.518)
Thank you.

Mallory Dobbs (59:11.044)
Yeah. So I mean, my Facebook page and Instagram have all of my racing updates. So Mallard Dobbs racing is on both Facebook and then Maldives on Instagram. And there'll be some other stuff coming out soon that will be ways for people to support. I'm just waiting for the here back. I just signed a contract, but that'll be exciting. So I'll get to post that soon and then people can support me through that as well. And that'll be the main platform for support.

So to be determined and then I'll have new merchant stuff. We're working on getting a new merch site set up and things like that. But really it's just a matter of like, if anybody wants to become a part of the program, anybody who's interested in being a world's your bike, being in the paddock, coming out and watching a race and getting, you know, behind the scenes views and you like that. can give VIP experiences to my team because you know, I have, I have that ability and, if any of the, you know, businesses or people personally want to be involved, you know, just shoot me a message and I'm more than happy to chat with people about it.

you know, what, their goals are and stuff. mean, we have sponsorship packages, but I know lots of things don't work for everybody. And so really it's about building relationships and that's something I really enjoy. I'm an extrovert. I love to talk to people and I, you know, love building those relationships with people and helping their businesses and, just giving them experiences they wouldn't get otherwise, you know? So yeah, it really is just a matter of reaching out.

Angus Norton (01:00:30.84)
So cool. Yeah. I'm actually an expressive introvert. No one believes that I'm an introvert, but I am. It's interesting. Great. Well, I'll put all those links up and who knows, I might pop over to Europe and see you. And you have like helmet sponsorships and all sorts of stuff, can all that stuff. I assume you can get your helmet. You can buy a space on your helmet or whatever, all that stuff you're going to announce later.

Mallory Dobbs (01:00:35.224)
You

Mallory Dobbs (01:00:42.704)
Don't.

Mallory Dobbs (01:00:48.378)
Yep. Yeah.

Mallory Dobbs (01:00:52.711)
Yeah, so I'll do a custom wrapped helmet this year, maybe a couple different versions this year. Last year's helmet turned out really good. But yeah, we still some spots in the helmet available for some sponsorship. If anybody wants to part of the special edition helmet, we might even sell some special edition helmets next year, depending on the level of interest and how they turn out. and suits, yeah, KYT.

Angus Norton (01:01:13.326)
KIT, right? Yep. I'm a KIT person. I love my KIT helmet. I really do. They're ridiculously good. Yeah. Well, I know you have people to do and things to see. You got to get going. Because you're always going because that's how you operate. I was going to ask you on that topic, the last question, sorry, very last. How many hours a night do you sleep, Mallory? How many hours a night do you sleep? honest.

Mallory Dobbs (01:01:18.982)
They're great. Yeah. The KX ones are so good.

Mallory Dobbs (01:01:30.498)
Always, yeah.

Mallory Dobbs (01:01:36.518)
You're fine. Normally six and a half. Yep, on average. Always. Yep.

Angus Norton (01:01:43.438)
Cause your head is like, go, okay. Well, um, folks, if, um, thank you very much for tuning in. If you have questions, put them in the comments below. I'm going to put all of Mallory's stuff up in the post edit and I'm going to say goodbye to the listeners. And then I'm going to go offline and say goodbye to you.

Mallory Dobbs (01:01:59.75)
Thank