Avalon Lewis: The Trailblazing Kiwi Racer Balancing Motherhood and World Championship Dreams

In this exclusive interview, we sit down with Avalon Lewis, one of New Zealand’s most determined and dynamic motorcycle racers. From bucket racing on home soil to competing at the highest level in the inaugural FIM Women’s Circuit Racing World Championship (WorldWCR), Avalon shares the highs, the heartbreaks, and what keeps her pushing forward.

We talk about:
The state of New Zealand motorcycle racing
Her journey through grassroots, national, and now global competition
Balancing racing with motherhood
Training with legends like Aaron Slight and racing under Carl Cox Motorsport
What it will take to grow the sport for future Kiwi riders

✈️ Join Avalon’s "Flight Crew" — Her Inner Circle of Supporters
Support Avalon’s international campaign in WorldWCR by joining her Flight Crew — a community of fans, friends, and sponsors helping her race on the world stage.

👉 Sign up here: https://forms.gle/gw7LkJspAfw5FB8i9

🛠️ Avalon’s Sponsors & Supporters
Carl Cox Motorsport – @carlcoxmotorsport
Carl Cox Motorsport Cup (Ken Dobson) – @ccmscup
Aaron Slight – @111slight
Yamaha NZ & AU – https://www.yamaha-motor.co.nz/, https://www.yamaha-motor.com.au/
Kiwi Girls Flight Crew
Auckland Motorcycle Club – https://amcc.org.nz/
Huntly Motorcycle Club
Kiwibike Insurance – https://www.kiwibike.co.nz/
Xpress Racewear – https://xpressracewear.co.nz/
ASP
Uggly N Co – https://ugglynco.co.nz/
Ozzy Performance – https://ozzyperformance.co.nz/
Venegoor Oil Supply
MCI
Cooney Motors
RST – https://rst-moto.com/
hoei Helmets – https://www.shoei-helmets.com/

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Transcript

ngus Norton (00:01.962)
Avalon Lewis. Great to meet you. Although I know that you're also known as another name, Formerly known as...

Avalon (00:04.211)
Hi!

Avalon (00:11.639)
Yeah, Biddle is my maiden name. you can call me Avgas. Most people do. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm pretty commonly called that, to be fair.

Angus Norton (00:18.67)
I've guessed, that's right. I've guessed on Instagram, right?

Angus Norton (00:25.782)
Well, look, it's an honor to have you here. You're one of New Zealand's most accomplished, inspiring motorcycle racers. You're a former European Women's Cup champion. You're a national pro-twins title holder in New Zealand. And now you're a fierce competitor. call you a rookie in the inaugural Women's Circuit Racing World Championship. But I think you're far from a rookie. And I wanted to...

Avalon (00:40.199)
You

Avalon (00:46.579)
you

Angus Norton (00:52.652)
have this podcast so folks could learn a bit about you and your journey. You're a trailblazer for Kiwi races. You're a proud new mom and clearly you're not slowing down. So welcome Avalon.

Avalon (01:05.015)
Thank you, thanks so much for having me. It does make me laugh when I'm called a rookie in WCA. I have been around for a long time but it's my first year racing in the Women's World Championship. I missed out on the first season last year. I love being called a rookie up against all those youngsters. it's awesome. I do have a pretty long history in the sport and plenty to talk about, I guess.

Angus Norton (01:30.062)
Yeah, for sure. And I think like a lot of great people from New Zealand, sometimes folks don't quite know what a proud history we have, whether it's Bruce McLaren, F1, Scott Dixon, and Indycar. know, Simon Crafer. It was interesting watching the British GP. And the last time a New Zealander won the MotoGP was Simon against, he was actually against McDoon. And he won that championship.

Avalon (01:57.232)
Yeah.

Angus Norton (01:59.694)
So it's been a while, right? So let's talk about, you know, I'd love to go back to where it started. heard, had a rumor that you came from the same town as me, right? Where are you from?

Avalon (02:00.493)
One of... Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Avalon (02:10.563)
I'm what, Auckland? Yep, so I think the same. I grew up on the Hibiscus coast and my mum still lives in Orewa, so north of Auckland. Yeah, how about your south? Yeah, nice. Awesome.

Angus Norton (02:21.794)
And you're much younger than me, but I was raised on the North shore in Takapuna. Yeah. And then went to, then lived in Epsom and Ponsonby for a long time. so yeah, small place. I'm sure we have friends in common. We can talk about that afterwards, but, yeah, I'm just imagining you like ripping around the Coromandel and then sort of the Northern New Zealand, New Zealand back roads.

Avalon (02:40.369)
Yes.

Angus Norton (02:50.455)
Is that how all got started for you? Did you find a motorcycle and start riding on the street up there?

Avalon (02:55.534)
No.

actually done a lot of road riding at all to be honest. I started younger riding mini motocross so I think anyone who in New Zealand if they're lucky enough to have parents that are supportive of motorcycles then they would get started in mini motocross so I did that year with North Harbour.

North Harbour Mini Motocross Club. And then my dad started racing at the local go-kart track, Mount Wellington go-kart track, which is where Scott Dixon started racing. So a lot of Americans would know him. And yeah, they did little bucket racing around the go-kart track there. And I had to wait until I was 13 to give it a go. So I was still well too young to have a road license. compared to the rest of the world, it's actually quite late to get started.

Circuit Racing at 13, so like I think it was on my 13th birthday. I was there, geared up, ready to give it a go.

Angus Norton (03:56.046)
Wow, you were 13 when you said that is really, really young. it's interesting you talk about riding on the road. I interviewed Rocco Landers a few weeks ago, who's a Moto America racer. And he doesn't have a driver, he doesn't have a license. He's never ridden on the road ever.

Avalon (04:11.763)
Yeah, it's actually very different to be honest. Yeah, it's just really different. know yourself, there's so many different factors on the road compared to going fast on a racetrack. So yeah, I've done a bit of both now, but I prefer racing, I have to say.

Angus Norton (04:30.574)
Yeah, no, for sure. And what was that first mini motorbike? What was it? Do you remember?

Avalon (04:36.563)
At the go kart track? Yes. So the first one I tried was a RG50, so they like the little two stroke. So the original rules of bucket racing, which is what it was called at the time, it's miniature road racing is the more formal term, but we called it bucket racing, which stands for buckets of junk. And they had to be formerly road bikes.

Angus Norton (04:38.999)
Yeah.

ID 250 or something.

Okay.

Avalon (05:04.339)
or be able to be registered as a road bike. we used commonly RG50 to race in, there's two classes, either like 50cc two stroke, 100cc four stroke or slightly bigger 150cc four stroke. very, very small, small bikes. So yeah, started on the RG50, but then my dad built...

built me an XR100 so like they could be registered as a farm bike but it was literally just an XR100 with clip-on handlebars and some different foot pegs so they were slightly higher and yeah and some like road tires so that was the bike I rode for maybe six months and I pretty quickly outgrew that and then kicked him off his bike and took his one.

Angus Norton (05:48.866)
Wow. And were you riding bicycles before then? you, did you have a bicycle or?

Avalon (05:55.162)
Yeah, I was into everything with two wheels really. Yeah, and motorsport in general, like I wanted to go karting the Speedway and everything a go, but yeah, I've always grown up riding two wheels. It's on both sides of my family, so yeah, came kind of natural.

Angus Norton (06:14.232)
That's interesting. So your mom and dad also rode?

Avalon (06:18.739)
no, my mom cannot ride a bicycle, but her parents owned a bicycle and mower shop. She's from Sydney in Australia. So they owned a cycle shop growing up. yeah, her, brothers are in the cycling industry and things like that. And my dad's side of the family, the Biddle family are quite well known in cycling in New Zealand. My uncle was a Commonwealth Games champion and got bronze at the Olympics in road cycling.

Angus Norton (06:21.804)
Okay, okay.

Angus Norton (06:48.077)
Okay, okay, there you go. There you go. That's the nugget. That's really interesting. And without getting too geeky, I suppose at the end of the day, you're on a gyroscope, right? It doesn't matter if it's two wheels with a motor or pedals. There's something about being on a gyroscope and understanding that you're on a gyroscope that is genetic for you guys.

Avalon (06:48.517)
Yeah, yeah.

Avalon (07:11.206)
Yeah, I guess so. Yeah, yeah, I just, yeah, we had a really, really steep driveway growing up and like, just remember my brother and I just hammering down this driveway and it was a concrete wall at the bottom. Like if it went wrong, it was going to go really wrong. But yeah, we spent a lot of time on bicycles growing up. But the funny thing is that racing motocross, didn't really take to it. I really enjoyed it and really enjoyed the trail rides as a young kid, but I was awful at jumps.

pretty much never left the ground. All the other kids just jumped over the top of me and I rolled over them. So it didn't really take to motocross like it did to road racing.

Angus Norton (07:52.254)
Interesting. And were there other sports that you were interested in or very competitive in as well?

Avalon (08:01.755)
my mum forced me to do Irish dancing as a kid, so...

I wouldn't say I was great at it, but a lot of time and effort went into that. And then just netball and all your usual kids sports that happen at New Zealand schools. yeah, pretty active growing up, but yeah, nothing I ever took seriously like I did with motorcycle racing. Pretty much from the day I started on that go-kart track, I knew that it was something I wanted to do.

Angus Norton (08:33.066)
Awesome. how do you go? So you go from a go-kart track and being from New Zealand, I know at the time, I mean, I'm much older than you, but there was really only one place. It was Taupo and there was Pukakohe. And Pukakohe was very scary. I know Simon Krafau grew up riding there, you he did okay. But what was your first like race experience? Do you remember? Can you share that with us a little bit?

Avalon (08:48.295)
Yes.

Avalon (08:53.02)
Yeah.

Avalon (08:59.833)
Yeah, so the bucket racing in New Zealand was like quite competitive at the time. So we did a lot of we did a race every month there and a lot of the more competitive riders from like 600s and all that raced at the bucket track just throughout the year to get more seat time. So they gave me a lot of coaching and then they were obviously really involved in the New Zealand road racing scene.

And they actually directed us to get in touch with Pete Jones in the South Island who headed up the Street Stock 150 racing, which were 150 two strokes, mostly RG 150, so out of Thailand. And yeah, they said, there's this massive Street Stock 150 scene in the South Island, like you should go down and give it a go. And I remember spending hours, like the internet was relatively new back then, shows my age. And I remember spending hours like looking

up all the photos and being like, look at all these guys. Cause at the bucket track I was the only kid. I mean, there were a few, like a few guys, maybe 16, 17 years old and stuff, but like, yeah, it was the only young and then there was just all these young kids and they went training after school. Like on a Friday, they went out to the track after school and rode. And yeah, it just like was unfathomable for me. Like you say, coming from the North Island where at the time Taupo was like the old Taupo club track.

And then Pukukui didn't race anything under like a one, two, five, two stroke, because it's so fast and flowing, smaller bikes just blow up there. So, because you're just wide open on the throttle all the time. So yeah, we actually ended up flying down to the South Island, staying with one of the families, another girl who raced with her dad and yeah, stayed with the family, went down, there's like 50 bikes on the grid, like five, zero of all these kids that were turned off after school.

And get some practice in on a Friday afternoon and then go racing on the weekends So yeah got got really involved in that pretty quickly because I just loved it. It was awesome and they did a lot of coaching and things like that down there so It sort of yeah kept kept the cycle going of getting new riders into the sport and like getting faster and faster and faster So yeah, a lot of those guys are still my friends today. And yes, it's really cool to see how

Avalon (11:22.837)
far that that program there in the South Island got so many riders and then yeah from there it just just escalated really.

Angus Norton (11:29.592)
That's awesome.

You know, you've mentioned the South Island many times, and for those of the listeners who don't know, New Zealand is a small rock at the bottom of the South Pacific, and there's two major islands, the North and the South Island. But for a small country with about five million people now,

It's interesting Avalon that you mentioned with South Island because it seems like the South Island has been a breeding ground for not just yourself and your generation but my newer generation as well. Cormac Buchanan just loved everything he got there. Munro go way, way back. what is this? Tell me about the South Island. What is it about the South Island New Zealand that has developed so much talent? Do you know or is it just a thing?

Avalon (11:51.828)
think everything Avalon can do for South Island is that it seems like the South Island has been a breeding ground for not just yourself and your generation but your generation as well, for every canon. Just loved everything he got there.

Avalon (12:10.299)
you

Avalon (12:14.191)
Look, I think it probably...

Yeah, I think it probably comes down to the clubs. I think what most people don't realize about New Zealand, because they think of it as such a small country, is that it's actually geographically very dispersed. So there are some challenges that I think most people don't realize. Like the length of the South Island is, what, 12 hours driving more? So yeah, but there are some very strong clubs down there, Motorcycling Canterbury. So I've been a member with them for a long time now, and they've always had a really, really strong junior training program. But the Southland

club obviously really got behind Cullmac and have been really supportive of their junior riders as well. So I think it comes down to those clubs supporting the juniors so well and it's just over the last couple of years I've noticed that the North Island clubs are really trying to follow suit and tag along with what they're doing. So hopefully we can see some more support there for the North Island because my first ever New Zealand championship race meeting wasn't in Vicargill so

from Auckland, the other end of the country, and we bought a bike off training for $800, went around to the guy's house, literally pulled it out of his garden shed. We spray painted the fairings black and then drove, yeah, however, probably what, 20 hour trip by the time you throw the ferry in there as well to get to Invercargore to race the New Zealand Championship on this bike. yeah, yeah, it would be great for a...

Angus Norton (13:18.488)
Hmm.

Angus Norton (13:41.462)
Wow.

Avalon (13:44.819)
And it is happening nowadays where youngsters in Auckland like you or I could get started much closer to home.

Angus Norton (13:52.982)
A big shout out to those guys. I mean, it's really cool. And so that's interesting. So you bought a bike off TradeMe, which is kind of the equivalent of eBay basically. And this is your first race. And were you invited to race or could anyone just sign up and race?

Avalon (14:08.179)
Yeah, no, pretty much anyone could turn up. There was 55 of us on the grid. So I think about 50 juniors and then like five parents that tagged on.

Angus Norton (14:18.146)
Wow. Okay. And, and what was the format? there, you know, there was qualifying and all of that, or was it not just, it was just free for all.

Avalon (14:26.277)
Yeah, it still follows a similar suit today. So New Zealand Championship, we'd have practice on a Friday. So they just rotate through through sessions on a Friday, get heaps of track time. And then, yeah, generally a practice and a qualifying on Saturday followed by the first race and then two races on Sunday. So heaps of track time. Yeah, still still really follows that format these days.

Angus Norton (14:52.494)
That's cool. And obviously, you and I talked a little bit offline around women and sport in general. It is one of the many areas where we finally started to see more investment and promotion. And while I know that by default, you've had to race in mixed competition your whole career, right? I want to talk a bit about that, but...

Avalon (15:19.729)
Yeah.

Angus Norton (15:21.454)
Like when you turned up at the track for the first time and started winning, did folks know you were a woman because you you got a helmet on and all your gear, was it you take, because often women pass me all the time at the track. And then they take their helmets off and I'm like, I just got passed by a girl again. you know, like, don't know until I take their helmets off. So tell me about that experience. that difficult or not for you?

Avalon (15:29.235)
you

Avalon (15:36.659)
No.

Avalon (15:45.332)
I've never found it difficult myself and like yeah it does make me laugh when people are like you're a girl like yeah I think it comes back to the first days that I started racing at the go-kart track and it wasn't really so much that I was the only female there were a few females there riding but more that everyone was so much older and so I never really

Angus Norton (15:53.709)
Ha

Avalon (16:08.891)
I never thought about it that I was so different to everybody else. Everyone's super friendly and that's still the case in New Zealand motorcycle racing today.

Yeah, it's so friendly and it does make me think sometimes, oh, you know, if I saw these people in a cafe or something, like I probably wouldn't talk to them, but because you have that common aspect of motorcycle racing and that you have in common, you know, like I see these people at the track and I've seen them for the last 20 years and say, good day, have a great chat. You know, like I'd call them my friends.

And everyone in motorcycle racing in New Zealand is like that really. So yeah, I never, I never thought about being a female other than yes, a lot of like the young boys didn't like being beaten by a girl from Auckland, especially like there's a bit of rivalry in New Zealand, especially for some reason between Canterbury and Auckland. yeah, they didn't like being beaten by me, but I mean, that's the same. I don't like being beaten by anyone.

Angus Norton (16:54.266)
yeah.

Angus Norton (17:06.734)
Right. Oh, here we go. Tell me more about that. we could talk hours. So one of the things, you know, I interviewed Matt Oxley a few months ago, you know, Matt, and he said to me, know, Angus like races are stone cold killers. They're killers. They're serial killers. just, they want to win. And then I, they're serial killers on the bike, but most of them are not serial killers off the bike. Would you describe yourself as a

Avalon (17:10.085)
Yeah.

Avalon (17:18.323)
Yeah.

Angus Norton (17:33.016)
cold hard killer, you just want to win over time. Is that generally the way you roll on in all your parts of your life or just racing?

Avalon (17:42.854)
it's not even in racing it's probably not to the quite that extent but yeah yeah I definitely am only competitive on the bike like I'm not I wouldn't say I'm a super duper competitive person if we wouldn't play tennis or something like I like everyone I don't like losing like I you know but I

Yeah, definitely more so in motorcycle racing than anything else. But I guess, probably more give everything my give everything 100 % is probably what carries through to my normal day life as well.

Yeah, yeah, to describe that one. But yeah, I think I definitely, remember being absolutely distraught that first race meeting in the New Zealand Championship and in Vakaga. Like, I think I won the first two races. And then in the third race, was battling with, with a guy who I'd been battling with all weekend. And he outbriked me and crashed as he outbriked me and took me down with him. And I remember I was so angry and I...

when I came back and I threw my gloves and the thing like I seen them do a MotoGP on TV. I guess I was so annoyed. So I guess, yeah, very, very competitive. But I also remember at the time, which is this is absolutely no, no, would not happen these days. But my dad was in the same, someone had lent him a bike. He was in the same race and he saw that I had crashed. So he pulled over to see if I was all right, which he just like wouldn't do these days. And he said, you ride my bike back to the pits. So I jumped on his and he said, I'll get the crash bike.

Angus Norton (18:49.548)
Yeah.

Angus Norton (19:05.004)
you

Avalon (19:14.225)
back so I jumped on his bike and the race was still going I thought I might as well finish the race so don't know but that's the funny thing is that I remember like later that day looking at the lap times I was like dad you did a way faster lap time in the last race and he was like that was you

Angus Norton (19:22.008)
Classic and where did you end up placing in the race?

Angus Norton (19:34.436)
Hahaha

Angus Norton (19:38.51)
That's awesome. That's awesome.

Avalon (19:39.699)
Even after getting back on and writing his work, which was a Kawasaki and mine was a Suzuki, I still went faster than he did all weekend. yeah, that's pretty funny.

Angus Norton (19:48.908)
he must be, your parents must be so proud of you. A lot of, some of the younger kids that I've interviewed, you know, who've sort of been brought up on the track of their parents. I interviewed Kenzie a couple of weeks ago, Kenzie Masahura, who's the US, he's won three Moto America championships in the junior class and now he's in Europe.

He's 15. And I said, are you faster than your dad now? And his dad goes, no, he's not faster than me. was like, he must be faster than you. That's cool. And, and so that's, that's, that's a cool story. And so you to tell me like, you won a few New Zealand championships, right? So tell me a bit about that.

Avalon (20:12.231)
Yeah, crazy.

Avalon (20:19.667)
you

Avalon (20:31.269)
Yeah, actually in the early days I never won one. So the Street Stop 150 was kind of just a support class at New Zealand Championships and then so we moved up from there on to one two five Grand Prix bikes and I ended up runner up twice. I think my first season I was fourth in the championship. I broke my femur at Pukekohe, went into the wall going over the hill there.

the first year I did it. that put an end, early end to my championship and ended up fourth. And then, yeah, the next two years trying to win it, I was second two years in a row. So, yeah, I was pretty gutted with that at the time. And, you know, my dad and I put so much effort into those one, two, five GP bikes. That's so much work. And we generally ran the bike ourselves with some help from, from other people. we didn't know what we were doing to begin with, but, but learned the ropes pretty quickly. So.

Yeah, it was a massive few years racing that 125 and we ended up taking it over in a suitcase to Australia and racing in Australia a bit because they're like so small we just broke it down into parts and brought it over with us and eventually resulted in a wild card at the at MotoGP in the 125.

gone pre-class the last ever year that it was one, two, five, two strokes before it went to Moto Three. So yeah, got a wild card there, which was really cool, but we really struggled getting the bike tuned to the correct fuel that they have to run in the class. So.

Didn't end well, my bike ended up seizing, going into Honda Heaven, now Miller Corner, and smacked me in the head and knocked me out in the process. And that's actually one time that the marshals were like, they took my helmet off, because I was KO'd, took my helmet off and they're like, whoa, it's a girl. It was like Moto GP and they didn't realize that there was any girls competing. yeah.

Angus Norton (22:26.542)
It's hilarious.

Angus Norton (22:31.778)
That's hilarious. So you took your motorcycle over in a suitcase and assembled it like a few days later.

Avalon (22:40.627)
To do the first races in Australia, we did exactly that for MotoGP, the wild card, we put it in a crate and shipped it over. A little bit more sophisticated, but we still took all the tools and stuff and our surrogates over there, yeah, very.

Angus Norton (22:55.887)
Had any women raced at that level before you? Like, do you know?

Avalon (23:00.613)
Yeah, there were a few doing similar doing like like trying to make it and doing wild cards and funnily enough one of them I remember her name so clearly was Ornella Ongaro and she was really fast in France and and on a 125 and did a wild card at Le Mans and she was like pretty

I don't know if she finished on the points, but like she was fast throughout the weekend. yeah, finally Ornella and I, joke now that we're like the grandmothers of the WCR paddock because she's here racing in WCR as well. So yeah, pretty crazy. were a few, there were definitely a few girls for me to look up to, but it was unique at the time. Yeah.

Angus Norton (23:39.2)
I noticed, yeah, I noticed that she was racing. so, so much to talk about, what we forget WCL, definitely want to, it's, it's, it's, I think, I think what a lot of folks I meet don't understand is how much work there is from the beginning on the, on everyone in your community, your family, your friends, and how much sacrifice there is to, to get to the level you've competed. And even at the W even at the Moto3 level at Cormac, I'm sponsoring Cormac.

Avalon (23:42.149)
Yeah. Yeah.

Angus Norton (24:08.502)
in the Magello race, by the way. And like, you just, you just got to keep grinding, right? So at that level, was it pretty expensive too, just to just get, just to, you know, like what was the deal? Did you have sponsors then, or was it just friends and family helping out?

Avalon (24:10.329)
Yes, good on you. Intercept it.

Avalon (24:15.794)
Yeah.

Avalon (24:25.423)
Yeah, we were grinding really hard to be able to do what we were doing. Like I worked...

Job on the weekends and in school holidays literally since I started racing. So since I was like 13 14 years old, so my parents said if it's something you want to do like you're gonna have to help chip in so Yeah, and then we went down the hunt like, know trying to find sponsors I think at one stage we had a list of like 200 companies that we had approached in New Zealand for sponsorship and hadn't a huge amount of luck Yeah, we had people jump on board and companies jump on board here and there but a lot of it was just all fun

by my parents and yeah we were absolutely maxed out doing what we were doing just in New Zealand and Australia and I always had that ambition to go overseas to go to Europe and try race in a world championship but yeah there was no way that we could afford it and we were always looking for that lucky break I guess and yeah never got it in 125s like you'd know with Cormac it's just so expensive going down that MotoGP route and

Yeah, we just couldn't find the money and it was really, really taxing. I think it's one of like the hardest parts of the sport, probably the hardest part of the sport is just that constant grind of trying to find the funding, particularly when you're from the other side of the world. eventually when I did get a chance to go overseas racing, I was 19 to race full-time in Europe. I was 19 and I was on a 600. So I had gone from one to five GP two stroke.

600cc four stroke. There was nothing in between at the time, no 300s, nothing like that. So a massive step, I rode the 600 for four months in New Zealand and then got this opportunity to piggyback on the back of Fred Merkel, a former World Superbike champion. His son was going to Italy to race on a 600 and two very, very generous individuals, Phil and Cheryl London, headed up a

Avalon (26:29.101)
an organisation called WillSport at the time and they supported both Travis and I to go race in the Italian in a CBR Cup in Italy basically. So yeah, very different path to what I thought I would ever be going down but that's where I got my chance to eventually go to Europe and race.

Angus Norton (26:48.298)
great, that's a great transition. I wanna go there. I think before you go there, what I'm curious is who are your heroes that you looked up to in the paddock, professional or anywhere? Were there folks that were inspiring for you, heroes? Obviously you've mentioned a couple of sponsors who helped you out, but who are your heroes?

Avalon (27:09.844)
E T

I I look up to so many people and it definitely changes throughout the years but probably in the early days definitely Aaron Slyte like he is my first memory of motorcycle road racing was it was on TV and my dad like I must have only been you know seven or eight years old at the time and my dad said that guy on the white bike is a Kiwi and I remember that so clearly because it was number 111 on the white Castrol Honda and World Superbike Racing at the front and I was pretty

captivated by that so yeah Aaron I've definitely looked up to and he now supports myself and Billy to race in WCR which is incredible I've like spent a bit of time with him at the track over the years and yeah he's an awesome person so very cool to have him on board and then there's of course Simon Crafer and then all the Aussies who raced that you know being from down under you kind of look up to anyone who was from this side of the world to racing in Europe so I remember

very clearly watching Troy Corsa and Troy Bayless battling in the Outland World Superbike and then in more recent years raced in the Australian Championship for a season and rode alongside Troy's son Ollie. yeah, like I really nowadays look up, I remember at the time I really liked Troy Corsa because he's so smooth and I really liked his riding style but

Bagelus, as a person, he is just incredible. He's the most friendly, down to earth, funny guy and really gives back a lot to the sport and to youngsters. At the most recent WCR race meeting in Cremona, he was there supporting Oli, but he was over in the WCR paddock talking to us riders. He would give anyone time of day. So yeah, I think people like that, over the years, I've come into contact with and just really look up to them.

Avalon (29:02.887)
and really admire what they achieved but aside from that I still really respect and take a bit of inspiration from the guys that I've grown up racing with in New Zealand because like you said at the beginning like they don't get a lot of recognition for what they achieve and like we just have so much fun going racing and everyone works so hard for it like we all have normal jobs and then I think like what we can go do on the weekends the guys they build their own bikes as

Angus Norton (29:27.672)
you

Avalon (29:32.774)
I'm not mechanically clued up enough to do that, but most of competitors will.

build their own vibes, drive themselves to race meetings, race on the weekends with their family there and then go home and earn a living for their family. I think that passion that they have like just really drives me because I share that same passion and I'll do anything to be able to compete in the sport like I am now. So yeah, them and my husband Jake is the same. He's raced at really, really high level, won the European Junior Championship against Augusto Fernandez.

Angus Norton (29:54.19)
Hmm.

Avalon (30:08.213)
who's now been a MotoGP rider. yeah, I think that there's definitely the talent there and they really inspire me like how humble they are and that they just go racing for the sake of enjoying racing and trying to win rather than for the fame and fortune that maybe comes with racing and MotoGP or something like that. yeah, long winded answer, sorry. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Angus Norton (30:08.952)
Well.

Angus Norton (30:28.674)
That's cool. no, no, this is why we're here. So you and your hubby, met in the paddock then, huh?

Avalon (30:37.075)
Actually, Mikael was the first time I remember speaking to him, yeah, we've raced a lot over the years and Jake was racing in Europe when I was racing this CBR Cup that I mentioned on the 600 he was over there racing in the World Superbike Paddock in the Junior Cup. So yeah, we spent a bit of time in Europe together and things went from there. Yeah, yeah.

Angus Norton (30:56.3)
He was your umbrella boy, I think, maybe. I thought that was awesome, by the way. When we get to WC, I will talk about that. And so, and he's an Ocker, right? He's an Aussie.

Avalon (31:05.715)
No, he's a Kiwi. He's from Christchurch. Yep, Yep, one of must have been.

Angus Norton (31:08.136)
Okay, your mom's an oka. Okay, so for audience oka being Aussie, Kiwis and Aussies tend to get along really well, except for when it comes to certain sports when we hate each other. And there are some New Zealanders who are born in New Zealand but claim to be Australian. Some whom I like, some who I don't. You're definitely one who I like because you're a Kiwi. You know, there are a few others that we won't talk about. Russell Crowe, sorry. But...

Avalon (31:19.443)
What?

Avalon (31:30.387)
Thank you.

Angus Norton (31:37.846)
Yeah, so that's awesome. So to go to Europe, you've got some wonderful mentors and sponsors you look up to. Aaron Sleight was also one of my heroes, by the way. And did he ride the Britain motorcycle at Laguna Seca? Who was that? That was...

Avalon (31:49.863)
Yeah, so good.

Avalon (31:56.314)
Andrew. I think that's Andrew Stroud. Yes. Yeah. yeah.

Angus Norton (31:58.644)
Andrew Stroud. Yeah. He's, yeah, he's another one that I would love to one day meet. you know, I got to meet Simon and it was so cool because I, I serve as podcast just for a bit of fun. And so I sent him a note thinking, he's not going to answer, know, any answer to say, yeah, sweet. come on your podcast. I was like, cool. Like,

That's such a Kiwi thing. And so it's so great to have you here. Cause I reached out to Mallory Dobs and she said, yeah, I, I, I know her, but I don't really know that well. So I don't show, can, I'm not sure I can get her on your podcast. And then I think it was Cormac's mom that connected me to you. So that's, that's cool. So, okay. So you end up in Europe. And so at the time in Europe, um, you know, I don't want to keep bringing out women's competition because a lot of writers I interviewed like, Hey, I'm a racer. I don't care who it is. I just happened to be a woman or identify as a woman.

Avalon (32:21.383)
today.

Avalon (32:34.255)
Yeah.

Angus Norton (32:48.526)
But for you at the time, what were the tracks into racing? Were there women's competitions or did you just turn up straight away and race with the boys?

Avalon (32:57.971)
Yeah, so this was actually a little bit unique, is that I went over to race in the CBR 600 Cup, so just to stop.

CBR 600s basically and it was quite an attractive championship because there was a bit of prize money for the top five so there were some really competitive right like formal and supersport riders and stuff that were racing in that championship like just to get the prize money but then it was also sort of seen as the pathway to get into the Italian championship and then if you're fast and Italian championship on a 600 and second to supersport or something you're pretty likely to get a ride in world supersport so that was kind of like a path

that I was following but when I was only when I was in Italy I think maybe after the first test or something that we did that I realized there was an Italian women's championship and a couple of the rounds were like a couple of races were the same events that I was already going to for the CBR 600 cup so then hit up Phil and Cheryl and I was like hey I'm already here I'm already racing

Angus Norton (33:59.054)
Who did you hook up? Who was it you said? Who was that? Sorry. Okay.

Avalon (34:02.315)
Phil and Cheryl who were my sponsors at the time was then like, hey, actually I could do the Italian women's championship as well. So yeah, ended up doing that. I got second in it that year because I crashed out of one of the races in the wet at Misano, which was annoying, but yeah, was able to do both the CBR 600 cup and the women's championship. There was just nothing, there were no women's championships that were solid enough that you

I that you would aspire to do it as an end thing. So I don't think that women's championship even happened again the following year. It had been going for five or 10 years prior to that, but it was, yeah, I guess just sort of an add on. So I definitely just always looked at racing with the males and I knew from one to five GP bikes that I could be competitive with them. But the 600...

Yeah, to begin with, it's just so, so, so hard. And especially when you go to Italy, like I know we were speaking earlier about Kaila Yakov and I mean, like she could attest to that, you know, like you think you're fast on it, in particular on a 600 and then you go somewhere like Italy and race in the Italian championship and it was just mind boggling how fast they can ride. And I just didn't have that level of experience. So at that point I knew it was going to be a long road ahead and probably didn't really know.

Angus Norton (34:57.856)
Yeah, right.

Avalon (35:25.605)
was in store but yeah I still just I enjoyed racing with the men I still do.

I don't, wouldn't say it as an obstacle, but I think now having the Women's World Championship is really great publicity for women in the sport and it gives some younger girls something to aspire to that's, I guess, more affordable and just more accessible for more females around the world. So yeah, I love the idea of WCR. I wish that it was around when I was younger, but obviously it wasn't. And yeah, we just, I just raced with the men and didn't really think anything of it.

Angus Norton (36:01.454)
I love getting up early in the morning and watching all the WCR races and I definitely want to get to that. I also get up by the way and watch all the women's rugby as well. I like watching women's sport. I find it honestly to be more interesting. don't know why, it's just is kind of how I roll but let's keep...

Avalon (36:04.74)
Thank

Avalon (36:13.479)
Yeah, and... Yeah, yeah.

Angus Norton (36:22.598)
You're very humble, like a lot of Kiwis, mean. I mean, you did pretty well in Europe, right? So before you ended up in WCR, I know you had started a family and all that, but the former European Women's Cup, you mentioned it was very short-lived, but the commentators in the WCR all seemed to know you. Like you had a reputation for being pretty fierce competitor and doing well there. So tell us.

Tell us what happened because they're all, I swear that you're their favorite. They keep talking about you if you're maiden name over time. Um, they're like, oh, here she is. It's like she'd ever left and she's already in the top five or you chew. Ah, like it's cool. So tell me about that. Like what happened like between. Yeah.

Avalon (36:52.025)
Take that.

Avalon (37:02.035)
Yeah, long lot happened.

Yeah, so I did two years on a 600 in Italy in the CBR Cup, which was ultra, ultra competitive. And to be fair, my second season in there, it was probably still some of the rides that I'm most proud of to date, because like I said, it's just so hard. Like Karakasulo came through. I remember him because I remember his really long last name and I was like, who is this kid? He's pretty fast. So I was racing with guys like that. And in the second season I got like, I was running

I was battling for fifth and I remember it because there was prize money for the top five and at Imola Ray

was like battling between sixth and fifth and I was like I'm gonna do anything I can to beat this guy and he braked really late going into one of the showcases I thought well he's braking real late but I'll just brake where he brakes because I was that overcome like it was so stupid but I was that overcome with beating him and he crashed because he braked really late and I went down as well. But yeah to think that I was running like top five in a championship like that I guess shows the improvement in my riding that I made over those couple of

Angus Norton (38:09.932)
Ugh.

Avalon (38:19.112)
and like...

It was such a hard, hard, hard graft. got the team, like I didn't have the money to be doing what I was doing, but I still managed to convince the team to like take me to go kart track. Cause I really struggled in the change of direction. bikes are so fast and you're riding places like Mugello where it's like third, fourth gear changing direction. So my team manager over there, Andrea Zappa was a really, really fast rider himself. So I got him to take me to a go kart track and like ride a 600 and go kart track so that I can practice. And yeah, I think it just really showed that

improvement in my riding over those couple of years and then that was reflected in New Zealand because I'd go back and race at home and on a 600 and I got much much faster there and was all of a sudden like riding almost at the front in the 600 class whereas yeah like when I first got on the bike I'd really struggled with it so yeah a lot of grinding went in and then I we just couldn't afford to keep keep doing that championship so I got the opportunity to ride a motor 3 bike but it was a

essentially a prototype the Rumi family in Italy had designed and made the bike themselves so it was originally a 125 GP bike quite competitive and then they'd built a four stroke engine to put in it. The year that I rode it was incredibly unreliable and I finished two out of

Angus Norton (39:34.905)
you

Avalon (39:38.004)
I think it was 10 or 14 races throughout the season. I finished two races and one of them I finished with oil all over my back tire. And I was like, it was so slippery. I said to them that it was spinning oil out. It was so slippery, it was all over my boot. They said, yeah, we were putting the pit board out trying to get you to pull in. But I just wasn't looking at the pit board. I was just going to finish that race. So yeah, I had a few really, really rough seasons. And I remember at the time, it was just, it was what it was for me.

Angus Norton (39:56.056)
That's funny. That's really funny.

Avalon (40:08.448)
But I remember at the time Chris Osborne, who runs Aussie Performance in New Zealand and who's been like, I just wouldn't have achieved what I have without him.

he gave me an opportunity to ride a Formula 3 bike, won't go into the story, but again, and he said, like, I just want you to ride something that's reliable and show how good you are because, you know, like I'd just been struggling for years on end by that point and just financially, and I'd worn myself out by doing back to back seasons, you know, racing in Europe and then coming home racing in New Zealand. And I was working amongst all this and yeah, just so much going on. And I just, I think that's when it sort of...

I realized what a hard road it had been to get that far when Chris was like, just come ride my bike, it will be competitive and I just want you to have something good to ride. So yeah, then that's when the European Junior Cup the following year, they had been riding on CBR 500s and they went to the CBR 650 and started a women's cup with inside the European Women's Championship. yeah, it just...

When it all looked like it was falling apart and I definitely was thinking I wouldn't be able to go back to Europe We sort of got that that golden opportunity of the European Junior Cup with the Women's Cup run inside it So we raced all together with the boys, but there was 10 spots on the grid that were allocated to female competitors And we scored as a female you scored points for both the Women's Championship and the European Junior Championship So yeah, really awesome series very affordable run inside board super bike. So as you

you're in the paddock, great support around you and some real opportunity there. So yeah, I won the women's side of it the two years that it ran and the second year I won every women's race of the year which was my goal so I was happy to achieve that and then I think...

Angus Norton (41:58.92)
Rewind rewind rewind. You're so humble. Did hear that? Like you won every year and you won two championships as in the women's side.

Avalon (42:07.119)
Yeah, I think that's the thing though was we were racing together with the boys so even though you're winning the women's you're always looking ahead like you always have something to aspire to and I think I finished top six. I think I got sixth that Misano was my best finish in the overall yeah in the race. Yes, yeah yeah sorry I think I was just always looking at that looking at the boys in front of me wanting wanting to beat them as well.

Angus Norton (42:22.07)
sixth or gender six.

Angus Norton (42:33.39)
That is so cool. It's so inspiring. I looked at all the faces of the WCR last year and looking at them this year. They're all such great kids. I know there's another Kiwi, Billy Fuller, who's racing. Did you know Billy before you joined the team?

Avalon (42:47.539)
Y'all.

Avalon (42:53.267)
Yeah, I've obviously followed Billy for a couple years as she's been racing in New Zealand and yeah, I think I saw her talent pretty early on. She's only been racing, I think maybe four, five, six years at the absolute most. So definitely not long considering she's now racing in a world championship. So I saw her like on track ability and she's pretty fierce out there on track. yeah, just.

I to say supported her, just how everyone does in the New Zealand paddock. I haven't been in the position to do anything special for her, but I've always backed her, cheered for her in the races. She's doing awesome. We're now teammates in WCR, which is very cool.

Angus Norton (43:42.914)
Yeah, remember stories, this is so much here. okay, so, you I know there are some things you didn't want to dive into, because I know you're also a mom, and I don't want to take up too much of your time, but if we can keep talking, well, you tell me when you want me to stop, all right? So, you've raced at Europe, you've raced down under, and now you're racing at the world level. Obviously, you've told me that funding is one of the big things that is a leap.

Avalon (43:54.897)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, go for it.

Angus Norton (44:11.756)
I'm curious about your point of view on this. So, if I look at myself, I'm just a little club rider, track day guy, of mid pack, A group.

I'm not super talented, but I think I have a pretty good mindset. I like to plan my, and I think harder. I've had a lot of coaching. I've had like 60 days of the California Superbike School. I've had a bunch of days with the Yamaha Champs School, which is run by Freddie Spencer here in the US. So I like to learn. In your point of view, like when you think about talent and mindset,

Avalon (44:37.319)
Wow.

Avalon (44:44.167)
Yeah.

Angus Norton (44:51.086)
Obviously, there are some folks who are aliens and just so talented and there are others that aren't as talented but have a mindset. Like for you to be successful as a writer, how much is pure talent and how much is sort of a mindset in your experience?

Avalon (45:06.547)
It's so hard. No, no, I'm, I mean, it definitely comes down more to mindset than, than to talent. I think because it's a learned, learned thing, and that's what I tried to explain to people, particularly starting on the sport is that like, it's not easy for anybody. Like no one just was born.

Angus Norton (45:11.084)
Is it a hard one? You don't have to answer it, but I'm I'm sort of curious.

Avalon (45:35.474)
want to ride a motorcycle we say some people were but you know like no one knew how to no one knew how to ride a motorcycle when they came out of the womb like it's it's learnt for everybody so everyone started somewhere and yeah some people take to it quicker than others but

It's still hard, and it still feels weird, and that's what I would say to people when they try to get their knee down. I'm like, still remember at the go-kart track, I was getting my knee down, and everyone was like, whoa! They actually had to pull me in, because I was wearing a hole through the leathers that I had borrowed, because they didn't have knee sliders on, because they weren't expecting someone to just go out and get their knee down on the first session. But that's what I had seen them doing on TV, that's what I saw the MotoGP guys doing, and so I knew that's what you're supposed to do.

And I remember thinking, that feels really weird. that's like, you know, cause you really have to like kind of hang off and like lean off and you're like, that feels so strange, but they make it look so easy on TV and that like, that's what you're supposed to do. And so yeah, that's what I would say to anybody is like, it's a learn sport. It's learned over time and many years. So I think it definitely comes down to that mindset and having the drive.

But yeah, I guess there's so many other factors at play and like I'm kind of giggling as I'm talking because there's a guy in New Zealand, Christopher, who says he remembers this conversation with me. I don't remember, but he said if someone wants to be MotoGP champion, they will.

Angus Norton (46:47.788)
No, yeah.

Avalon (46:56.211)
argued, well no they won't because there's so many other factors, particularly funding and talent and being in the right team at the right time and not being injured for a few years to get that kind of run in and stuff. Whereas he's very much like, no if you're gonna be a world champion you will be. So yeah, for me I think there's just so many factors at play that sort of go beyond just

one thing being more important than the other but I do think that it's I like the fact that it's a sport that you can probably go as far as you want to go in it like if you're determined and dedicated enough willing to sacrifice enough normal life things then you can really you really can go in as far as far in that sport as you want to.

Angus Norton (47:38.892)
Yeah.

Angus Norton (47:45.644)
Yeah, so that's really interesting. I find that when I was younger, I didn't listen to anyone. I thought I knew everything. I didn't have a learner's mindset. And now as an old fat mid fifties person, I just want to listen and learn. And I don't know if everyone is born a learner, but would you consider yourself someone who's very coachable? Have you been a coachable person throughout your career or?

Avalon (47:56.033)
Yeah.

Avalon (48:11.064)
Yeah, yeah, definitely.

I remember like in the early days I asked so many questions as well. Like I'd just go to the fastest rider, like New Zealand Championship meaning I'd just go to whoever was winning the super bike race at the time. Or Sam Smith was the fastest 600 rider and such a nice guy. Yeah, he was actually probably one of my idols when you mentioned the earliest. And like I'd just go ask him questions all the time. So I didn't think twice about, yeah, trying to learn more from other people. I'd ask them to come ride with me, which now I'm like, I know how impractical that

to like when you're a top 600 rider or super bike rider and having to jump on 150 and coach a kid around the track.

Sometimes at end of the day, it's the last thing you feel like doing, but I always asked for those guys. I just always asked for help. So I think that, yeah, made a big difference throughout the years. I say similar to you, one thing I've learned over the years, like you can't do it alone. You think to begin with, like you say, you think that you just put the helmet on, it's just, you're really hard headed and you think that you just go out there on track and the results are how hard you ride when you're out there on the bike. But there's so much more to it than

Angus Norton (49:00.876)
Yeah.

Avalon (49:24.159)
that and yeah that's like your learning of like being more open to learning over the years I guess I've learned that you need to be you need to really work as a team have a really good group of people around you and really be in it together to be able to get anywhere

Angus Norton (49:41.484)
Yeah, I suppose it's worth mentioning also, you you talked about a couple of young New Zealand writers that you've been associated with. It's, you know, a little bit of a sidetrack, but I think it's also worth acknowledging we lost Shane Richardson a couple of weeks ago. I'm not sure if you knew Shane. Did you know Shane? was killed, yeah. Yeah.

Avalon (49:59.59)
Yeah, it's just, yeah, it's awful. Really, really horrible, particularly after losing Damo last year as well, who the two of them were such great mates and so competitive and doing such great things for Kiwis in the sport in the UK. So, yeah, really devastating. And like everyone says he was just the nicest guy, but Shane was like, really wasn't.

I actually didn't race with him a lot on track because in general he was faster than me. He was really bloody fast in the demo.

Angus Norton (50:33.24)
He raced here in the US in Motor America and he'd been on to British Superbike ride. Yeah.

Avalon (50:36.815)
Yeah, but he like Shane lent me an engine, you know, like that's that's just normal like I blew a bike up and and Vakago is and we were both on Kawasaki 600s and we just shared parts between each other because that's what you do and yeah when my bike blew up he's like he's my spirit and throw it in.

So yeah, like when people say he's the nicest guy, he really, really was. So yeah, really hard blow. And Sam Smith, who I mentioned earlier, we've also lost him over the years too. yeah, so it's pretty rough when some of these guys are like your best mates, you know, and you're not only friends with them, but you kind of really idolize them as well. But I guess it gives reason to keep going because you know that that's what they want.

Angus Norton (51:01.72)
Yeah.

Angus Norton (51:14.882)
Yeah.

Angus Norton (51:23.886)
Yeah, know, much arroha to his whanau. And that's something that has been on my mind because we're such a small community of sports people that come out of New Zealand and make it to the level where you and he have been. And so thanks for making that sidetrack. It's important. And I think there's a few fun GoFundMe's and things for his family. So I'm going to put a link up to that for folks that are interested. Yeah. Yeah, for sure.

Avalon (51:27.355)
Yeah, yeah exactly, so just enough time.

Avalon (51:46.607)
Yeah, if he could that would be great. He's obviously got two young kids so the sport will go a long way.

Angus Norton (51:53.858)
Yeah, well, so we've been going in a lot of really great directions, but building up to the WCR. And obviously you're now part of the WCR World Championship, but you're not new to Europe. So before you got there, you decided to get married and start a family. And was that for you, like, were you planning to come back and race or was it?

Avalon (52:13.948)
you

Angus Norton (52:21.326)
kind of a late breaking opportunity or what was it? So tell me a little bit about that. To the extent you want to share. So you have a child, what's your child's name? If you want to share, don't, that's okay.

Avalon (52:29.011)
Yes, yeah, yeah. Yeah. So Jake and I have a son Nash. He's 18 months off now. He's very full on. Yes. A hundred miles an hour. Yeah. He was up since like 5am this morning. But no, he's, he's great. And yeah. So we just had a very normal life in New Zealand. Really. We had a house and normal jobs.

We were like just moving up the career ladder, both of us, and then racing throughout summer. Our race season in New Zealand is pretty short. It's only really over summer, the competitive bulk of it. So from December through to March, April.

So it's pretty manageable to do. That's kind of your focus over summer. And then the rest of the year we go ride dirt bikes and just do normal people things. So yeah, we got married and had Nash and it was when I was pregnant that they announced a women's world championship. And yeah, it's always sort of been on my mind. I think growing up, like Catherine Prum was women's world motocross champion. She's a Kiwi. And then I've called

Courtney Duncan is a few years younger than me, but obviously she's kind of been moving up the ranks. yeah, Courtney is now three time world women's motocross champion. And so like that idea, as soon as they announced that women's world championship, like I knew I was still competitive on a motorbike and yeah, it's just like something I'd really like to give a go.

Yeah, I wasn't really sure how it was going to evolve at the time, but being on equal machinery was really appealing to me. It runs basically the exact same format as what we ran in the European Junior Cup, where they transport all the bikes around and you turn up.

Avalon (54:20.711)
with a mechanic and the bike's yours for the weekend, essentially, really limited amount of what you can do to the bike. And then you put it in the truck with the run-house's bikes and go home. So that format really appealed to me because I think it's easier for us to be competitive doing that that way rather than having to be in the right team and, you know, have all those components in place. yeah, but I was pregnant. It was very impractical. So, yeah, we kind of just, we just watched.

and like took interest in it but nothing amazing because we had other stuff on our plate at the time but then yeah I just did the thing I'd really like to give it a go and I told Ken Dobson who's been the supporter of mine over the years

that I'd like to give it a go and that I want to go do a wild card because I just want to see see what it's like in person. And obviously the Spanish girls are really really fast and that was really obvious when watching on TV. So like...

to be totally transparent, I wanted to go over and make sure that it was fair. Like I wanted to go see that everyone was given the same bikes, that it was something that you as a New Zealander or from Chile or Japan or from wherever you are could go compete and compete on equal footing with these girls. And that's what I saw when I went into the wild card. They're just super talented and they've been racing for a really long time and they are really, really fast. So I guess I just had that challenge in front of me of like, I want to go race with them.

and try beat those frontrunners. yeah, just I guess grew over time. But the desire can be there in competing.

Angus Norton (56:00.342)
It is fascinating to me, it is fascinating to me regardless of gender. You you think that, I think back to, you know, the, I suppose pre-modern MotoGP era or pre-modern World Superbike era, Aussies, Americans.

not that many Italians or Spanish were at the top then. You know, think, know, Wayne Rainey and all the great names in the past. And there's something happened where the Spanish just started dominating. I don't know if you have a point of view on that, but I noticed that it's quite a recent thing.

Avalon (56:39.237)
Yeah, actually saw, though in my career, it's always been the Spanish that have been really dominant. And I actually saw firsthand when I was living in Italy is when Valentino started out VR46 Academy. And then I've seen over the years the impact that that's had in bringing Italian. And now you look at the front of many of those fields, like from 600 Super Sport up that

Angus Norton (56:43.052)
Okay.

Avalon (57:05.231)
Italians are just super duper competitive. So I think there's just some initiatives like that and the Spanish Federation have just always been so strong and now I think the Italian Federation are piggybacking off VR46 a little bit, but it shows the impact.

that organizations like that have. think a lot of the Spanish came through monlao competition and a few initiatives like that. So it really shows the impact that some of those organizations and initiatives can have.

Unfortunately, especially World Superbike, it's all on European circuits. I mean, they go to Philip Island and I can't even think where else they went outside of Europe this year. So it's based in Europe and it's really hard to beat that advantage that Europeans have. And then the thing is you need to be in a European team if you're in anything like...

Angus Norton (57:41.879)
Hmm.

Avalon (57:55.54)
like Moto3, Moto2, SuperSport, even 300 SuperSport. Yeah, you need to be in the European team, so you need to have all those connections and get a really good engineer behind you and things like that. it is, I think, unfortunately getting increasingly harder for people outside of Europe to be competitive, but it's not stopping. It's not stopping anyone. Like, I mean, Senna just won Moto2 on the weekend. It's been incredible, so.

Angus Norton (57:58.061)
Yeah.

Angus Norton (58:19.906)
Yes, that was a, my God, that was the best race I've seen in a long time. Hey, time check, are you doing okay for time? Okay, cool, cool, cool, talking. Yeah, that was the best race, my God. I watched it, when I go to the track, sleep in my motor, I have a van that I sleep in at the track, because I love waking up to the smell of motorcycles. And so I watched it on my iPad in my motor van at 5 a.m. the other morning, and it's like, this.

Avalon (58:24.179)
How good was that? Yes, yeah, yeah, all good.

Yeah.

Avalon (58:40.785)
Bye.

Avalon (58:45.841)
Hey. Yeah, that would have got you going for Ace Day.

Angus Norton (58:51.094)
It was awesome. And so you casually mentioned these names like Valentino, which is cool. I rode my motorcycle from Rome to the top of Italy a few times. I happened to go to Pesaro, which is a small town in Italy. Do know Pesaro? It's like the home of Italian motorcycling. It's where Benalli and some of these famous, Morbodalli, all of these famous motorcycling companies came from. And I got to go to the town, I got to go to Treviere, where Valentino's from.

Avalon (59:04.549)
Yeah, yeah.

Angus Norton (59:18.732)
I got to ride along the road at the top and like peek down at his ranch and stuff. Did you ever meet him or hang out with him or?

Avalon (59:22.427)
Yeah, no.

I haven't met Valentino at all, no, but I have met his dad. Graziano was, yeah, in Italy I lived with Sarah and Oscar Vroomi who ran a World Superbike team, Vroomi, World Superbike team, so they knew Graziano quite well. We went out for dinner with him one time and my food didn't arrive and I was too embarrassed to make a scene about it and they're Italian like all talking, you know, like they do. And I just sat there starving for the whole thing because I

Angus Norton (59:29.966)
his dad's apparently a classic.

Avalon (59:55.386)
was too embarrassed in front of Valentino Rossi's dad to make a fuss that my food never arrived. But he was lovely. He is exuberant and just lovely, but he absolutely adores rally cars. I've never seen someone light up the way Graziano lighted up talking about driving rally cars. So it was pretty cool and guess entrenched in my mind.

Angus Norton (01:00:01.88)
That's classic.

Angus Norton (01:00:23.266)
Have you driven a car on the track?

Avalon (01:00:26.496)
funnily enough, have actually done Otago Rally, which is one of the biggest rallies in New Zealand.

Super cool experience. It was like kind of around COVID. They normally have international superstar drivers come out and do the rally, but around COVID it was really hard to get people into the country. So they resorted to some local drivers and one year they asked Aaron's light to drive an escort and then myself to drive a Subaru H6. Sorry. Yeah. Yeah. And I absolutely loved it. It was incredible. I loved like the adventure of it. Cause the thing with a motorcycle

racing is you kind of start riding the same tracks and like particularly in New Zealand I've ridden those tracks for so long now and just it's the same track all the time. Whereas like rallying was such an adventure you go you know out into the middle of nowhere and all these new roads and yes I can see how people get hooked on that sport.

Angus Norton (01:01:22.86)
the fundamentals. I can see that. Yeah. Like, one of the, one of my favorite coaches in the U S the sky down, Ken Hill, who's really great coach and he's really into riding racing cars now. And, you know, he's telling me like the lion fundamentals of the same, you got to your apex, you got to have your exit point, you got to understand reference points. And I've, there's so much that transfers that that feel that way for you.

Avalon (01:01:45.744)
Yeah, definitely, like...

Even to the point it's so, because you look at rallying as like quite rough and you know, like they're always out of control, but it's not when you're in the car, you're actually really in control and like smooth as fast, right? Which is the same as, and like you do, get that feeling when you nail it, it's very effortless and like, I don't mean me nailing it in a rally car is not like Hayden Patton nailing it, but you know, like you just get that feeling of when you've got it right or when you've got it wrong, that flow and like that.

Angus Norton (01:01:58.071)
Yeah.

Avalon (01:02:17.593)
smoothness like really translated over and yeah and I think the mechanical empathy as well is a big thing that translates between different motorsports like you just understand an engine and a gearbox and things like that.

Angus Norton (01:02:28.855)
Yeah.

Yeah, it's funny you talk about the flow. I was telling some guys of the track, like, I'm a pretty good skier, without sounding like a wanker. I'm a pretty good skier, but I really like the feeling of hitting all the right snow, reading the snow conditions, and nailing your turns and getting to the bottom of the mountain. And for me, the track's the same. Like, I actually don't really look at my lap times that much. I just love knowing that I've hit every apex and I've been smooth, and it's like an orchestra.

Avalon (01:02:39.729)
Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Avalon (01:02:59.281)
Yes. Yeah.

Angus Norton (01:02:59.95)
And I'm curious, like as a pro racer, I'm curious your point of view on this. I see a lot of kids at the track and they turn up and they're actually quite fast, but they miss every apex. And then by the end of the second session, they're so tired. And here's the, I'm an old fat man and I'm not tired at all. And it's cause they're like, they're letting the bike ride them. They're not actually hitting their lines. I'm curious for you. I've actually asked a lot of pros this question. I asked Rocco Landis the same question.

Do you is your aim to hit every single apex or are there tracks where you choose not to hit the apex?

Avalon (01:03:35.956)
Oh, that's an interesting question. No, I hit every apex. But I actually have something to comment on that, I think you'd find interesting is, I think with motorcycles these days, like they are so good and the tires are so good that you can get away with so much and you don't always have to hit an apex and you can still do a fast lap time.

And I really noticed that riding the Yamaha R7 in WCR is like, the bike is just so forgiving. So yeah, there's times when I'm like, oh, I hope the cameras weren't on me right then, because I know in my head that I didn't hit the apex, but on TV it probably looks like you wouldn't, your average person wouldn't even notice, but I, it felt terrible for me, you know? Like we don't get much track time in WCR. We get one practice session, 25 minutes, and then it's straight into qualifying.

in your race weekend so it's pretty hard to like seek that perfection like you're talking about and yeah like you do just make mistakes as a result of trying to learn everything in such a short space of time and it yeah it irritates me like I would rather like you say hit the apex every corner but the thing is that with these bike like they're so easy to ride and so forgiving that like you can still do fast lap times with

with being a little bit rough or like missing apexes and things like that. And sometimes I do worry about kids these days that grow up riding 300s, with the 154 strokes and then onto a 300 and then onto an R7. And because yeah, like it's so different to what we grew up riding where like you had to be really accurate and you had to be very, very smooth to go fast. These days, the bikes are so good and the tires are so good that they can just get away with so much and they don't have to be exactly online.

Angus Norton (01:04:59.31)
Hmm.

Avalon (01:05:26.389)
Yeah, I do. think then when they get on to a 600 in particular, it can be a really hard adjustment because it's much harder to go fast. Because you can't get away with what you did get away with on the likes of the 300. So yeah, I think the evolution of the sport is probably not helping some of these young kids. Like you say that they can ride really, really fast, but potentially you're not as smooth and as accurate as you or I would like.

Angus Norton (01:05:55.118)
Oh man, that's a whole nother podcast. I'd love to do that. I want to be respectful of your time. I was, I'm to use the analogy of, know, we're kind of into the last two or three laps of the race, which is the podcast. We've talked about your career. We've talked about you managing your tires. We're getting into the last aspect of the, of the podcast or race. And you've got the UK coming up as your next WCR race. Um, you'll like, tell me how you feel at your performance so far. Cause I've watched you and.

Avalon (01:05:56.997)
Yeah, yeah. Sorry.

Angus Norton (01:06:25.072)
and you've had a couple of areas where it's becoming bad luck, but you're clearly coming in the top two of four or five. How are you feeling about your entrance back into the racing world so far?

Avalon (01:06:37.715)
Good question.

Angus Norton (01:06:40.194)
I mean, you're doing, I think you're doing well, but I want to hear from you. Like, I think you're like.

Avalon (01:06:42.821)
Yeah

Thank you and I think everyone does think I'm doing well but I guess one thing I've learned over the years as well is to not be so hard on myself because it's really easy when you're so competitive in a sport, you just want to win and then you're not really happy with anything other than winning. But I've definitely learned over the years to just enjoy the process and you're not gonna win every single race all the time so you have to still enjoy it regardless. And yeah, I am happy with how

it's going so far I think I've got the speed there and I just need a few things to pull together and it's kind of it's all on me really which is a good thing because it means that I can I can work on it and keep improving and get there and get a podium finish because like you say I'm really close but

I think I'll be much more satisfied when I finish inside the top three in one of the races. And yeah, it's really exciting to think that we've still got four rounds to go for the championship. you're Donington up next and then closely followed by Hungary, which is a new circuit on the calendar. So that one's going to be pretty interesting.

Angus Norton (01:07:51.266)
Have you raced at Donington before?

Avalon (01:07:53.2)
Yeah, I'm really lucky that I've raced all the tracks on the calendar other than Hungary. yeah, Donington I've been to and the Krona Curves are down fast flowing nature of the track is really really fun but obviously the weather is always a little bit unpredictable in the UK. So I think I'll just take that one as it comes.

Angus Norton (01:08:10.027)
Mmm, dodgy.

Angus Norton (01:08:16.546)
There's some weird names, Silverstone, have like maggots and something else. I'm like, what, maggot? And then you've got McLean's corner and Copper's corner, think, are the big ones over there. They're done with the Schwantz. They call it the Schwantz curve. I'm going to be rooting for you. Hey, what's this on your shirt? What you got? Yeah, yeah. Tell me what you got there. you got a kiwi?

Avalon (01:08:21.171)
Yeah.

Yes.

Yeah. Yeah.

Avalon (01:08:37.063)
Thank you. the Kiwi. Yeah. Yes, this is our like team mascot. That's the Kiwi that's flying. Yeah, we run under Kiwi Girls Can Fly as like kind of our slogan for this year with Billy and I running in the Calcox team. So yeah, if anyone wants to jump on board, we're still looking for supporters. yeah, we have.

Angus Norton (01:08:46.381)
Yeah.

Angus Norton (01:08:57.806)
Tell me, yeah, tell me about that. How did it, yeah.

Avalon (01:08:59.891)
It's called the flight crew so a team of people to help us fly in this World Championship So yeah, if anyone wants to jump on board there's more information on my Facebook page, which is still under my maiden name Avalon, but a racing Yeah, well just

Angus Norton (01:09:12.736)
Okay.

I'll put links to all that, but to be clear, what are the opportunities that can sponsor you, be on your helmet? What are the opportunities there? Okay, yeah, yeah, okay, cool. Well.

Avalon (01:09:23.739)
Yeah, we will make anything possible. If you want to come aboard but our the bulk of our supporters club is it's 1000 New Zealand dollars to join or we can do it as a weekly payment and we base the

The big perk of it is that we send behind the scenes videos from all the events and in between so we post a lot, or we send a lot more to the supporters club than what we post online. They're not really raw, they're not edited or professional, anything, it's just Billy and I having a yarn, walking through the Superbike paddock, seeing what we can dig out.

Angus Norton (01:10:00.558)
Well, time me up. I'm gonna wire you $1,000. So you have to see me. So I'm gonna sponsor you. You got that on record. So you can come after me if I don't. We're sponsoring Cormac Buchanan too in Mugello. So trying to do our bit for Kiwis. I actually just bid on Simon Kreyfah's helmet. The helmet that he wore when he won the GP. When he beat Mick Duhun.

Avalon (01:10:07.213)
Aw, thank you.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

Avalon (01:10:22.13)
Huh.

Really? Did you? Yeah, wow. This is actually a, this is my husband's helmet. Yeah, this is a Simon Crafer replica. that Jake board gives, yeah, him and Simon are really good mates. Yes, yeah, it's so sweet. Him and his wife.

Angus Norton (01:10:33.29)
Oh, that's awesome. Well, know, Cybert has his Riders for Dogs charity. Yeah, yeah. I know. So I've missed out on my last few helmets because I'm not a high roller like all the people bidding, but I'm, I really want to get this one. Okay. That's cool. And it's a, Carl Cox as well. And we talked offline about this. Hey Carl, you probably don't know who I am. He's probably not even going to watch. Huge techno house fan from way back as me. So I've seen him like literally 20 times all over different parts of the world. He's like the godfather of techno music. Do you like techno music?

Avalon (01:10:45.339)
Yeah.

Avalon (01:11:03.763)
Yeah. I actually don't have like a particular music style. I'll just listen to anything that makes me feel good as my kind of music. So it's like, yeah, yeah, Kyle kind of fits that bill. Yeah, he is.

Angus Norton (01:11:15.352)
yeah. Carl's a, he's like a legend. so shit, we're going so over. That's cool. We'll do an edit. So have you met him?

Avalon (01:11:23.535)
Yes, yeah, yeah, of course, Carl spends quite a bit of time in Australia and New Zealand, and so he just comes to the racetrack and watches the racing because he loves it, and he sponsored some sidecar.

He's for a while, who race sidecars in New Zealand. So he comes out, hangs out and supports them. And yeah, then he sponsors the Cal Cox Motorsport Cup, which is like a bit of a grassroots series for base out of Auckland, actually. It's been really successful over the years and a lot of that is thanks to Cal's support. yeah, he's I...

Angus Norton (01:11:48.526)
Really?

Avalon (01:11:57.172)
couldn't say enough about him he's just like the friendliest guy and you'd have absolutely no idea that he's you know a world world famous and respected and like you say like absolute legend of what he does he's just genuinely really nice really friendly but he's so upbeat and I can see like how he's so good at his career because he makes people feel good that's that's what he does you know he loves just a good time and that's what he says he loves like just coming to the racetrack because everyone's having

fun. Like, why wouldn't you want to be there? So, yeah, it's, very honored to have his support and yeah, lucky that I could flick him a message and yeah, he watches all the WCR races. He's like a huge fan of racing in general. yeah, it's really cool.

Angus Norton (01:12:31.287)
Yeah.

Angus Norton (01:12:43.66)
Well, I'll...

Well, I'm definitely going to put a link to all your sponsors and all of that stuff here. And like when I do podcasts and I do like YouTube shorts and stuff, I never use commercial music because it's really expensive. So I might send you an offline note say, can I use one of Carl's tracks for your podcast and get his permission? I don't know, because I love his music. I could choose like one of my favorite tracks. I don't know if you would say yes or no, but if I don't get permission, I get in trouble with YouTube. So it has to be like permission from the artist.

Avalon (01:12:51.847)
Thank

Avalon (01:13:08.004)
Yes.

Avalon (01:13:13.731)
Okay, right, right, right. Yeah, we'll ask it. We'll ask it. It's for good cause,

Angus Norton (01:13:17.184)
yeah, yeah. I'll send you a link to my track up what he is. feel like Kiwis are like, feel like he talked to you forever. I got a question on your name. Where does Avalon come from? Is there a story behind that?

Avalon (01:13:21.715)
Thank

Avalon (01:13:25.743)
Yeah.

Avalon (01:13:29.579)
it's... it's my mum just liked the name. No, no, no, like we... I mean I've heard that song a lot over my life. think my mum does quite like that song, but yeah, it's... it's just... she liked the name.

Angus Norton (01:13:34.156)
Okay, so it's not like a Brian Fieri reference or anything.

Yeah.

Angus Norton (01:13:48.214)
It's a cool name. It's a cool name. So, well, shit, I've had a great time talking to you and I really appreciate you going over. Before we end, have sort of, other than putting your sponsors and stuff on which we can do, like if you could give young kids a piece of advice around ambition, it doesn't matter what it is, know, sport, business, life, because...

you clearly, there's so much more, I think success and there's so many different definitions of success, right? And it doesn't come, it's not just about money and all that, it's a lot of definitions. If you could give like young kids aspiring to make a name for themselves any piece of advice, you, is there something that comes to mind for you?

Avalon (01:14:33.043)
Yeah for aspiring youngsters it is how would I best put it is just enjoy enjoy the process and to not be too hard on yourself I think in particular those that want to make it all the way and

be really, really competitive, is to enjoy every step along the way, because it's not going to be perfect all the time. just trust that long term process. And I think the person who put it way better than me was, I listened to a podcast with Ben Spees, and when he spoke about Kayla Yakov, and he said, know, Kayla's like so disheartened when she finishes seventh in the AMA Super Sport race. Seventh, she's like beating herself

up about it because she wants to be there at the front and

Ben says that seventh place today isn't gonna make a difference to Kayla in five years time. know, like she just needs to keep grinding, keep doing exactly what she's doing now and she'll make it in the long run. And I wish that I had someone say that to me because, you know, I took every single race so seriously. You know, if it was a race in the wet and I came like 10th or something, then I was like, oh, I'm terrible. I'm not gonna make it because I came 10th. And it's just not the case at all. You just have to keep

grinding over that longer period of time and trust the process and stay calm. And unfortunately, it's a really long road. yeah, there's gonna be ups and downs, but just, guess, have to ride it out. That was a long-winded answer, sorry.

Angus Norton (01:16:13.134)
No, don't be sorry. I mean, I would say first of all, congratulations on version 1.0 of your career before you had your baby and your family. And congratulations so far on version 2.0, which is going really, really well. And I know that...

Avalon (01:16:19.399)
Yeah.

Angus Norton (01:16:28.27)
not only is it tough, but women also have a harder road to climb and it shouldn't be that way in anything in life, but that's just kind of been the reality of the world. It's moving in a better direction, but you're still part of that change. And I think it's gonna take a few more generations of leaders like yourself and I hope that other kids listen to you and feel that way. And I'm really excited to see you perform in the UK. It'd be awesome to hear the Kiwi National Anthem there.

Avalon (01:16:57.395)
Yeah, again, that's where Simon won his MotoGP race at Donington Park. It would be really special, but I think... yeah.

Angus Norton (01:17:04.397)
Yeah.

It be so good. I'm going to be out watching. can't wait. And don't forget to send me that invoice for your sponsorship. A little bit goes a long way and we'll make sure we put all the links up.

Avalon (01:17:14.771)
Thank you. Thanks. I think I just have to say I probably haven't said enough. I've probably spoken about myself too much and not I'd say huge thank you to Jake, my husband, obviously my son Nash because like without their support it just wouldn't be possible to do what I'm doing. You know I'm lucky that I can't have those years of experience to bank on.

because it is really tough to be doing what we're doing, juggling the family and flying overseas to race. So I'm really, really grateful for his support and that we do it together, all of us as a family. yeah, thanks.

Angus Norton (01:17:42.604)
my god.

Angus Norton (01:17:51.34)
Yeah, yeah, no, sweet as, yeah, that's a great way to end. It's, yeah, and we need to get some of these freaking Kiwi airlines like Air New Zealand and stuff giving you tickets. Come on, Air New Zealand, sort it out. Come on. Yeah, yeah, biz class, geez, come on. Yeah, yeah, we'll have to work that angle as well. Yeah, that's a great shout out. Thank you, Avalon. I'll let you get back to your life in Australia. And...

Avalon (01:17:55.635)
I'm gonna leave.

Avalon (01:18:01.947)
Yeah business class will be great.

Thank you, thanks so much, great to chat. You too. Yeah, awesome.

Angus Norton (01:18:18.7)
Yeah, it's so great to meet you. I'm just going to start recording and then I'll say goodbye to you properly.