Elena Myers

Elena Myers Court (born November 21, 1993 ) is an American professional motorcycle racer.

At age 11 (2006), Myers raced on John Ulrich's Team Roadracing World in the United States Grand Prix Racers Union (USGPRU) National Series 125 cc class and won her first race, riding a 1997 Honda RS125 GP.

She then gained sponsorship assistance from Kawasaki and Road RacingWorld.com's "Kids: Don't Smoke!"

program.

She also had a sponsorship from Umbrella Girls USA, a modeling agency for paddock girls.

In 2007, at age 13, she was under contract with Kawasaki Team Green three years before she was old enough to obtain a drivers license.

She rode a Suzuki GSX-R1000 in the MotoAmerica Superbike Championship.

She had crashed several times as of 2007, the worst injury up to then being a broken finger.

In 2008, riding a Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R, she won a Western-Eastern Roadracers' Association (WERA) national race and had several podium finishes.

When she was 11, John Ulrich promised to take Myers to Daytona International Speedway when she was 16, the minimum age to turn pro.

In a 2008 crash she was pinned under her bike, and suffered burns, a concussion, and a lacerated spleen.

Of that crash, she said, "I wanted to go out and train so much. They told me to wait six weeks, and I waited three."

She made history in 2010 as the first female to win an AMA Pro Racing sprint road race.

As promised, she made her professional debut at Daytona on March 11, 2010.

Myers' first AMA Pro Racing victory came during Race 1, Round 4 of the 2010 season of the AMA Supersport Championship (AMA Supersport West series) at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, California, on May 15, 2010.

On lap 10 of 18 scheduled laps, the race was called after being red flagged twice due to crashes, securing first place for Myers.

The race was not allowed to run its full distance because cleaning up the track and restarting would have put the day's program too far behind schedule.

Myers described the time between the first and second red flags by saying, "I got a good restart off the front row and made some moves. I felt like I was getting a little bit closer to the leader with about eight or nine laps to go. I came around the next lap and the red flag was shown again."

(The AMA Supersport West series is limited to riders ages 16–21 riding close to stock 600 cc displacement sport bikes).

In 2010, she had several more sponsors, including Pirelli.

Myers' family realized that being female helped her get noticed.

Some of the advertisements created by her sponsors Kawasaki and Pirelli emphasize her youth and gender to draw attention.

Suzuki colored their home page pink in honor of her victory riding their GSX-R600 motorcycle.

Myers, at 5 ft tall and weighing 116 lbs, is aware of the perception that women lack the upper body strength for 600-class motorcycles with minimum weights of 365 –, says that, "it's more of a mental game."

Virginia Meyers, Elena's grandmother, was worried about the risks but was reassured after seeing her ride.

She is also the first woman to win a professional motorsports race of any kind at Daytona International Speedway, on March 17, 2012.

Myers is possibly the youngest female ever to enter the AMA racing circuit.

Elena Myers achieved her second professional career win at Daytona International Speedway in SuperSport Race 2, on March 17, 2012.

She won the race by .240 seconds, coming in first among a group of four closely packed riders on the final lap.

After the race, Myers said, "It was a phenomenal race. I stayed up there and led a little bit, then stayed behind just to see how much I could be behind and still catch up. Everyone's bikes were really fast but mine was too.

For 2014, Myers rode an Apex Manufacturing/Sportbike Tracktime/Castrol backed Triumph Daytona 675R in the AMA Pro GoPro Daytona SportBike class.

Elena Myers does weightlifting and cardio training at the gym, and travels around the U.S. to races.

Her father was her coach and mechanic in the early years, but now has a reduced role.

"I look forward to showing up and just watching from the stands," he said.

Currently, Myers gets advice from AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame inductee Jimmy Filice, and racer Chris Ulrich of Team RoadRacing World is a mentor.

She has also been coached by former AMA racer Ken Hill and received instruction from Jason Pridmore's STAR Motorcycle School.

Team owners are Richie Morris and John Ulrich.

Myers filed a lawsuit against Loews Hotels in February 2017, alleging she was sexually assaulted by a masseur in Philadelphia in October 2014.

Myers began riding motorcycles at age eight, with the help and encouragement of her parents.

She began with pocketbike racing before progressing to mini bikes and then to supermoto.