Queen comes to town

Sidecar swinger Julie Loveridge of Wanganui on the 1955 Triumph T110 preparing for an interview with Abbey Scott of TV One News.

Maria, who has been awarded an MBE, was the first woman to gain a solo podium finish at the Isle of Man when she came third in the 2005 Ultra-Lightweight TT on a Honda RVF 400 VFR and also took a debut third place at the Northwest 200 in Northern Ireland on the same machine. In 2004 she had become the fastest woman at the TT with a 114.73mph (184.64kph) lap in the Production 1000 TT, a record set with a broken collarbone and one she held for six years. In 2011 Maria won the AHRMA Bears World 750cc Title on a Seeley Norton Commando 750 with wins at the Barber Vintage Festival (Birmingham, Alabama) and Daytona Speedway (Florida). In South Africa that year she was runner up in the South African TT Race Series on the Team Classic Suzuki XR69. Throughout her career Maria has raced many modern race bikes plus older machines and is a regular at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in England. Maria races at the Isle of Man, the Island Classic and the full complement of Irish road races each year. Last November Maria was involved with the first FIM Women's Road Racing Training Camp in Albacete, Spain which sold out with 24 women from 10 countries in attendance, including New Zealand's Avalon Biddle.
Maria has been contributing to the motorcycle press as a freelance journalist since her career in motorcycle racing began in 1995. She has been a road tester for both Motorcycle News (MCN) and Performance Bikes. She also writes for the Motorcycle Racer. She has appeared in motorcycling documentaries for television and has worked as a stunt double for actresses Tamzin Outhwaite and Reese Witherspoon on the big screen. At Buckingham Palace in 2009 Prince Charles presented Maria with an MBE for services to motorcycling.
Maria Costello - The Queen of Bikers, an autobiography with help from Steve Pitts, was published in 2010 and details the dogged obsession that led this fast and furious female to the top of her game.
At this year's Bennetts Classic Motorcycle Insurance TT on the Isle of Man Maria secured a fifth place in the Classic 500 TT on her Patton 500 - the best TT position ever achieved by a woman on a conventional motorbike. In the Classic 350 TT Maria was the second 250cc machine home on the Bob Jackson Racing Suzuki T20.
As an aside, Kiwi Bruce Ansley took third on the McIntosh Manx Norton in this year's Classic 500 TT. Bruce also collected the Mike Hailwood Trophy plus a win in the Formula 1 TT on a Yamaha YZR 500 and set a new lap record and the fastest lap record of 123.894 mph (199.3881kph) on a two-stroke racer in the TT Mountain course.
Maria held the Guinness World Record until 2009 for being the fastest woman to lap the Isle of Man TT course at an average speed of 114.73 mph (184.64kph). The third Barry Sheene historic race meeting in New Zealand at Hampton Downs at Labour weekend was a huge success with crowd figures up on last year. Peter Lodge, past president of the New Zealand Classic Motorcycle Racing Register, had the vision to invite Maria and establish a women's-focused promotion. Fifteen solo women riders and five swingers (sidecars) brought a touch of glamour to the event and the TV cameras followed. Kiwi TT Riders were filming a documentary, TV One came out on the Saturday to film some action and interview the women racers. In addition, with funding from key sponsors Mike Pero Real Estate, Bell Helmets and Penrite Oil, organisers hired a six-camera TV crew to film a documentary for CRC Motorsport which will screen on TV3 next year.
The 32 Australians who attended managed to wrestle the Trans-Tasman Trophy from New Zealand. There was great racing all weekend and - considering the 250 plus entrants - few race incidents. Fifteen-year-old Amie Valucik-Hamilton was the star of Saturday's TV One news clip and Mihi Banks showed great determination and skill in riding the pants off the 1960 250cc and 350cc Jawas all weekend. Avalon Biddle created a huge buzz in the pits when she became the first woman to win a Barry Sheene solo race on either side of the Tasman when she took out a PC 250 race on the "Ginger Molloy" TSS Bultaco 250 that boasts a true 50bhp at the rear wheel. "The bike has the weight of a 125 but with tons of cool power, it is quite stable, doesn't step out and if the back starts to slide a bit it suddenly bites and wow, you are off again," she said
There was lots of laughter among the women all weekend as they told each other about getting past another bloke or two in their last race. Many of their machines were mid-field clubmans but they were all there to have fun and were a pleasure to work with. Maria is a member of the FIM Commission for Women in Motorcycling (CFM), which has a mission is to create egalitarian opportunities and to promote equal treatment for women involved at all levels of motorcycle sport.
She was delighted that 20 female racers competed at the Barry Sheene, the largest female turnout in Australasia - and possibly the world.