Debbie Matthews: She Passed Him On The Outside And Married Him

Debbie Matthews is known as the “Godmother of Women’s Motocross,” and after this conversation, you’ll understand why.

Starting her racing journey in 1974, Debbie competed in the very first Women’s National Motocross Championship at Indian Dunes in California. From there, she built a 50-year career that spans racing, dealership ownership, industry advocacy, national series development, coaching, and mentoring.

In this episode, Debbie shares:

·       What it was like racing when women were barely recognized in the sport

·       How she helped launch the first Women’s National Championship Series in 1996

·       Why the motorcycle industry completely misread female demographics

·       The importance of marketing to women in motorsports

·       How sponsorship relationships can last decades

·       Why coaching women requires a different communication style

·       How her school, now under Driven Futures, trains women on and off the bike

This is more than a racing story — it’s a masterclass in leadership, marketing, mentorship, and legacy.

Transcript

Meet Debbie Matthews

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Welcome to the Women's Motorsports Network Podcast, the show that puts the spotlight on the incredible women who fuel the world of motorsports. From drivers to crew members, engineers to fans, and everyone in between, we're here to celebrate the trailbizers, dreamers, and doers shaping the sport we love. Each episode, we share inspiring stories of females of all ages from every corner of the motorsports universe, past, present, and future. It's a journey through the seasons of life filled with heartfelt moments, laughter, and a whole lot of horsepower. So whether you're a lifelong fan, a racer yourself, or simply curious about the extraordinary women behind the wheel, settle in, relax, and enjoy a fun and uplifting ride with us. This is the Women's Motorsports Network Podcast, connecting and celebrating women in motorsports one story at a time. Let's hit the track. Hello everyone. This is Melinda Russell with the Women's Motorsports Network Podcast. And my guest today is Debbie Matthews. And so, Debbie, I want to welcome you to the show. And as I always do, I like to learn a little bit more about you before we get started with your racing story. So why don't you share a little bit about yourself?

SPEAKER_01 1:24

Okay, my name is Debbie Matthews, and I was born in Anaheim, California. My dad was a fire captain for them for many, many years. My mom was a school teacher. But on the weekends, they race cars for fun, and that's kind of how I got introduced to this when I was very, very young. But I have a family. I have a daughter who also raced. I have a son who is involved in the tech industry, and we're very close family, and we just love people and love being involved.

SPEAKER_00 1:57

That's awesome. Do you have any pets?

SPEAKER_01 2:00

I do. I have a dog named Twitch, and it's kind of funny because he watches the Twitch live stream all the time. So my son's best friend is a streamer on there, and Twitch is very involved in the stream, so it's kind of fun.

Early Life And First Bikes

SPEAKER_00 2:15

That is fun. I have a Shih Tzu dog, and on Saturday morning there's a program called Lucky Dog. And it's coming to where he even knows like the music because as soon as he hears that, he watches that show. It is the funniest thing. I just I just love how dogs are so smart, Debbie. They really are. So smart. Yes. So you were young when you got in interested or introduced to motorsports. Tell me your story. Start at the beginning and tell me how you got to where you are today.

SPEAKER_01 2:51

Well, basically, my parents, like I said, were racing in the early 60s, and they raced Porsche Spiders, they raced speedsters, they raced a lot of Super Seven, and so we were always at the track on the weekends, and it was just a lot of fun. I was very intrigued by it. I learned very early that I had a knack for working on things. I loved to be in the garage with my father, much to the shigin of my mother, because she was trying to get me in the kitchen. But and so I was introduced to that. But when we got into our teens, it wasn't something that you know we we could really race a car at those ages back in those days. So they sold one of the cars and bought everybody motorcycles, and I just I just fell in love with it.

SPEAKER_00 3:44

Yeah, I actually got my motorcycle license when I was 50. 50 years old. My second husband was a motorcycle, is a motorcycle lover, still has his Yamaha FZ1. And I learned how to ride because of the his interest, and I had a motorcycle for a number of years until I hurt my back and couldn't couldn't really ride. And there's just something about the open air, yes, and the smells, like even just going out through the country in the summer, you can smell the cornfields and all that. And I grew up on a farm, so that was always something I really enjoyed. And so you found that you loved motorcycles as well.

SPEAKER_01 4:34

Oh, absolutely. So I only rode for about a year, and then racing was just kind of a natural outlet due to the car, so it seemed perfectly normal to go to the track and try our hand at that. And I found very early that I had a good knack for that, and so we started going out to Saddleback and Carlsbad. I'm a West Coast girl, and so we spent a lot of time out there, and because of my interest in the sport, and I really like to get my hands dirty. I started working at the performance shops in the areas, and then I ended up working for Kawasaki Motors in their parts department, and I ended up having my own dealership at one point, all while I was racing, and I I just had so much fun with it. There's so many great people, and I learned so much from so many different people, and they just helped me along the way because back then there was very few women racing, and sometimes those opportunities could be a little bit limited, but I never let anybody tell me what I could and couldn't do. I just went out and and did it, and and my parents supported that. There was never anything of, oh, you can't do this because you're a woman. It was if you want to do this, put your heart into it and let's see what happens.

Racing In The 1970s

SPEAKER_00 6:03

Yeah, I was gonna ask you now what like what years would this have been?

Founding Women’s Motocross Pathways

SPEAKER_01 6:07

Because I'll bet there were hardly any other women at it was I started racing in 1974, and I actually raced the very first women's national championships, and it was at Indian Dunes in Valencia, California, and it was run by Casey Rogers. And if that name sounds familiar, it is because she was an actress in Hollywood, she was the star of Bewitched at the time, which was a very popular show, and she had a heart for motorcycles, and she put together the first national ever. And at that race, we had women come from all over the world, and there was over 300 competitors, and it was just an amazing experience to be part of that, and that kind of is the thing that led me to where I end up because I've had a 50-year career in the motorcycle industry, and it's been a lot of hard work, certainly, as I'm sure you can imagine, but to be part of it from the very beginning, or really close to the very beginnings of it, and to still be involved in it now, 50 years later, and to be helping. I'm part right now. I'm helping, I'm working with the WMX series, which is gonna be in the Supercross finale for the SMX this season, and so to be able to still be able to contribute is an amazing thing for me, and to be the founder of that, that that's why I got the nickname the godmother of women's motocross, because I've been involved with it since the beginning, and we only had one race a year, that was it. And if you had a bad day, well, you know, you had to wait a year. So about the about 1990, yeah, 1994, I was invited to be part of the U.S. women's motocross team as a director, and we started meeting with the OEMs and the aftermarket companies and saying, look, there's a market here, and you know, you need to be part of it. And so we met with with all of them and put together a program to where we created the very first women's national championship series in 1996, and in 1995, to kind of go back a little bit, we had the women in AMA Supercross with a Supercross series championship that did some of the off-road races as well as the Supercross. And I worked with Mickey Thompson on that, and so that's how I got the the name the Godmother Women's Motocross, because we were really on the front lines to make those things happen, and to be here now, like I said, all these years later, still helping to kind of coach the women writers on the things they need to do and and how to position themselves and help better the sport and the coverage. I'm I'm thrilled to be part of it.

SPEAKER_00 9:20

Yeah, and and for you to be able to look back and see where it started and then to see where it is today has to be gratifying to think that you had a big part of that. Uh it it is.

Proving The Market For Women

SPEAKER_01 9:36

I'm just yes, I'm very grateful for the experience and to be able to make those things you know come to life for the ladies and for the industry. The industry uh it's it's a very important part of the industry, and it's continued for the last 30 years to be the fastest growth segment in the industry. So I don't know of any business that would survive if it were to ignore 20, 30, 40 percent of its market share, you know, and so that was part of when we sat down with them. At first they didn't they didn't believe it, they didn't believe it that there's that many women out there, and so we said, well, let's show you. And so we started with a four woman team. Now there was a lot more women than four, but we started with a four-woman team to draw the focus to them, and then we started reaching out to the women's community, and within a year we had over 3,000 women that were connected to us, and the OAM said, Where are they coming from? We didn't even know they exist, but what it allowed us to do was I was had my own dealership at the time, and I sat down with them. I said, Well, you don't understand. Every time somebody buys a motorcycle, you give them a card, a registration card, had to be filled out at the dealership on who purchased the bike and what kind of bike it was, and along that line. Well, the problem was that the form said, Here's the name, here's who purchased it, but it never addressed who was actually going to be riding it. And so the information that the factories had wasn't accurate, they had no idea how many women or kids or whoever were riding their motorcycles. So if, and this is nothing against guys, this is just the way it was, if a guy's name appeared anywhere on the registration, the factories automatically assign that motorcycle to a man, and so they they didn't have adequate demographics, and so that was part of what we did was draw attention to know you need to really know who's riding your machinery and what they're doing with it. Are they playwriting? Are they racing? What are they doing? And that way now your marketing team knows who they should be marketing to and how to market to them.

SPEAKER_00 12:10

Well, and you know, let's face it, marketing used to not really be a thing. I mean, it was just like you said, the the form was just a form, and and when it got to wherever it went, they didn't they didn't even think about is it a man or a woman, you know, and there's so many things that have changed, and them and marketing nowadays is huge. And so for you to bring that to their attention, and then they say, Well, where did all these women come from?

SPEAKER_01 12:40

Well, they've been out there, you guys just weren't paying attention, exactly, and that's exactly almost verbatim what I told them. I said, They've always been there, you're not marketing to them, and so and that's when the women's market got a big boom when they started recognizing that and actually marketing. Because the the fact of the matter is is that women control 90% of the purchases made in the home. So doesn't it make sense to market to them? Yeah, you know, because it's you're dealing with our sport is a family sport, and I love that about our industry that it involves families, and so that's a that's a huge thing to be able to have that understanding because they're gonna be the ones that say, you know, what kind of gear can we afford to buy? How many bikes can we afford to buy? And let's face it, the bikes nowadays are very, very expensive. I mean, when I started, a race bike was three to six hundred dollars, and we thought that was outrageous. Well, right look at where we're at today. You know, you you're starting in my part in in motocross with a fifteen thousand dollar motorcycle to start, and then I'm gonna dump another ten grand plus into it to modify it. So that's quite an investment for a family.

Sponsorships And Credibility

SPEAKER_00 14:01

Well, and you know, I think this is true. Now, there are there are brands that have figured out that they want to market to the women because that's who's doing the grocery shopping and and and the shopping, you know, they even women even tend to pick out the car that the family buys and all that. So more companies have gotten uh made been made aware of that, but there are still so many companies involved with racing, because that's what we're involved in, right? So that's what we can speak to involved with motorsports that still don't get it, and I I don't know where they're at or where their heads are at, but they're not if they would start marketing more to the women and and to you know the person. So for instance, if if there's an engineer, a woman engineer working at a race shop, she's gonna be the one making some decisions about what to buy, what kind of you know, the gears and all that, but but the industry hasn't figured that out yet. Because yeah, and so we have to make them aware that they need to market to the women. It's could be the same product, absolutely, yeah. And so I'm glad that we're having this conversation because it's reminding our listeners, uh, whether they be women, men, and and I do have a lot of men that listen to this podcast, that hey, you guys need to reach out to some of your companies and get them involved because we want women to be involved in racing, and to be a driver, you've got to have sponsorship, right? And and so that's tough, that's tough for women, for everybody.

SPEAKER_01 16:01

But that's one of the things when I was racing that ended up being a real plus for me. And I'm just gonna say it the way it was. When I would go out to the track and I would beat the men, I raced with the men a lot, and I did it not to them versus me. It was never about that, it was always about I want to better myself, and this is one of the ways that I can do it because I know they're not gonna say after you, they are not gonna say after you, they're gonna race me harder, and that makes me a better writer, and you know, I have to think outside of the box, and so it it was really a a neat part for me to to gain that understanding because for my sponsors. Now I never wrote for anybody that I did not 100% believe in their product, never because when you talk to me about a product, I'm gonna give you this is a good product, this isn't a good product, and I turned down sponsorships that I could have made some good money at because I did not believe in their product, yeah. But people knew that about me, and they they knew that they could trust when I would tell them about a product. But if I beat them, especially the guys, they would come over. Liberty, they would come over and they would look at my bike, and let's just say, okay, FMF was one of my sponsors because they were, and they were they were a great sponsor. And they would look at my bike, they go, Well, what'd you do to your bike? Because it couldn't be me that that beat them because of my ability, it had to be what was on my bike. So they would ask me about, oh, well, what pipe do you have, or what did you do to your suspension, or what did you do to your motor? And that gave me a chance to sell, you know, my sponsors' products, and my sponsors recognized that pretty quickly, and so that ended up being a really good thing, both for me and for my sponsors. And one of the things that I am most proud about is that most of my sponsors I've been with all 50 years or close, at least 30. Most of them, the baseline is about 30 years with each one, and that speaks a lot, I think, to our relationship and to me doing my job because I've had people ask me too, well, geez, you're 67 years old. How come you still have sponsors? You're not racing anymore. No, I'm not racing anymore. I wish I could, but I still have value to them because I'm still representing them in a professional in more of an ambassador role now.

SPEAKER_00 18:39

So yeah, and you know, nowadays that role is as important or more so than even being the driver, because you know, you can do so much as an ambassador for a for a brand, and it's good that those companies realize that.

Visibility, Legends, And Mentorship

SPEAKER_01 18:57

Yeah, I think ambassadors I'm glad to see those kind of programs. I mean, back in the day when you were done racing, you could have been Jeremy McGrath, it didn't matter, you know. Yeah, seven times supercross champion, winning supercross rider of all time. And you know what? I've seen it so many times. Those guys will be going down even through the stands. And the and and one time at LA, the announcer was actually talking about these riders when they were in the stands. And we're talking this was Brad Lackey and Roger DeCoster. Brad Lackey had just become the first American world champion, Roger DeCoster, five-time world champion. And if you know anything about motorsports in motorcycles, you know about Roger DeCoster. Amazing man, but they were literally talking about them, and and we were in the stands, and they're walking down the stands, and nobody knew who they were. Yeah, and that was within two to five years after they retired from their previous roles. And to me, that's that's kind of sad because they have all this knowledge that they can be imparting. And the nice thing that I like, especially about Roger, is he's still doing that, he's still at the track every weekend supporting those riders and and growing the sport. And I just I just love that man. He's he's amazing.

SPEAKER_00 20:16

Well, and it part of the problem with that is that people who go to the races don't see the faces of the people that are driving, you know, they're under the helmets and and that, and and nowadays I think we're much better at uh drivers especially are much better at getting their face out there because of social media and the you know different ways, but but I think you know, if you'd have said to me back in the 70s or 80s or 90s, you know, you could walk, I could walk past a driver at a racetrack and maybe not even realize right.

Coaching Women Versus Men

SPEAKER_01 21:02

We was because sometimes we'd like a little bit of that anonymity. I mean, sometimes that's kind of nice, but at the same token, I have another experience where one of those riders was in the pits trying to help one of the newer riders on the teams, and it was kind of sad because he he knew what he was talking about, and the younger writer, when he left, said, Well, who the heck is is that guy? Who does he think he is? And I'm like, You have no idea, you know, what he can do to help you, and and to me, that's crazy. Now, nowadays on Teams, they have a lot of former racers as mentors or team managers, and I think that's extremely helpful because at least you have a person in your corner that understands your mindset, they understand the challenges that you're gonna face, and they know how to talk to you. Yeah, because that's super important. And especially I'm going to say with women athletes, because I've witnessed that as well. Sometimes with guys, other guys will get in the the guy's face and they'll say, Well, they'll just kind of yell at him, you dummy, you need to do whatever. And women don't respond well to that. You know, they want to know, give me something tangible. Okay, what did you see that I can improve on? Then they can work with that. But if you get in their face and berate them, they're just going to shut down. Right. And so, and I've had those conversations with fathers and team managers of you know, kind of politely pulling them aside and going, No, this is not how you're gonna get the results out of your writer. Because with women, sometimes they'll get mad and it'll it'll push them to do better, but sometimes some of them they just kind of retreat back in, and then you get the exact opposite response that you want.

SPEAKER_00 23:00

Well, and and you know, let's face it, men are different than women in so many ways, and and especially like you said, we want to we want to know the why. We want to know how why is it doing this and how can I how can I, you know, be better. Right, and and that's me.

SPEAKER_01 23:22

That that's how I got kind of into that's how I started my women's school of motocross, because there was no women specific training, and it's not that we ride any different than the men. Good technique is good technique, doesn't matter whether you're male or female, it's how it's presented, and a lot of the teachers out there, coaches, would basically just say, and I know because I went to a lot of classes, they would basically just say, Here's how you do it, just shut up and do it. And they didn't encourage any dialogue. And I'm like, no, no, no, no, no. And so when I teach, here's the technique, here's how it works, here's why it works, and here's what's gonna happen if you make a mistake, because then you can build from that, yeah. And they and it helps them to gain that confidence. If you just say, here's the technique, shut up and do it, you know. And and even when I was coaching as well, the same thing would happen with say I was gonna teach somebody how to jump. Okay, we're gonna do this double or this triple or whatever it is. Jumps in particular, when I trained men, and yes, I trained men too, because I I like to train anybody that wants to learn, but the men would go over to that jump, and the first thing that they would do is just just talk it, just just jump it, and worry about it when they were airborne. And you could just see them tense up like, oh crap, you know, what am I gonna do? Where the women would ride over to the jump stop and wait for that instruction, and it's they're just two different mentalities of of how things are approached, and both have their value. I mean, there were times that I had a tendency of overthinking things, you know, and instead of just going and hocking it, you know. So that's kind of but when you that's kind of the differences, but when you recognize that you can learn from both from both ends of it, and I found that the guys learned very quickly, you know. I kind of like this is the technique, here's why you do it, here's how you do it, and here's what happens if you make a mistake, because then you can go back, evaluate that, and fix it. Yeah, but if you don't know what you did wrong, it's kind of hard to fix, right? You know, so and I think that's one of the reasons why our schools were so successful. Well, they're still going. I started it in 1999, they're still going, yeah, you know, all these years later. So there's value in that.

Inside The School And Methods

SPEAKER_00 25:56

There is. So tell me a little bit about the school. Is it in a certain location? Uh, do you travel and do like workshops places? Let my listeners know a little bit more about that.

SPEAKER_01 26:09

Okay, well, women's school of motocross, it's now under the the name Driven Futures because I've kind of taken all my business endeavors and kind of put them under one umbrella. It's much simpler that way. So, so Driven Futures, we do speaking engagements, keynote speaking. If we go, we go into high schools or churches and and talk to the kids. And then as far as the motocross schools go, we're bringing online some online training because it's impossible for me to get everywhere. I do have a network of trainers that I have developed over the country to make it easier, but basically, it could be something as simple as say there's a track in Ohio, like Route 62, okay, and Route 62 wants to have a motocross school with me. All they got to do is contact me and say, hey, we want to have a school and I will take care of everything. Well, I do all the online registrations. We do have track day registrations, but I discourage that a little bit because it just takes too much time. But and I have different types of schools. I have schools where I do a full-on boot camp where I'm going to teach you everything from your writing techniques to your training, what you should be doing, how to present a resume to you know potential sponsors. I give them everything, and that's a several-day course. Or we can do something as simple as a one-day course where we just come in and we basically run them from about eight in the morning to about two in the afternoon. And sometimes I'll do a two-day class if people want a little bit more, you know, to kind of seat it in. But and we do everything both statically and on the bike, and that's something that most trainers don't do as well. I teach everything statically first, including cornering, which people go, how do you do that? But I figured out a really neat way to do that where I could put them in their cornering position and then make those adjustments to them statically, and then I would pick the bike up and I would they would have to transition from standing to that cornering position and hit their marks and get in the right positions. That's something that's really difficult to do if you don't do it statically because they're moving and they don't they don't get it. But even when I do it statically, they're able to feel, for instance, cornering on a dirt bike. Generally speaking, for unless you're in sand, the technique would be you want to be forward on the bike, you want to be looking forward, you want your elbows, and you want to put your weight pretty much on the outside of the seat, as opposed to like if you're street riding or in sand, you're gonna move your weight more to the inside. Well, that's hard to teach in motion, but if I do it statically and then I have them move the bike while we're there statically, they can feel when they're off. If they put that weight too far to the inside, they're gonna feel that bike kind of snap away from them. And then and they're like, wait, I go, that's what's happening when you're riding. The bike is moving away from you and you're losing control because you're not in the right position. But if they hit their marks, it the bike just sticks, and they're like, ooh, but and then they can feel that. But if you're trying to teach them that when they're in motion, it's much harder for them to recognize what they're doing, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:43

So I'm a very hands-on coach, and it's great training for people, and you know, they can be so much farther ahead if they take the time to do some training rather than to just think, oh, it doesn't look that hard, and they go out well.

SPEAKER_01 30:02

And they they can save themselves a lot of injury too. Yeah, you know, uh my goal is to make them better, safer riders, whether they're on the street or on the dirt, because there's there's so much that transfers over. Yes, there are some differences, certainly, but my off-road riding has helped my street riding a lot. Oh, I'm sure. A lot. Yeah, it's helped my driving behind the wheel. I'm much more aware of where everybody's at and what they're doing because of that. And I you have to ride with the assumption on the road that they don't see you, yeah. And a lot of times they do see you, they just don't care. And I hate to say that, but it's it's true sometimes.

Street Skills, Safety, And Awareness

SPEAKER_00 30:45

No, I I get that part because I still ride behind my husband on his motorcycle, and it's worse and worse because of people on their phones, and so I'm I'm kind of the the eyes and and ears as well as him, because nowadays it takes more than just one to keep paying attention to what's happening, right?

SPEAKER_01 31:08

And and I I ride and drive to where I always give myself an out. I always give myself an escape route. That's that's just what I do, and it it has been very, very valuable. I'm sure so it it's you know, I'm very grateful for the things I learned from my parents racing the cars and the things I learned from racing the motorcycles to and I've passed that on to my kids, yeah, you know, too. They they know, and and it's helped all of us to stay out of accidents, and sometimes they can't be avoided, but it does a lot to you know keep you safe, and that's that's a good thing, so we can keep enjoying those beautiful sunrises and sunsets and the wind in our face. It's exactly there's nothing nothing like that. I've done so many different sports over the years, and nothing comes close to being behind the wheel or being behind my handlebars for sure.

SPEAKER_00 32:10

That's true. So you've been involved in this arena for many years, and I know it's hard to pick one thing, but is there one event or moment or memory that just stands out to you that you'll never forget?

SPEAKER_01 32:32

Ooh, there's a lot of those.

SPEAKER_00 32:35

Um I think, yeah, it's really not a fair question.

A Memorable First Date On Track

SPEAKER_01 32:39

Yeah. Well, you're gonna laugh. This is a very personal one, but the one that stands out. I mean, yeah, we did a lot of different things, got a lot of different accolades, got a lot of different things done, but was when I met my husband. I met my husband at a dealership he worked for one of the dealers in Orange County, and I went in there and very innocently I wasn't looking for anything. And anyway, he invited me out to Orange County International Raceway to to practice. I thought, well, that's a safe date. Okay, just go out because whatever. Well, one of the things that happened was as we were practicing, and you gotta remember, we it was our first date, so we weren't familiar with each other's motorcycles or our gear or anything like that. And so going around the track, and this guy passes me around the outside, and I said, I don't think so. And I just ran it in and took the line away and ran them off the track, and I hear this blood-curdling scream, and I look over and I realize that's my date. Oh dear. I'm like, You're never gonna get asked out again. But I think he kind of liked that fire, and you know, we've been married it this year will be 48 years, so wow been it was pretty neat, and he's been so supportive every step of the way, and I just I just really appreciate him and and I love him, and and it's nice that even in our later years we're still enjoying the sport together, we still go riding together, and and that's a neat thing.

SPEAKER_00 34:20

So, Debbie, if somebody wanted to follow up or listen, you know, find out more about Driven Futures or the the classes, what is the best place to go to do that?

How To Choose The Right Bike

SPEAKER_01 34:33

DrivenFutures.com, real simple. And I respond personally to every message that comes through. So I'm more than happy to help whether you need coaching or whether you're I mean, sometimes people even ask you, hey, what bike should I buy? Or you know, and and that's part of the thing too. The dealers are getting better about that, but some of them still struggle with that. You know, you need to buy what is the right bike for you and the right bike that fits you. And too many times women are given less bike than they should really have. I mean, you don't want to have too much bike, don't get me wrong, but a lot of times they're not the right size bike for them, whether it's CC size or ride height. That's a big deal. That is a big thing, and yeah, and so you you need to take somebody with you that understands that, and you need to kind of stand up for what you know is the right bike for you. Don't let somebody put you on something that, oh, you know, it's tiny and whatever, you're just gonna ride around the pits. Maybe you are, maybe you're not, and then be aware of what is your personality, you know. Do you are you somebody that tends to be aggressive or adventurous to where you're gonna want a bike that responds in that manner? Yeah, or are you somebody that wants to tool around through the trails, and there's nothing wrong with that, exactly? Nothing, but if you're gonna just tool around on the trails and not be aggressive, then you need a bike that does that easily, or you're not gonna be happy.

SPEAKER_00 36:26

Yeah, so yeah, good advice, good advice, Debbie, for sure. So I appreciate that you took the time today to be on and and share your knowledge. And I encourage people to reach out, drivenfutures.com and check out your website. I know that if somebody sent you a question, you're more than happy to try to help anybody that's out there. And and thank you for all the years that you've put into this and and given to not just the motorsports and motorcycles, but to the women to get the women more noticed. I really appreciate that. You know, that's not easy to do. And and no, it wasn't. It wasn't. And I appreciate that you saw the need and and you went after it and said, I'm gonna do something about it. So thank you for that.

SPEAKER_01 37:19

You're very welcome. Yeah, I it's been quite a journey and and I love it.

SPEAKER_00 37:25

Yeah, you can tell because the smile has never left your face. So for those of you that are watching this on video, you can see that. But for those of you that are listening to the audio, Debbie's had a smile from the minute that we connected this morning. And when she talks about motorsports and motorcycles, it's never left her face. And so we can tell that you're passionate about it, and and it's gonna it's gonna stay with you for however long it, you know, that you're able to do it. So I appreciate that.

SPEAKER_01 37:59

Well, thank you very much for the opportunity to share my story and hopefully light a fire under some of the your listeners because absolutely that's it's great. It's a great sport.

Gratitude, Passion, And Farewell

SPEAKER_00 38:10

It is. Thank you, Debbie.

SPEAKER_01 38:12

You're very welcome.

Host Closing And CTA

SPEAKER_00 38:17

That's it for this episode of the Women's Motorsports Network podcast. We hope you've been inspired by the stories I shared today and feel more connected to the amazing community of women in motorsports. Remember, whether you're behind the wheel, in the pits, or cheering from the stands, your story matters. And together we're driving change and celebrating every milestone. If you enjoyed today's episode, be sure to subscribe, leave us a review, and share it with someone who loves motorsports as much as you do. And don't forget to follow us on Facebook and Instagram for updates, behind the scenes content, and more incredible stories. So until next time, stay inspired, stay connected, and keep racing through life. This is the Women's Motorsports Network podcast, where every woman's story is worth celebrating.