Women involved in #WorldWCR in their own words! Sarah Byles.
I grew up in motorsport in New Zealand. My father rallied in the 1980s and when I started showing an interest, he taught me to drive starting with clubsport at 13 years old. I got my national rally licence at 15, competing as both driver and co-driver as a teenager. Ultimately though, instead of going the competitive route, I decided I wanted to work in the industry.
I studied journalism at university and tried to gain experience in the industry right from year one. I knew experience would be key if I wanted to make it a full-time job. I was lucky to connect with people doing Rally New Zealand and work the 2007 event, which basically gave me the kick to continue.
The ‘have a go’ that paid off
After graduating, I worked on national motorsport accounts for a PR company in Wellington. Then, after a brief hiatus in Australia, I moved to the UK without ever having been there! I wanted to try and work in world level motorsport and with New Zealand being a Commonwealth country, I was able to get a two-year working visa in the UK. I arrived and tried to use the connections I’d made working on international events back home.
New Zealand has a ‘have a go’ culture, and an overseas experience is very much part of this for us Kiwis, so, I figured I’d try and if it didn’t work out, I’d just go home. I think it’s important to try, and when you’re younger, you perhaps don’t think too much about what might go wrong!
I was lucky and managed to find an agency-based role, working on international accounts in World Rally, F1, Endurance and Formula E. There was always the visa challenge – living in the UK wasn’t a given and I had to reapply for visas every 2 or 3 years, not knowing whether they were going to go through. It took me maybe 9 years to become a citizen.
When I came to WorldSBK, I didn't know much about it past Jonathan Rea’s profile in the UK. I always had this idea that I wanted to work in bikes at some point, but I didn't grow up with it, I grew up watching rallying.
A growth mindset
When I started in my current role in 2018, I was essentially looking after sponsors and managing social media. I've grown the team Instagram account from 2000 followers to nearly 100,000 followers, which is a nice achievement. And the team has grown too. Of course, Toprak Razgatlioglu won the championship with us in 2021, we have Andrea Locatelli in his sixth year, and Xavi Vierge with us too, while Beatriz Neila is joined by Chloe Jones on the WorldWCR team. Working with different riders keeps things interesting.
I’ve also taken on additional responsibilities over the years. When I was studying, I knew I’d need to be able to be adaptable to work in motorsport. With my journalism degree, I took papers in design, photography, video… And now part of my role is ensuring all the layouts for the pit box, truck, clothing, riders’ leathers are coherent. I cover such a wide range of tasks that I use every single skill I've learned over the last 17 years.
I don't want to be in the spotlight but really enjoy supporting the team and helping to make things easier. It’s funny because I don't see myself as being super organised, but people say that I am and I know that as long as I'm more organised than our Team Principal Paul Denning and the riders, then it’s all good!
Pressure, pride and perspective…
My proudest moment to date was being part of the championship winning team in 2021. I don't think I slept very well that whole last week in Indonesia. I remember Dorna asking in Argentina what we had planned in case of victory, but I’d never done it before! I had to make sure it all came together, that the gold leathers had the sponsors, that the T-shirt had all the team members' names on the back. Paul had me take Toprak for a burger on the Thursday evening before we won the championship just to make sure he had a good meal that suited him which was a nice memory. After winning, the expectations were of course higher in terms of performance and competition, but working with Toprak continued in much the same way. You still do the same things in looking after the rider whether they've won one championship or six like Jonathan, and it is always nice to have riders that also appreciate the work you put in to support them.
Pushing the envelope…
Racing has fixed deadlines, which means adaptability is key. We race on Saturday, and you can't not be ready. I enjoy problem solving,, being able to come up with something that either fixes an issue or makes things even better. You're always trying to push the envelope with everything you do, looking at what other teams are doing, how they communicate or manage their guest experience and saying, okay, how can we put our own spin on that. What can we, the Official Yamaha team, offer our guests that they're not going to get anywhere else.
With sponsorship too, it can’t be a one-way street - you need to make sure it works for the partner too. We do a lot of work not only on the activation side, in terms of content or people coming to events, but with B2B connections too, because if a sponsor can find a new client or collaborate with another sponsor, and we’re the ones who have made that introduction as a race team, then they see the value in being part of the team, a tangible benefit to what they’re doing. And that’s the way Paul’s always tried to run the team. At the end of the day, we can only go racing with the support of our partners.
Women supporting women
WorldWCR is a little different as a championship, but the riders work just as hard as the SBK riders. Those last lap battles are incredible, as is the race craft, especially among the frontrunners. Already in her first year, Beatriz was strong but to see her growth and how hard she worked to take the 2025 title fight all the way to the final round was amazing. The championship deserves bigger audiences, because the racing is fantastic.
The women riders only have a small circle of people, just their family, crew chief and mechanic really, so I am in some ways more directly involved than I am with the SBK riders and that’s a really rewarding part of the job. I make sure I’m there for Beatriz if it's been a tough race and she appreciates that.
Coming from rallying, I never thought I’d enjoy circuit racing as much as I do. Motorbike racing is so exciting, I mean, you won’t see three drivers heading into the same corner together in Formula 1, so close you can literally see the calculations! And there's no better platform for that than a one make series as Yamaha has helped establish with the WorldWCR.
Another reason I've stayed in this paddock so long is that it’s very open. You’re competitors on track but can socialise and speak to different teams if you have a problem; people are happy to support each other. There’s an amazing group of women working all kinds of roles in WorldSBK and seeing that there are no barriers is inspiring and makes me feel proud to be part of this sport.