Tayla Relph secures first Top 6 finish in the World Championship

Donington Park in the United Kingdom set the scene for the second round of the FIM Women’s Circuit Racing World Championship over the weekend, bringing home plenty of reasons to smile for Australian rider, Tayla Relph.

The Warrnambool rider had high hopes heading into this weekend after a positive test day completed around two weeks ago. But, with the Championship so new, it’s always hard to know what the lap times will be heading into Free Practice 1.

Round 2 couldn’t have started much stronger for Tayla, finishing the first and only 25-minute Free Practice session in 3rd position, only 0.023 seconds off second position.

Free Practice brought about some tricky conditions with a damp and drying track. It was a 50/50 split between riders choosing wet or dry tyres, but with the wind speed picking up and the clouds moving fast, the TAYCO Motorsport team opted for the slicks, which was the correct tyre choice for the changing conditions.

“The correct tyre choice in Free Practice 1 was a key moment to starting our weekend strong. With not much time to set the bike up before Superpole, we needed to be able to push in Free Practice to get a confident base set-up heading into Superpole, and we were able to achieve this.” Relph said.

TAYCO Motorsport crew chief and team mechanic Ted Collins made some big jumps in the bike set-up throughout the weekend, thanks to outside assistance in Australia with Traction Control Motorsport.

One of the major changes heading into this weekend was the use of a lighter rear spring; a set-up the team wanted to try at Misano, but unfortunately wasn’t able to with limited track time. Ultimately, making the correct tyre choice in FP1 meant Tayla could get a strong and confident heading into Superpole.

“I went into Superpole really confident with the set-up choice on my Yamaha YZF-R7, and I knew that my time set in FP1 was still around 1.5 seconds slower than what I did in testing, so I knew we had more time to find in Superpole,” Relph said.

“I set my fastest time on the final lap of the 25-minute Superpole session on my own with no tow, to lap a 1:42:014 which was enough to secure me 6th place on the grid - safe to say, I was wrapped! 1.4 seconds off Pole Position, and 0.6 seconds shy of a front row start”

The Superpole result was a major confidence boost for Tayla, thinking back to only 4 weeks ago in Misano where we sat in 16th on the grid and 3.4 seconds off Pole Position; now, we were 6th on the grid and only 1.4 seconds off pole.

This was a major jump in results and confidence for not only Tayla, but the entire TAYCO Motorsport Team. Race 1 was shaping up to be a great one!

RACE 1 |  9th place |  6th Best Time: 1:41.405

Lining up on the second row of the grid for Race 1 was a great feeling for the team, but also daunting at the same time staring down the barrel of Turn 1 with clear track in front.

“I was more nervous than usual on the start line of Race 1 and I was replaying what happened at Misano again and again in my head,” Relph said.

“The jump off the line wasn’t the best for me, and although I only lost 1 position off the line, I lost the leading pack quite early on,

“I tried multiple passes against Pakita Ruiz #46 (Spain) on the opening lap, and it wasn’t until the 3rd attempt of a pass I made stick; once I passed Pakita, I put my head down and pushed hard, dropping my lap time into the 1:41s and felt really confident on the bike.”

Relph was setting a consistent pace and leading the charge of the second group, with three bikes of Ran Yochay #10 (Israel), Ornella Ongaro #28 (France), and Pakita Ruiz #46 (Spain) in hot pursuit.

“It was a great race overall and a really good fight for the Top 6, but unfortunately on the last lap I had a hard contact with one of the riders going into the chicane; luckily I didn’t crash and went through the run off strip and slotted back onto the track in P9.” Relph said.

Unknown to Relph’s knowledge at the time, the contact on the final lap resulted in a buckled front wheel as a result of hitting the swingarm of the other bike with force.

RACE 2 / 6th place | Best Time: 1:41.008

With a lot of research throughout Saturday night, data analysis and discussions with Traction Control Suspension; the team had a very different direction and plan heading into Race 2 to try and combat the issues Tayla was having in Race 1.

The lights went off and it was a much stronger start for the #8 machine, slotting her way into P5 into first corner and sticking with the leading pack of Spaniards on the first lap.

Heading into the weakest section of the track for Tayla, she was passed by Roberta Ponziani #96 (Italy) and Ornella Ongaro #28 (France) into Turn 10 on the first lap. We managed to tag onto the pack and set our fastest time of a 1:41.008 on Lap 2.

With the leading pack getting away from Relph, she had to put her head down and set a consistent race pace on her own, with Ran Yochay #10 (Israel) following close behind.

“It was a clean race for us, but it was mentally hard setting a pace while knowing Ran was close behind me but not making any moves. I was gutted to be passed on the final lap into the chicane, but I knew that was my weakest section of the track and I was simply happy to have finished in P6.” Relph said.

A smart way to finish out the weekend and a lot of confidence was boosted throughout the three-days of Donington Park.

With a 9-6 result, Tayla has jumped up 6 places on the World Championship standings and sits 9th in the WorldWCR standings.

The WorldWCR Championship next heads to Autódromo Internacional do Algarve, Portimão, on the 9th to 11th August.

All image credit: @worldwcr // @worldsbk

Article written by: Tayla Relph