When Jenny Tinmouth revs her engine on the grid of the British Superbike Championship on Easter weekend, it will be the culmination of a lifelong journey for the 36-year-old. Having spent her entire biking career as a privateer, the first woman to race in the championships was recently signed by Honda in a life‑changing deal.
Tinmouth, who worked alongside Tom Cruise as a stunt double for the actor Rebecca Ferguson in the forthcoming Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, holds several world records to her name as a pioneering female in motorsport but has often struggled to pay the bills to keep her bike on the track. Last season Tinmouth had to drop out of the championship, three rounds before the conclusion, because she ran out of money. It was not the first time she had dealt with such financial struggles – recalling her toughest year in 2005 when she could not even afford the fuel to race.
“I’ve spent all I’ve ever earned on motorbike racing,” says Tinmouth, who works from Monday to Friday as a mechanic. “I don’t earn a wage riding, unfortunately, but that still goes for most of the paddock.”
This lack of wages is nothing new to the racer who also still lives at home for financial reasons. “I’ve begged and borrowed everything to do this. For the first five years of racing I never had new tyres, I’d just get old tyres off the scrap pile. I bought my first set of leathers secondhand off a guy at college for 50 quid. Whatever money I had went on entry fees to races and my fuel. I just really wanted to do it even though I didn’t have enough money to do it properly.”
Her presence in the BSB the last three years is something of a miracle, with Tinmouth estimating that most teams spend anything from £500,000 to £2m per year. “I spent more like £30,000 – I probably had the smallest budget of all the teams on the grid.”
Tinmouth, who grew up watching Ayrton Senna and Damon Hill in Formula One, caught the bike bug when, at the age of six, her dad stuck her on a bike with him one bank holiday weekend and the pair “pottered” around a field. By 14 she was allowed to steer the bike herself, a ritual element of the family’s annual trip to a classic bike show. “I loved it, a bank holiday August weekend away, 500 classic bikes … I loved the atmosphere, the noise of the bikes, the smell and sitting on a bike in awe of the whole thing.”
At 17 she bought a 125cc bike to commute to college, and began competing, at the age of 20, in club races, eventually graduating to the British Championships in 2003. “I didn’t have the funds to run a bigger bike at that time, it took me a while to make that jump. I was chasing the dream of getting into Superbikes for years, then I had a really good 2010, getting the [fastest woman] record at the Isle of Man TT race and finishing third in the British Supersport club championship.”
Tinmouth reached the BSB the following year, but the step up brought increased financial pressure. The Honda deal, when it came, was a relief.
In a sport where – refreshingly – there are no rules on women competing against men, Tinmouth says she has never encountered sexism. “I get asked that a lot, but no, absolutely none. Motorcycling is really friendly, there’s a real camaraderie. I think we’re ahead of the time in that sense [compared with other sports].”
How do her male competitors react if she beats them? “It’s not a problem. I remember one race I had, the first time I had four points in the British championship, I finished 10th. This guy was right on my tail the entire race – he saw me hold on to my slide at one of the corners and I beat him. Afterwards he came over, shook my hand and said well done. I’ll never forget that. It’s something you always want, to gain the respect of your competitors.”
The Honda contract further serves to boost her reputation in a one-year deal that Tinmouth says was decided “on merit”. The new set-up will take some getting used to, however – she has worked alone up until now, but at Honda her garage will now include a manager, two mechanics, a crew chief and specialists for both brakes and suspension.
“It’s a very big operation. It takes a lot of burden off my shoulders so it’s really good because I can just think about riding, I don’t have to think about anything else.”
With a best-ever BSB finish of 15th the first woman to win a point in the championship hopes this new era will enable her to break into the top 10 and make an even bigger impact on her sport.
Watch the opening round of the MCE British Superbike Championship from Donington Park exclusively live on British Eurosport 2 HD, 5 & 6 April. Visit www.britishsuperbike.com
