'I'm proud of being a British Superbike Championship grid girl - don't ban us'
A motorcycle racing grid girl says critics have "got the wrong idea" about what she does and races are "family orientated".
Friday 2 February 2018 01:17, UK
Grid girls love what they do and wouldn't do it if they felt pressured into uncomfortable situations, Hannah James writes.
The 27-year-old has been a grid girl for motorcycle racing for nine years and is concerned the sport will be next to ban them after F1 announced it will no longer be employing grid girls for the 2018 season.
I've been working as a grid girl on and off for the past nine years, and not once have I felt pressured into doing anything I didn’t want to do.
I think after the Presidents Club episode, people have gone on a rampage and have got totally the wrong idea of what we do and who we are.
F1 has banned grid girls and I'm worried those of us who work in motorcycle racing will be next.
People are googling grid girls and pictures from 20 years ago are coming up, with scantily clad women in bikinis, which is inappropriate.
It really isn't like that anymore. It’s a lot classier now.
We want to encourage people to come to the races, which are really family orientated now.
Families with children come along so we want to be appropriate and make sure they have a good time.
We're a real community, all of us grid girls look out for each other, and so do the companies we work for – they'd be the first to step in if we felt uncomfortable.
On the grid there's security who look out for us but I’ve never felt uncomfortable.
Most of the drivers bring along their partners and children, and we're friends with them. Their partners are also on the grid helping the drivers out so would they be banned as well?
People are saying we're all working class girls who are being taken advantage of – that couldn’t be farther from the truth.
I'm a university student, there are lawyers, accountants, students, professionals from all walks of life, they just love doing something different.
Yes, looks are part of it, but you also have to be good with the public, you’re representing a brand, you have to be personable.
The pay is pretty good but that's not why I started, I love motorcycle racing and when I found out this was a way I could get paid to watch a sport I love, it was a no-brainer.
I started when I was 18 and I’m now 27, I’ve worked for the same team, JG Speedfit Kawasaki and have been on the start line for the Isle of Man TT for the past three years. I still love it.
There's a small group of people who are offended on behalf of us grid girls but there's not one girl who's been objectified that I know of, if we were we would complain, as would everyone around us.
I just don't want what's happened to the F1 grid girls to happen to us, or for every sport to ban girls promoting the sport.
It would be a massive shame and would not be for the right reasons.