Motorcycling’s perfect PR story, Shayna Texter, is all about racing

Then, KTM teammate Dan Bromley bike-checked her at a high rate of speed, temporarily knocking Texter off balance, and back to fifth.

“That definitely spiked my heart rate and adrenaline,” she said.

Then came a fine bit of motorcycle racing. Texter pulled it together, positioned herself to draft the leaders and at exactly the right moment — yards from the finish — surged to take the win by 0.06 seconds.

“Timing is everything,” she said of determining when to pull out of the draft. “At the end of that race I wanted to know I put everything and tried everything to rebound.”

That tenacity and execution is representative of the determination Texter brings to her sport of flat-track racing, where competitors reach speeds of over 140 mph in bar-to-bar battles around oval dirt tracks. She has the potential to become motorcycling’s perfect marketing story. But the 30-year-old aspires more toward accomplishments than notoriety for being a female in a male-dominated sport.

“I want to win races, I want to win championships, and I ultimately want… to end up in the Motorcycle Hall of Fame. And in order to do that, you have to do something spectacular. And that’s not just being a woman in the sport,” she said.

Those are ambitious goals, yes, but Texter’s track record lends credibility toward her reaching them. She’s currently the winningest rider in the history of the AFT singles class, making the top of the podium 17 times. Texter is also the only female competing in AFT and already the most successful in the sport’s history.

A championship title has still eluded her, however. She finished third in overall points in 2017 and 2018. And despite Texter’s stellar Sacramento Mile win and two other victories, inconsistent results this year left her seventh in the final standings, far behind the 2019 AFT Singles champion, Husqvarna rider Dalton Gauthier.

“The ultimate goal was the championship, and we fell a little short, but I had three wins this year… with a brand new team,” she said. Texter switched from Husqvarna to KTM for the 2019 season, racing a modified KTM 450 SX-F.

Inheriting a passion for racing

Her passion for horsepower-driven competition derives from growing up in a racing family in Pennsylvania.

As a recent Red Bull documentary highlighted, Shayna was inspired to pursue professional motorsports by her late father Randy Texter, a professional flat-track racer, and grandfather Glenn Fitzcharles, a sprint car hall-of-famer.

“I started riding bikes when I was three years old… on a Suzuki JR50,” she told me. But given the reality of growing up in a racing family, Texter actually started with a ball sport — soccer — before being able to compete on two wheels herself.

“Most kids actually get started racing flat-track at four years old, but because of my dad racing himself, I didn’t get started racing full-time on dirt until 2000,” she explained.

Shayna Texter didn’t have a meteoric rise straight to the top. She describes her early years with many of the characteristic ups and downs one hears from those who make a go at professional motorsports. That included scraping by, bumming rides to races, plenty of self-doubt, and thoughts of hanging up her racing helmet.

As her grandfather put it, “It wasn’t about fun anymore. It was tough, every time she went out, to get the shit kicked out of her.”

“Win or quit. That was the point she was at.”

Texter didn't quit and started racking up victories consistently in 2011.

To prep for the rough-and-tumble nature of her sport, she follows a training regimen of weights, cardio, and riding. Texter also trains motocross off the oval.

The day after I interviewed Texter, the danger element of her chosen profession became absolutely apparent. She was involved in a crash at New Jersey’s Meadowlands that threw her over her bars and left 20-year-old Oliver Brindley seriously injured.

“It’s something you can’t think about,” Texter said. “We’ve trained for this moment. You have to focus on the ultimate goal, which is winning races. The minute you start thinking about the risk, that tells you it’s time to step away.”

Texter is particularly focused on winning races, even while others see another kind of potential for her.

Ambassador for a sport that needs one

With the motorcycle industry in general focused on trying to attract new, young customers and continue the momentum of growth among women riders, the uniqueness of Texter's profile and her potential to become an ambassador for motorcycling to new demographics is undeniable. She is out front in redefining perceptions in a previously (almost) all-boys club.

This was evident when I met her last September at the American Flat Track awards in New York City. Walking into the event, the racers fit expectations: chiseled young men who looked the part of competitors who cheat death and injury in motorcycle racing from week to week. At a dash over five feet tall and wearing a cocktail dress, Texter could have easily been mistaken — by some of the non-motorsports media attending — for someone’s date, instead of the tough competitor who goes grip-to-grip with the guys in the room, and often beats them.

Her profile creates quite a story hook, which is likely why Texter has been one of the few AFT athletes to gain coverage in mainstream media. When asked if she wants to leverage her pioneering status as a woman to grow AFT and motorcycling overall, Texter makes it clear she’s all about results and racing.

“It’s great to be an ambassador of the sport… but I want to be a serious competitor,” she said. “At the end of the day, when I walk away from my sport, I want to be remembered as Shayna Texter, a motorcycle racer, not as Shayna Texter a female.”