Latest / BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show / From Dirt Tracks to Digital Dreams: Stefy Bau’s Journey from Motocross to Esports Innovation

Transcript

From Dirt Tracks to Digital Dreams: Stefy Bau’s Journey from Motocross to Esports Innovation · BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show

• 0:00
  Break fix podcast is all about capturing the living history of people from
• 0:04
  all over the auto sphere, from wrench turners and racers to artists, authors,
• 0:09
  designers, and everything in between.
• 0:11
  Our goal is to inspire a new generation of petrol heads that wonder.
• 0:16
  How did they get that job or become that person?
• 0:19
  The road to success is paved by all of us because everyone has a story.
• 0:27
  Brace yourself, race fans for a mind blowing SIM racing event, an adrenaline
• 0:32
  pumping motorcycle online tournament.
• 0:35
  Our guest tonight is part of an unstoppable e sports powerhouse
• 0:39
  dedicated to delivering unparalleled excitement to fans and groundbreaking
• 0:44
  sponsorship opportunities to brands alike.
• 0:46
  At Innit Esports, founder and CEO Steffi Bao doesn't just settle for the org.
• 0:51
  She creates extraordinary experiences by producing thrilling online competitions
• 0:55
  and real life events that transcend the boundaries of the e sports universe.
• 0:58
  And she's here with us.
• 1:00
  On BreakFix to share her story and help you understand why you need to get
• 1:04
  more involved in the world of esports.
• 1:06
  And with that, let's welcome Steffi to BreakFix.
• 1:09
  Hi everyone.
• 1:10
  It's a pleasure to be here.
• 1:12
  And joining me tonight is my co host and returning BreakFix guest,
• 1:16
  founder of K53, He's part of TORC Atlanta and an e sports aficionado.
• 1:21
  Let's welcome back Trevor Marks.
• 1:23
  Hello.
• 1:23
  Hello.
• 1:24
  Welcome to be here.
• 1:25
  Well, Steffi, like all good break fix stories, there's a
• 1:28
  super heroine origin story.
• 1:29
  So let's jump into your motorsports history before we deep dive into in
• 1:34
  e sports and your Sim4STEM program.
• 1:36
  Tell us about your motorsports journey.
• 1:38
  How did you get mixed up in all this?
• 1:39
  Did you come through a racing family or did you start out as a fan?
• 1:44
  So my story goes like this.
• 1:45
  So you're probably starting to hear that I have an accent.
• 1:48
  So I am from Italy.
• 1:50
  I was a little girl with the passion of motorcycle racing.
• 1:54
  Why?
• 1:54
  Because my mom and dad, they used to be a fan of the sport.
• 1:57
  So they used to go and watch the world championship round every
• 2:01
  time I was coming to Italy.
• 2:02
  So basically I was born going to the track every time there was a big
• 2:06
  world championship race happening.
• 2:08
  At the age of four, my dad ended up buying a motorcycle and he was going
• 2:13
  just, uh, riding in like an enduro in the trails, you know, just from
• 2:18
  the house, go and do trail riding.
• 2:20
  And every time he was coming back, you know, like from his rides, he was
• 2:24
  super happy, biggest smiles on his face, dirty, full of mud and whatever.
• 2:28
  And I start saying.
• 2:29
  Hey, I want to do that too.
• 2:31
  So ask mom and dad, I want a motorcycle.
• 2:33
  And surely enough, instead of buying me a motorcycle that was like a toy,
• 2:38
  like a battery or whatever, they ended up buying me a real motorcycle.
• 2:42
  It was a mini bike.
• 2:43
  So it was like a full on dirt bike from an Italian company called Italjet.
• 2:47
  And yes, you know, like a very, very small, similar to
• 2:51
  what big bikes are nowadays.
• 2:53
  Maybe even like more like the Pee Wee from Yamaha.
• 2:55
  You know, the PeeWee 50.
• 2:56
  So a 50cc bike with all the gear and everything.
• 3:00
  And they put me on it, you know, there was a cornfield in front of the house.
• 3:04
  They told me like, right hand is the throttle, left hand is the brake.
• 3:08
  And here I go.
• 3:09
  So for a couple of years, I started practicing around in
• 3:12
  the field doing figure eights.
• 3:14
  Everybody that knows dirt bike or motorcycle understand
• 3:17
  what figure eights are.
• 3:18
  You know, like you continue to do it over and over to learning about cornering.
• 3:23
  When I was six years old, what happened was that my dad in one of his trip that
• 3:26
  he was out and about riding, he figured out that there was a small track with
• 3:31
  other kids who were participating.
• 3:33
  He shoots back home and says to me, get dressed, get ready.
• 3:36
  We're going to go there because there are other kids that they
• 3:38
  are racing motorcycle like you do.
• 3:40
  Up to them point again, my mom and dad, they were just fan of the sport.
• 3:43
  So they thought the motocross was only for adult.
• 3:46
  So they were completely like, Oh my God, this also racing for kids.
• 3:50
  So it was a revelation.
• 3:52
  We went to do this little track.
• 3:53
  I was following my dad in the trails, you know, me with my little motorcycle,
• 3:57
  him with his arrive at the track.
• 3:59
  And then he said, Hey, go in.
• 4:01
  This is the direction I found.
• 4:03
  In about one hour time, I was beating all the little boys in the track.
• 4:07
  So the family there looked at my dad and say, Hey, where are you guys coming from?
• 4:13
  And my dad said, well, we live like six kilometers down the road.
• 4:17
  We just came up, you know, like experience this.
• 4:19
  So we basically learned that the war racing for little kids.
• 4:23
  We did a proper, you know, licensing or whatever in Italy to be able to do that.
• 4:27
  Go to my first race, the first race in my life.
• 4:30
  I finished third among little boys.
• 4:32
  After that, that year I won every races I entered.
• 4:36
  So.
• 4:37
  You know, I was completely like, yeah, I like this.
• 4:40
  I wanted to continue racing and that's how I got involved with
• 4:43
  them motorsport as a whole.
• 4:44
  And so for our listeners, just to give them a reference point, you grew
• 4:48
  up in the Lago di Como area in the northern part of Italy, you know,
• 4:51
  bordering France and Switzerland.
• 4:54
  That's not a super dense area.
• 4:55
  populated area like Milano or Parma or Moldena or Bologna, where you would expect
• 5:01
  to see more motorsport where Lamborghini is, where all the racetracks are.
• 5:04
  So what was it like racing up in the North of Italy or in South of
• 5:08
  France and South of Switzerland?
• 5:09
  Of course, immediately we ended up just doing a local racing
• 5:13
  around the area at that time, you know, what's called mini crosses.
• 5:17
  So for mini bike.
• 5:18
  It was a very popular, you know, like the region of Lombardia, which is
• 5:22
  where Lake Como, Milan and all the other province are, was very popular.
• 5:26
  Had a lot of kids doing this as a sport.
• 5:28
  So, you know, we learn, you know, starting to do local and then regional events and
• 5:33
  then eventually the Italian championship.
• 5:35
  And then from there, I went over to the European championship and I came
• 5:39
  to America and continue my career.
• 5:41
  So are you still racing bikes today or how long did you race bikes for?
• 5:45
  So I race bikes until I was 28 years old when I had a career ending injury.
• 5:51
  It's okay because it happens, you know, motor sport is not easy on you.
• 5:55
  And sometimes you're lucky.
• 5:57
  You only have a few injury and you can still be okay.
• 6:00
  Sometimes it becomes difficult.
• 6:01
  In my case, unfortunately, I came up short on a big double jump.
• 6:06
  Yes.
• 6:06
  Both of my ankle exploded and they wanted to amputate my legs.
• 6:10
  So.
• 6:10
  I have my legs, I can walk, but I don't race anymore.
• 6:14
  I don't own a motorcycle because I know that my brain would be like, wanted
• 6:18
  to twist that throttle like I used to.
• 6:20
  So I purposely don't own it.
• 6:22
  But every once in a while, if there is an occasion, yes, I'll just hop on
• 6:26
  and do a couple laps here and there.
• 6:28
  So did you own street bikes as well?
• 6:30
  No, actually, especially when I came in the United States, I had
• 6:33
  my first contract with Kawasaki and my second contract with Honda.
• 6:37
  In my contract, it said that I was not allowed to ride on the street
• 6:41
  because this being like an investment for the brand to have me racing for
• 6:47
  them and represent them in the various championships around the world.
• 6:50
  It became kind of like, Hey, in the street, you know, it's not
• 6:53
  so much about me and my skill.
• 6:54
  They of course proven over and over again that there is no issue there,
• 6:57
  but it's more like about the cars.
• 6:59
  They don't see you.
• 7:00
  So now never been a fan of going on the street, but I did race road
• 7:05
  racing when I was back in Italy.
• 7:07
  So I ended up racing in Misano, Mugello, Monza.
• 7:11
  Imola and all of those, you know, back in the days.
• 7:13
  And I decided to do it.
• 7:14
  I was about 17 years old when I doubled down and did the motocross and road
• 7:19
  racing that year, just because, you know, like I wanted to try something
• 7:23
  different than the dirt and I can tell you though, my best performance
• 7:27
  in on road racing was when was wet.
• 7:30
  Because at that point, the bikes were like shaking all around.
• 7:33
  So it was more of my familiar territory.
• 7:35
  You know, they're going just on a straight line and hitting the marks.
• 7:38
  You opened a great opportunity for an additional Pit Stop question.
• 7:42
  You mentioned you were sponsored by Kawasaki and by Honda.
• 7:45
  So if money was no object, what kind of bike would you buy?
• 7:48
  For me?
• 7:49
  Like, since I was a very little girl, you know, and looking at
• 7:53
  America's Supercross, the teams that they were winning was the Honda.
• 7:57
  It kind of is still embedded in me that Honda is the choice, but I think
• 8:01
  it is because it comes from when I was little, you know, and when.
• 8:05
  I had this dream that I looked at my mom and dad in the eyes and
• 8:08
  say, one day I will race Supercross in the United States of America.
• 8:12
  This, I was six years old.
• 8:13
  So you can imagine, you know, like the look in the face of my parents
• 8:17
  are like, yes, kiddo, go out and play.
• 8:19
  Right.
• 8:19
  But I ended up doing it.
• 8:20
  And like one thing that is very rewarding that comes back full
• 8:24
  circle is the fact that, that those guys that were on my wall.
• 8:28
  When I was a little girl, I got to be part of this industry and
• 8:32
  I have their cell phone number.
• 8:33
  They respect me, you know, and a little girl coming from a small
• 8:37
  town in Italy, near Lake Como, had a dream and just went for it.
• 8:41
  I expect her to say Ducati.
• 8:43
  Yeah.
• 8:44
  A lot was to get the Primota, but.
• 8:46
  You know, or an Aprilia or something.
• 8:47
  Right.
• 8:48
  No, it's because it's motocross, you know, like Ducati just made the motocross bike.
• 8:54
  My heart has always been more into dirt bike, but I have to say when I raced
• 8:59
  that year in the road racing circle in Italy, I was on board of an Aprilia.
• 9:03
  So here you have it.
• 9:06
  So, as a comparison, did you ever turn laps in a car on a road racing circuit
• 9:10
  so you could have an idea what it was like to race the bike and race a car?
• 9:13
  So, what happened to me was this.
• 9:15
  When I was in the United States, you know, and I started to be kind of like
• 9:18
  on top of my game here, I was lucky enough to be invited to participate
• 9:22
  in a, uh, TV show made by USA channel.
• 9:26
  So those was the early 2000.
• 9:28
  So this show was supposed to be, the idea around it was to pick different
• 9:33
  female sport of extreme sports and make them do another extreme sports.
• 9:38
  So I did two episodes of them.
• 9:40
  One was skydiving.
• 9:41
  And I loved it, you know, like first the jump, a tandem, second jump
• 9:44
  solo, crazy, you know, but it seems for athlete, of course, I go for it.
• 9:48
  But the second one was I drove an IndyCar with that, you know, back
• 9:52
  in Las Vegas, there was actually, I just learned this not too long ago,
• 9:56
  that Derek Daly was the guy that had this in Las Vegas back in the days.
• 10:01
  It's funny that everything comes full circle as we know in the industry,
• 10:04
  because now I work with his niece, Nikki Daly in one of our program.
• 10:08
  So it's funny, like how everything works.
• 10:10
  But yes.
• 10:11
  So I drove in the car and by doing the circuit, yes, road racing and
• 10:15
  car racing at the end, you know, the racing line is still the same.
• 10:18
  It's just that when one of you are sitting, the other one, you just
• 10:22
  have a lot of wind against you.
• 10:24
  Well, you had my attention at Mugello.
• 10:27
  It is a favorite based there in the Florence area for those
• 10:30
  that don't know where it is.
• 10:31
  Then you mentioned Imola.
• 10:32
  So I have a question and I know it's, It's probably the most
• 10:34
  infamous turn in all of racing.
• 10:36
  What's Tamburello like on a motorcycle?
• 10:39
  Everything on a motorcycle is definitely much more dangerous
• 10:42
  feeling than in the car.
• 10:43
  You know, no matter how you want to present it, you
• 10:46
  have nothing to protect you.
• 10:48
  So if you crash it, it's going to hurt, you know?
• 10:50
  It is just like racing in general, it is just amazing.
• 10:53
  I grew up doing that.
• 10:54
  So like any track anywhere, if I get an opportunity, I was
• 10:58
  always like, yep, let's do this.
• 11:00
  So Tamburello or the Monza wall or whatever, you know,
• 11:04
  like let's go and let's do it.
• 11:06
  So this comes up a lot on the four wheeled side of the house.
• 11:09
  Who is the GOAT?
• 11:10
  Who is the greatest of all time?
• 11:12
  And we immediately go to Formula One and it becomes this Senna versus Schumacher
• 11:16
  and Hamilton and Verstappen discussion and it just all kind of spirals.
• 11:20
  But when you turn your focus to motorcycles, and there's one name
• 11:25
  that comes to mind, and I want to see if you agree or not, is it Rossi?
• 11:28
  Well, yes, yes.
• 11:30
  So for road racing is Rossi.
• 11:31
  I think he won 10 world title, nine or 10 world title, but it really
• 11:35
  changed the interaction with the sport.
• 11:38
  So it was really like an actor, you know, in a way.
• 11:42
  So by doing that.
• 11:43
  All the young kids wanted to be right now, influencer.
• 11:46
  He was the original influencer by acting in the way they act.
• 11:49
  And, you know, like, I mean, it comes from a family that is like that too.
• 11:53
  Cause I don't know if you guys know, but his dad used to go around with
• 11:56
  a paddock with a chicken on a leash.
• 11:58
  So like, that's his dad.
• 12:01
  Yeah.
• 12:02
  So it runs in the family.
• 12:06
  It's kind of like a disenvironment, but like a definitely
• 12:09
  Valentino was able to do.
• 12:11
  For the sport.
• 12:12
  And I think Mark Marquez was destined to follow, but then, you know, like
• 12:16
  with a lot of injuries, you know, he's still like an amazing, talented
• 12:21
  guy, but of course the injury kind of like put a little bit of a wrench into
• 12:25
  his, uh, blame Honda for all of that.
• 12:27
  But we don't have to, well, you know, like it's doing good with Ducati right
• 12:31
  now, but if we are talking about.
• 12:34
  Door bike, you have different category because you have the American
• 12:37
  reality and then you have the world championship that goes everywhere.
• 12:41
  Sometimes it comes to America, but you know, it's like that.
• 12:45
  So for the world championship, you have generational talent.
• 12:48
  It used to be like when I was younger, Stefan Evers was amazing.
• 12:52
  He won 10 world title.
• 12:54
  Then of course, Antonio Cairoli.
• 12:56
  Amazing.
• 12:57
  He won nine world titles, the next generation.
• 13:00
  And now, you know, in supercross and motocross, you add the Jeremy McGrath,
• 13:04
  the king of supercross, you know, like Ricky Carmichael, Bubba Stewart,
• 13:08
  Bubba Stewart, man, and motocross.
• 13:11
  And now, you know, Jack Lawrence, you know, Jack Lawrence, a 20 years old kid.
• 13:15
  There's seven years that does not lose a championship.
• 13:19
  So, you know, his goal is to have more wind that Jeremy McGrath and
• 13:23
  he has the potential to do that.
• 13:24
  So, you know, there are those generational talent to the change of
• 13:27
  the sport and it's just amazing to see.
• 13:30
  So the way you describe that lets me draw a parallel between
• 13:34
  Supercross, Motocross and WRC.
• 13:36
  Cause if you think about the dynasties that exist at WRC,
• 13:40
  they're very, very similar.
• 13:41
  They's a very.
• 13:42
  Similar concept, this generational talent that they change the sport.
• 13:47
  It's just amazing to witness.
• 13:48
  I believe that if you are arriving second, you don't like that much,
• 13:53
  but it is needed to change the sport.
• 13:55
  I like to think, and I've been told that I'm one of those for the women,
• 13:58
  you know, I've been called the goat.
• 14:00
  You know, like you're the Michel Mouton.
• 14:02
  Yes, yes, but then, you know, now there are other girls, you
• 14:07
  know, like there is a motocross.
• 14:10
  this young lady from the Netherlands.
• 14:11
  Her name is Lotte van Droenen.
• 14:13
  She's amazing.
• 14:14
  But why she's the first year that she's doing the full on women's championship.
• 14:19
  Leading the championship.
• 14:20
  But why?
• 14:21
  Because she race with the boys.
• 14:23
  Cause she raised her whole career with the boys, same
• 14:26
  equipment in there with the boys.
• 14:28
  So now, you know, like competing with the girls, she is a little
• 14:31
  bit of a step up compared to them.
• 14:33
  I mean, amazing girl and amazing talent, but you can see the difference,
• 14:38
  which is what we need to accomplish by continuing having the women's series.
• 14:42
  And then get the women to compete with the boys.
• 14:44
  And then you see.
• 14:45
  That pathway to participation, you raced for over 20 years professionally.
• 14:51
  And so how did that lead to the world of e sports?
• 14:55
  What happened in between and guide us into the inception of what you're doing now?
• 14:59
  Yes.
• 14:59
  So of course, you know, like I've been one of the few women that's.
• 15:03
  was able to break the glass ceiling in motorcycle racing and therefore
• 15:06
  open opportunity for more other girls.
• 15:09
  I always have that desire to figure it out ways, how we can have motorsport
• 15:13
  two or four wheel as opportunity to bring more female into the industry.
• 15:17
  That doesn't necessarily mean as.
• 15:19
  athlete per se, but it could be also part of the industry as a whole.
• 15:23
  So I was in Italy in 2020 before the world change up to that point, that my
• 15:29
  journey into e sport was only in the fact that I was featured in two video games.
• 15:35
  As a character, when I used to be a racer.
• 15:38
  So after that point, that was my involvement with the industry,
• 15:41
  but I was in Italy and my niece at the time, I noticed that she
• 15:45
  was watching people playing video games for two, three hours a day.
• 15:49
  So that got me going and I'm like, wait a second, maybe, you
• 15:53
  know, like a sim racing could be a potential way to create a pathway to
• 15:57
  participation for women in motorsport.
• 16:00
  We all knew like at that point.
• 16:02
  Pandemic happened, all sports closed down.
• 16:05
  So Formula One was king, utilizing sim racing as an opportunity to continue
• 16:10
  to have fun, you know, like engage with the audience and so on and so forth.
• 16:14
  So it just happened at the right time.
• 16:15
  So I study a lot, I learn a ton.
• 16:17
  And then I quickly discovered that there was no one putting effort for women.
• 16:22
  So at that point, I created a ity sport with a goal of my two passion.
• 16:26
  One pillar is motorcycle sport racing, and the other pillar is sea racing.
• 16:31
  Focusing on women.
• 16:33
  eSports in general is huge, and it can be subdivided as Trevor and I
• 16:36
  have talked about many times before.
• 16:38
  You know, are you first person shooters?
• 16:39
  Is it I racing?
• 16:41
  Is it this?
• 16:41
  Is it that?
• 16:42
  But I feel like motorcycles don't get as much representation in the sim world.
• 16:47
  I can only think of a couple of titles in my head and let's put the arcade
• 16:50
  ones like road rash and those things to the side, you know, there's ride
• 16:54
  and there's some other titles out there, but there's not that many.
• 16:56
  So you've managed to create an entire e sports series around.
• 17:01
  Motorcycles and motocross.
• 17:02
  So how does that work?
• 17:04
  So again, I study a lot and I figured out what was on the
• 17:08
  market in regards to games.
• 17:09
  And just like you touch point there, there are the arcade games, but there are a
• 17:13
  couple of games in the market right now.
• 17:15
  They are pure simulator game.
• 17:16
  So those games are exactly the same.
• 17:19
  How iRacing or Assetto Corsa Competizione work.
• 17:22
  Meaning like they are meant to have the same physics of a real motorcycle and
• 17:27
  therefore they target gamers that they have a knowledge of what racing is about.
• 17:33
  With that in mind, I started to create the partnership with a
• 17:36
  publisher of those kind of games.
• 17:38
  And then because I come from the motor sport industry as a whole, for me, it was
• 17:43
  just like a few phone calls and try to say to different Federation, And to big
• 17:48
  trade show in the motorcycle industry.
• 17:50
  Hey, there is an opportunity here to bring the young demographic into
• 17:54
  the industry by leveraging gaming.
• 17:56
  So with that, we ended up creating the first ever Ecma eSport event.
• 18:01
  Ecma for the people that they don't know.
• 18:03
  It's the number one trade show for motorcycle in the war in 2024 is the 110th
• 18:09
  year that this show is going on in Italy.
• 18:12
  And there are brands from all over the world that go there.
• 18:15
  Mostly, you know, to show product to everybody, talk about the
• 18:18
  motorcycle coming out for the new year and so on and so forth.
• 18:21
  So just like motorsport in four wheel, two wheel racing needs more kids.
• 18:26
  So when we talk to them in regards to the opportunity, Hey,
• 18:30
  we can bring a new demographic here, it was just a no brainer.
• 18:33
  So in four days that we did the event there, we got 4, 000.
• 18:37
  Thousand people through our event and we ended up having those two competition.
• 18:43
  One, there was a four gaming specifically.
• 18:45
  So we basically open up a sign up online to compete.
• 18:49
  We got 10, 000 people to download the game to compete in this
• 18:53
  championship where the top 40 were competing for four races in a row.
• 18:59
  And then the top 10 in that championship, we brought them to the event in
• 19:03
  EICMA in Milan for the grand finale.
• 19:05
  And these are the gods of this game, you know, like, because if you see them
• 19:10
  playing, they're like, how it can even be possible, you know, but we know that it
• 19:14
  works like that in real racing too, right?
• 19:16
  You know, like in Vestappen or Hamilton.
• 19:19
  People will say, how is it even possible, you know?
• 19:21
  So it works the same way, but they did this and it was incredibly successful.
• 19:25
  But then we came up with another event there, we call the VIP event, where we
• 19:30
  were able to have the top three of the finale of the motocross game on MXY
• 19:35
  to race the very next day on simulator with a pickup truck, with Danny Pedrosa,
• 19:42
  Antonio Cairoli, David Bulliga, and all of this kind of like a legend.
• 19:48
  Of the motorcycle two wheels world.
• 19:50
  And it was like magic in the works because whereas we got Danny Pedrosa
• 19:54
  to win the race on the pickup truck, one of the gamer got third overall.
• 19:59
  So it was super good to see, you know, like that now stellar people,
• 20:04
  they have had success, you know, in their industry as a racer, they were
• 20:08
  right there competing, you know, with kids that they may otherwise
• 20:12
  would never even have a chance to even meet them, let alone, you know,
• 20:15
  compete against them on a video game.
• 20:17
  Right.
• 20:18
  What's your sim of choice?
• 20:19
  What do you like to drive on?
• 20:20
  I don't drive on the sim.
• 20:21
  I'm too busy running a company, you know, and try to, to change the world.
• 20:27
  I've seen you in the sim.
• 20:29
  I've seen you in the sim a couple of times.
• 20:31
  This might sound funny, but I'm mostly in the sim to discover if a potential
• 20:36
  game can be part of the movement.
• 20:39
  So I tried the game as a, See it, you know, like, and then we
• 20:42
  can discuss it about creating possible partnership or whatnot.
• 20:46
  Now, I really like it for me, you know, me travel.
• 20:48
  I work with everybody because I do believe that every company
• 20:51
  out there has the same mission.
• 20:53
  The industry is big enough that we don't do one specific seam only.
• 20:58
  So we like to give opportunities to everybody.
• 21:00
  And you know, sometimes there's one.
• 21:03
  Cockpit, sometimes it's a different cockpit, you know, like, and I think
• 21:06
  also that helps, you know, like bring back feedback to the same companies
• 21:11
  to learn if there is updates that can be made to kind of target a
• 21:15
  little bit more the female audience.
• 21:17
  You know, so it's important for us to be able to use different opportunity
• 21:21
  to kind of help the industry grow.
• 21:22
  We know about How important simulator and what equipment
• 21:26
  that we use for car simulation.
• 21:28
  What is that look like for motorcycles?
• 21:30
  Is it controllers?
• 21:31
  Are there other simulator rigs?
• 21:33
  I mean, I know things have progressed a lot since your career.
• 21:35
  What does that look like now for someone that's competing at the highest level?
• 21:38
  As of right now, everybody still compete on controllers.
• 21:42
  You know, we PCs, but you know, like, because I'm very much involved in
• 21:47
  this, I'm talking with lots of supplier to figure it out ways to create
• 21:51
  something that will give the feeling of a simulator, because for anybody
• 21:55
  that ever rode a motorcycle, you will know, you know, there is very easy.
• 21:59
  Okay.
• 21:59
  Difficult to be able to reproduce like the G force of a corner or
• 22:04
  even the sensation of doing a triple jump in Supercross, right?
• 22:07
  But we are getting there mostly in a way that at least how my company
• 22:12
  is looking into this and provides a suggestion to hardware company is to
• 22:17
  make it in a way that it is affordable.
• 22:19
  Because again, you know, the key is there.
• 22:21
  There is some opportunity out there, but they are 100, 000 and a kid
• 22:26
  that cannot spend 100, 000 to have a simulator in their bedroom, right?
• 22:30
  You know, those are more like for training purposes, much more
• 22:34
  similar to what you will see, like a Dallara for the real car simulator.
• 22:39
  So they are meant with that concept in mind.
• 22:41
  But like, if we wanted to bring more kids toward the sport, again, that
• 22:45
  being two or four wheels, you need to do it in the way that it's accessible.
• 22:49
  So we are working on it.
• 22:50
  So there is going to be something happening by the end of the year.
• 22:53
  So just stay tuned.
• 22:55
  That's great.
• 22:56
  And that's a special situation too, because you're dealing specifically with
• 22:59
  a discipline within motorcycle racing.
• 23:01
  Which is motocross, you know, we're talking about gear here for a moment.
• 23:04
  And I want to pull on a thread because I recently took my daughters to an
• 23:08
  arcade and they glommed on to these road racing arcade machines over there.
• 23:13
  And you get on a physical bike and you lean it over and you use the throttle
• 23:17
  and the brake and these kinds of things.
• 23:18
  So that seems to exist for the road racing side of motorcycles.
• 23:22
  Is that ever going to translate?
• 23:24
  I mean, those are big apparatuses to your point.
• 23:26
  It's not really going to fit in the bedroom.
• 23:28
  Maybe some thoughts on what that might look like.
• 23:31
  I'm going to give you a little bit of a insight information on that.
• 23:35
  So if you're going to use a simulator, like arcade style simulator for
• 23:39
  road racing, most of the people that want to really go fast, what will
• 23:43
  they will do is put both feet on the ground and move the bike side by side.
• 23:48
  So that's not racing, that's not a simulator, you know what I mean?
• 23:52
  So the purpose is like appealing to the eye, but it doesn't do what
• 23:56
  we are trying to make happening.
• 23:57
  That's why those are not really applicable to eSports as a whole.
• 24:02
  What we are trying to create is something that it will give somewhat
• 24:06
  the feeling of grabbing a handlebar, but then having the opportunity to
• 24:11
  be integrated, like perhaps with VR.
• 24:14
  With VR technology, then at that point, you can trick the brain to feel like that
• 24:19
  even though you're not really moving that much, your brain thinks that you are.
• 24:23
  And then you can apply that on dirt bike games and road bike games.
• 24:28
  Since you're talking about opening up the sim racing world to motorcyclists
• 24:32
  and making it more accessible, how has the Sim racing changed
• 24:36
  motorsports and racing in motorsport.
• 24:39
  To me, the 2020 pandemic is actually what spearheaded like
• 24:43
  the movement to new heights.
• 24:46
  I mean, sim racing is a very great opportunity to enter the sport.
• 24:51
  With a fraction of the cost, it will never substitute go karting.
• 24:55
  And every time, you know, like we speak about this, I think
• 24:58
  everybody's aligned on that.
• 25:00
  You know, like it's not the e sport and sim racing will take away go karting.
• 25:03
  No, that's not possible.
• 25:04
  But it is an addition to discover talent.
• 25:07
  Because even go karting per se, we know there is.
• 25:10
  Just a category of people that tend to have the funding to be part of that.
• 25:14
  Correct.
• 25:15
  We've seen raising by lowering the barrier of entry.
• 25:17
  Now you give the opportunity to many more people for every background,
• 25:22
  every gender, you know, every ethnicity to be able to Give it a try.
• 25:27
  So that's what is important.
• 25:29
  I feel about sim racing and for us in particular, Trevo, you already know, we
• 25:34
  really focus on the girls because it's never been done before and we speak on
• 25:38
  a way of authenticity, you know, like our team face forward is always women.
• 25:43
  We are proud to say these four women by women.
• 25:46
  Because we understand that community, we work with them and we have created
• 25:51
  this safe space where, uh, you know, like this participant are in there
• 25:55
  and we support them and thanks to the opportunity in the industry that we
• 25:59
  are able to provide, we are continue to open that doors, which then at
• 26:03
  the end, motorsport as a whole wins.
• 26:05
  Absolutely.
• 26:06
  And one of the things that we've seen, and I'm sure you've seen this as well.
• 26:09
  And during the iRacing series.
• 26:11
  Is that they had that moment where the drivers were cooling their tires on
• 26:15
  the grass and then coming over into now I did see a driver doing that
• 26:20
  in like a GT3 class some point in real life, which is the risk reward.
• 26:23
  There is crazy.
• 26:24
  But have you seen sim racers learning?
• 26:28
  Bad habits, because there's like an iRacing line and driving, right?
• 26:32
  There's things you can do where you're super competitive online.
• 26:35
  But if I put you in that real car, that's not a feasible move.
• 26:37
  You can't really go for that gap.
• 26:39
  You can't really take the curbs that hard.
• 26:42
  And the reason why is because it hurts.
• 26:43
  If you're in a formula car and you take a curb on some of
• 26:45
  these turns, it's gonna hurt.
• 26:47
  Have you seen that?
• 26:48
  And how is that gonna impact the sim racing Motorsports
• 26:51
  ecosystem moving forward?
• 26:52
  Everyone is gonna try anything in their power to win , no matter what.
• 26:58
  Right, because that's the the sense of racing, right?
• 27:01
  Correct.
• 27:01
  I mean, I think it was last year or maybe a couple years ago, there
• 27:05
  was a professional race car driver.
• 27:07
  They took the racing line , so he rode the wall.
• 27:11
  Yes, in NASCAR, that was a absolute video game move.
• 27:15
  100%, 100 percent banned to hell.
• 27:18
  Now, absolutely do not do it again, but he got in with it,
• 27:22
  but this is the point, right?
• 27:24
  You know, the point, like you will do anything and everything in
• 27:27
  life to get that little advantage.
• 27:30
  You know, like, uh, if you have tried in iRacing and like, Hey, I'm crazy enough.
• 27:35
  You know, I've done it bad enough.
• 27:37
  I'm going to try it on a real racing that is going to happen.
• 27:40
  And then of course, all the organization, like everything, if you do it once
• 27:44
  and it's not good, then you create the rules so that you can do it anymore.
• 27:48
  In a way, I feel it goes both ways.
• 27:49
  You know, people are going to always try anything, you know, they can.
• 27:53
  It's good to see that in, at least in digital racing.
• 27:56
  So in I racing and all of the scene racing, you don't
• 27:59
  have the risk to get hurt.
• 28:00
  So that's the point there.
• 28:02
  And in real life depends how crazy you are, I guess, how bad you want it.
• 28:07
  But isn't that what we judge the quality of the sims on?
• 28:11
  Especially if we come from the racing world, how good they
• 28:13
  are or how realistic they are.
• 28:15
  So for me, maybe I'm a purist.
• 28:17
  It annoys me if you can get away with doing something that
• 28:21
  isn't feasible in real life.
• 28:22
  And I watched some of these other racers or I look at some of the ghost files,
• 28:27
  you know, even in Assetto Corsa or some of the other things that I run.
• 28:29
  And it's just like, that's impossible.
• 28:31
  I've driven this track in real life.
• 28:32
  You can't do that.
• 28:34
  And you watch their replay and it's like, How does the system even allow it?
• 28:37
  So when you guys are judging the competition, you mentioned the rules
• 28:41
  change, but do you take that into account?
• 28:43
  Like that isn't humanly possible and that weighs against the sim racers.
• 28:47
  So there's that risk reward there.
• 28:49
  When you create a sim racing competition, do you put out a lot of rules for
• 28:53
  participants so they know beforehand, you know, what the expectation is.
• 28:57
  So even that, for instance, you know, like we run most of the time tight
• 29:01
  racing where a contact is not allowed.
• 29:03
  Yeah.
• 29:03
  Because that's the same thing in racing, you can not just go
• 29:06
  out there and put somebody on the wall just for the fun of it.
• 29:09
  So you kind of like try really much to mimic the in real racing world.
• 29:14
  But then again, it is a digital environment.
• 29:16
  As you were saying earlier, you're not going to feel the G force.
• 29:19
  So, you know, like if you are able to.
• 29:22
  Keep the car somehow on the track by doing something that you think it is
• 29:26
  impossible to do in real life, they're going to try to do it no matter what.
• 29:30
  And I can tell you that, you know, there are some people out there that
• 29:34
  are so good in digital environment that it just blows your mind away.
• 29:38
  You're just thinking, just like you said, it's not possible.
• 29:41
  I cannot believe that this is possible, but I witnessed more than
• 29:44
  one time than doing it in real life.
• 29:47
  On a simulator, you look at them and you look what they are doing on the screen.
• 29:50
  And it's like, well, they are doing it.
• 29:53
  But we also have seen, let's say, movies highlight this transition
• 29:57
  from digital to the real world.
• 29:58
  Let's take the Gran Turismo movie as a prime example.
• 30:01
  So has that happened in the two wheeled world in motorcycles where someone has
• 30:05
  gone from digital and gone in real life?
• 30:07
  What is their feedback been?
• 30:09
  In motorcycle, it's not been done yet.
• 30:12
  It's one of my tasks that I wanted to achieve.
• 30:16
  Again, for the nature of motorcycle, it doesn't really translate that much
• 30:21
  compared to what it is on the scene.
• 30:23
  We wanted to create opportunities where we can get the best scene racing
• 30:28
  motorcycles to take classes eventually, unless they're already a racer, then,
• 30:34
  you know, they're already a racer, but if they are not to take classes.
• 30:37
  To be able to bring them into the industry in a smart way.
• 30:41
  So that's the progression.
• 30:43
  But you're never gonna be William Baron that, you know, wins a scene
• 30:47
  racing motorcycle event and then go out and win a Supercross event.
• 30:51
  There's no chance.
• 30:52
  It's not possible that way.
• 30:53
  But again, it's possible to create a pathway.
• 30:56
  to participation, but I also want to bring out because you said
• 30:59
  about the Gran Turismo movie, we did something for that for girls.
• 31:03
  The screen to speed original, you know, was exactly that.
• 31:07
  So we add the competition and travel was part of it.
• 31:11
  So you witness it.
• 31:12
  We create this online competition, girls from all over the world sign up,
• 31:16
  participate online, and then the top 20, the best of this qualification, we
• 31:21
  brought them to Las Vegas during the NASCAR Penza 400 event, and not only
• 31:26
  they were like there when the race was happening around them, imagine,
• 31:30
  you know, the scenario, but the winner did not even have a driving license.
• 31:34
  And we brought her back, you know, like to test in a real Porsche 911 cup car and
• 31:40
  her performance was like mind blowing.
• 31:42
  So exactly the same effect of a Gran Turismo.
• 31:46
  And we are using that to be able to now link opportunities through
• 31:50
  the movement to eventually discover talent, even for the F1 Academy.
• 31:54
  So continue to dig deeper within the community of eSports, but also we're
• 32:00
  going to get to that, but like with the Sim4STEM program that goes in school,
• 32:03
  it's all about trying to discover talent, give them chance and when they're young,
• 32:08
  take them by hand and say, Hey, this is an opportunity for you starting from Sim.
• 32:13
  And then.
• 32:14
  Having the door open to potentially go into a real race car.
• 32:18
  Do you see the future for sim racing being more screen to speed programs
• 32:24
  and more of a pipeline being built out?
• 32:26
  Or how do you see this relationship with sim racing and motorsports evolving?
• 32:29
  I think it goes hand in hand because what we've been saying, right?
• 32:33
  It's a way to get the sport in front of people that maybe
• 32:36
  otherwise would never try it.
• 32:38
  So, it would be a no brainer in my opinion if it just stays
• 32:42
  separate one from the other.
• 32:43
  We have proven more and more that there is the pathway to
• 32:46
  participation and I see that it's going to continue to evolve that way.
• 32:50
  Brands are going to start looking more and more into SimRacer than
• 32:54
  putting them in go karting or like mini cars or whatever it is.
• 32:58
  And again, for us, we are the original for the women and we do have the community.
• 33:03
  And it's been very rewarding to see and discover this talent from all over
• 33:08
  the world and create this environment that it's for them is a safe space.
• 33:13
  We are there with a sense of women supporting women to.
• 33:16
  Be arm in arm with each other.
• 33:18
  So if that one will step out and compete, maybe one day in Formula
• 33:23
  One, she will know that there is an army of other girls that we have
• 33:27
  created behind her there to support.
• 33:29
  I believe it's Formula Two.
• 33:30
  There's no power steering, right?
• 33:32
  Correct.
• 33:32
  I don't know what I was watching.
• 33:33
  Some type of series, women in racing.
• 33:34
  There was someone.
• 33:35
  Of authority in racing with saying that they need to add
• 33:38
  power steering for women because they're not strong enough to do it.
• 33:41
  I have friends that are MMA fighters that are women.
• 33:43
  I have friends that are boxers.
• 33:44
  I really strongly take offense to that the idea that a woman is not strong enough
• 33:49
  or cannot gain the strength necessary To turn the wheel because she's gonna
• 33:52
  have to gain the strength to keep her head up as you deal with the g forces
• 33:55
  And this is women talking about how this needs to be brought down So what is
• 33:58
  your opinion on that in formula one car?
• 34:01
  You have steering assistant So therefore, if a woman is in a Formula One car,
• 34:06
  she'll drive with a steering assistant, but if they are in Formula Two or
• 34:11
  in Formula Four, they should drive exactly the same that the guys drive.
• 34:15
  So like same equipment is incredibly important to continue to tell the
• 34:19
  story that women belong there.
• 34:21
  So if you start messing with the equipment, then it becomes.
• 34:24
  Not a good opportunity to compare Apple to Apple.
• 34:27
  Right.
• 34:28
  The thing that I wish it will happen is like that the Formula One
• 34:31
  Academy, instead of driving with Formula Four car, they will drive
• 34:35
  Formula One car among themselves.
• 34:37
  They have testing car, all of this team, they can have testing cars.
• 34:40
  They have two for each driver during the races.
• 34:43
  They can have tasting car and have a woman on that.
• 34:46
  Now you're talking the same now is Apple to Apple, but like having the girls in
• 34:50
  the Formula Four car and then putting them alongside the Miami GP with the Formula
• 34:55
  One car, of course, the girl are going to look silly, you know, like much slower.
• 34:59
  Those cars are silly compared to Formula One car.
• 35:03
  And I guarantee you each and every one of these girls, if you give them
• 35:06
  the opportunity to be in a Formula One car and compete amongst themselves,
• 35:11
  they will sign their life away right now and say, Put me in 100%.
• 35:15
  And as I was saying a little bit ago, like motocross, that's my sport.
• 35:19
  That's exactly how it happens.
• 35:21
  That is the women's world motocross championship, the
• 35:23
  rides on 250 or stroke machine.
• 35:26
  Exactly the same of the MX2 world championship with men.
• 35:29
  What that creates is like equal.
• 35:32
  Level.
• 35:32
  So now you can really compare apple to apple, right?
• 35:35
  Lap times and performance.
• 35:37
  It's the same, it's the same track, right?
• 35:39
  The same equipment.
• 35:40
  So now it's like, and motocross is a little bit harder than drive cars.
• 35:43
  I'm sorry, but , the physicality on a dirt bike, it's a little bit harder,
• 35:48
  you know, like than being in a car.
• 35:50
  I'm with you on that.
• 35:51
  So did they do balance of performance then?
• 35:53
  Because obviously weight plays in No, no.
• 35:56
  You do it the same, but I can also tell you this a very.
• 36:00
  Good motocross rider right now, you know, by even like 20 years ago, when I
• 36:04
  was racing, you don't use brute force.
• 36:07
  You don't, you use physics, right?
• 36:09
  You use physics and leverage.
• 36:11
  That is why I was able to compete with the best men in the world,
• 36:14
  because even though I'm not so good.
• 36:16
  like a man at the top of their fitness level, me being at top of my
• 36:21
  fitness level, I was not strong like them, but was able to compete with
• 36:24
  them, given not at the level to win a super cross world championship,
• 36:28
  but I can hold my place there.
• 36:30
  Right.
• 36:31
  Because it was the same equipment.
• 36:33
  Right.
• 36:33
  So like, I guarantee you, like, if we have a women that have the
• 36:36
  opportunity, I think more than equal is trying to create that too.
• 36:40
  You know, like if we can have a women with the same equipment of men and give
• 36:45
  them the same amount of time on the equipment as men, You will find that
• 36:50
  Formula One driver for women, guaranteed.
• 36:52
  And also like looking in the other way, Abby Pooling, that got to win
• 36:56
  the Formula One F1 Academy in Miami, just race with the same type of car,
• 37:01
  the F4 in the UK, and guess what?
• 37:04
  She won the race against the men.
• 37:06
  Point proven.
• 37:07
  So it has to be the same equipment.
• 37:09
  So all of this conversation, you know, they just stay where they are, unless
• 37:13
  there is the same equipment, you know, everybody can say whatever they want,
• 37:16
  but until you compare Apple to Apple.
• 37:18
  Now, given that, that's a huge goal to get the first female into Formula One.
• 37:23
  What are the problems that we have in sim racing as a whole?
• 37:27
  That we have to overcome, like there's still a cost barrier.
• 37:30
  How does that compare to in real life?
• 37:32
  Motorsports?
• 37:32
  What do we have to work on together as people that are in this industry?
• 37:35
  For me, the key is media attention in real life and in sim racing coming
• 37:40
  as a former professional racer.
• 37:42
  And talking about the women's side of things, there is not enough media
• 37:46
  attention, media attention on simracing as a whole, on simracing, but also
• 37:50
  on female drivers as a whole, women, motor sports and sim in general, right?
• 37:54
  There is not enough attention brought to them.
• 37:56
  So like we live in the world that the visual it's important.
• 38:00
  So we always say, Lindsay and James say that often too, if
• 38:03
  you can see her, you can be her.
• 38:05
  So we need to sow those women, those girls.
• 38:08
  So, so then somebody else is going to believe, Oh, I can do that too.
• 38:12
  And then it continued to grow.
• 38:13
  But we are seeing this in sport in general.
• 38:16
  Everybody knows about Kathleen Clark right now, because she's not
• 38:20
  only a great athlete, but she's getting a ton of media attention.
• 38:24
  Same thing what happened with soccer, with the revolution
• 38:27
  of this women's soccer world.
• 38:29
  Why they got that popular?
• 38:30
  Not only because they were good, but because media started following them.
• 38:34
  That's the key.
• 38:35
  And in Motorsport, we never had it.
• 38:37
  And if we have had it, and they say I spin it on my skin too.
• 38:41
  It's just like that decade or that four, five years that she's on top of it.
• 38:46
  Everybody talks about her.
• 38:47
  And then there is no pathway to follow.
• 38:49
  So that's exactly what we are creating.
• 38:51
  A pathway of participation to have more and more women,
• 38:55
  that superstar stop racing.
• 38:57
  There is another one we can put there.
• 38:59
  And then the next year, it might be two we can put there.
• 39:02
  And then in the year follow three, we can put there.
• 39:04
  And if one fall off, there is another one to come up.
• 39:06
  So exactly the same, our work in men racing.
• 39:09
  You mentioned earlier Lynn St.
• 39:11
  James, do you work with WMNA?
• 39:14
  Yes.
• 39:14
  So I'm part of WMNA.
• 39:16
  Yes.
• 39:16
  I'm inside of WMNA and that, you know, it was launched a couple of years ago
• 39:20
  and actually it was Beth Perretta that she invited me to be part of the group.
• 39:24
  So of course I know Lynn, you know, respect Lynn and
• 39:27
  everybody in that group at home.
• 39:28
  And I'm in there, you know, with the sim racing aspect and it's still a little bit
• 39:33
  a young concept, let's say for the group.
• 39:36
  You know, like hopefully little by little, they're going to start to understand
• 39:40
  it a little bit better in some ways.
• 39:42
  I mean, they are getting wrapped in into some stuff, but everybody
• 39:46
  has their own way, you know, to present things and we'll see what
• 39:49
  happens, but I'm part of the group.
• 39:50
  So I'm in the working group of WMNA.
• 39:52
  And I think you've stepped into something that we've talked about before.
• 39:56
  It's the special nature of motor sports as a whole.
• 39:59
  What I'm getting at is.
• 40:00
  It's probably one of the most diverse sports hands down across all sports
• 40:04
  that exist, whether you recognize motorsport as a sport or not.
• 40:07
  So I understand the arguments for men's basketball versus women's basketball.
• 40:12
  And sometimes I'm like, I don't understand why these sports aren't
• 40:14
  co ed, but in the case of motorsport, it's a level playing field.
• 40:18
  So the question becomes, how do we bring more people in and make it more diverse?
• 40:23
  My solution is how I explain it.
• 40:25
  You know, it is exactly by creative representation, but for
• 40:28
  women specifically, I'm a woman in this male dominated industry.
• 40:32
  I can tell you that, yes, it is true behind the steering wheel with the
• 40:36
  helmet on, everybody's the same.
• 40:38
  But there is not enough women that we can continue to put out there
• 40:42
  or team to say, yes, we're going to put a 50 50 grid on the racetrack to
• 40:48
  be able to achieve that 50 50 grid.
• 40:50
  We need to have the army.
• 40:52
  Otherwise it will never happen.
• 40:53
  So we are deconstructing the problem by Figure it out, you know, like I
• 40:58
  want to have 10, 000 little girl.
• 41:00
  They want to do sim racing and then 100, 000 little girl.
• 41:03
  They want to do sim racing and then move them into go karting and
• 41:06
  then move them into something else.
• 41:08
  Now you start having the number.
• 41:10
  Other countries taught us this.
• 41:12
  The Netherlands, they decide to do field hockey in every school in the Netherlands.
• 41:18
  They started focusing on that sport.
• 41:20
  Now the Netherlands has so many young little girl.
• 41:23
  They play field hockey, that they been like the world champion in the Olympic
• 41:27
  for years and years and years and years.
• 41:30
  But why?
• 41:30
  Because they have the feeding.
• 41:32
  So that's what we need to create.
• 41:33
  And then once we have that feeding, then that argument that everybody's
• 41:37
  the same is going to completely go away because you have the number.
• 41:41
  Then, then it's just class right now.
• 41:43
  What happens is that if you have just one sensational athlete, they
• 41:47
  are going to sensationalize her.
• 41:49
  And that's it.
• 41:50
  Now you have brands that they wanted to invest, but they have
• 41:53
  as many brands, they are like, yeah, but there is no scalability.
• 41:57
  It's a similar problem to traditional esports when talking to any
• 42:00
  minority group about why we don't have more reputations for them.
• 42:03
  And the question is how many people need to play Counter Strike to get one pro?
• 42:08
  How many people need to sim race and cart?
• 42:11
  to get one Formula One driver.
• 42:13
  It's like a million people.
• 42:14
  You need a million people to get one Formula One driver.
• 42:17
  You need a million people to get one Tana Fey.
• 42:19
  So I can understand how you're feeding that ecosystem to get
• 42:22
  that million girls to get that one Formula One driver, that one IndyCar
• 42:26
  champion, that one NASCAR champion.
• 42:27
  But I think it goes back to something you said earlier,
• 42:30
  Steffi, about media coverage.
• 42:31
  If you look at it on the global scale, there's going to be certain
• 42:34
  racing bodies Be it Formula One, be it World Rally, whether it's WEC, IMSA,
• 42:40
  Superbike, all that kind of stuff.
• 42:42
  They're the bastions that we look up to.
• 42:44
  They're like the pinnacle of racing in those disciplines.
• 42:46
  I've noticed though, on a more grassroots level, especially in the United
• 42:50
  States, I went to an expo recently for sprint car and dirt track racing.
• 42:55
  There were more female drivers, especially young women drivers
• 42:59
  in that discipline of motorsport than I'd ever seen anywhere else.
• 43:03
  It felt really just normal.
• 43:06
  It felt super comfortable.
• 43:07
  It wasn't like we're placating to these ideas.
• 43:09
  It was like.
• 43:10
  There's a lot of women in this, how do we shine a light on that?
• 43:14
  How do we then grow and blossom that and maybe get the bigger motorsports
• 43:18
  disciplines to kind of turn their head and go, we need to do what they're
• 43:21
  doing in USAC or they're doing, you know, over here, over there.
• 43:24
  So it's a very complicated problem.
• 43:27
  You know, like I leave this, you know, like it's me being a former racer.
• 43:31
  So you have a few things going on.
• 43:32
  Usually once a kid hit the teenage years.
• 43:37
  There is no difference.
• 43:38
  You find him more often than not is 50 50, you know, in whatever sport.
• 43:42
  And you can see that in this small category of racing too.
• 43:45
  They are competitive, but nobody expects you to become Lewis Hamilton.
• 43:49
  It's more fun, it's family, whatever.
• 43:51
  Then there is a very interesting study that came from a university in the
• 43:56
  UK that share when we lose the girl.
• 43:59
  Pay attention to this.
• 44:00
  So in the teenage year, when I started in puberty and you start realizing
• 44:04
  different things in the world, if you have a situation where a boy fail on
• 44:10
  doing anything, it's not just about motorsport, like a boy fails, what
• 44:14
  happens is that the peer group around that boy, 99 percent of the time, the
• 44:18
  answer is to that boy, come on, get up.
• 44:21
  Do it again.
• 44:22
  I don't want to hear it.
• 44:23
  Get up.
• 44:23
  Do it again.
• 44:24
  And this is documented, like, it's a study.
• 44:26
  If a girl fails, especially if she's trying to do something in a male dominated
• 44:30
  industry, therefore is going to be surrounded mostly by male, the majority
• 44:35
  of the answer is, Oh, sweetie, it's okay.
• 44:38
  You tried.
• 44:39
  So what does that do in the brain of that girl?
• 44:42
  They're going to be like, hell no, I'm not going to do that ever again.
• 44:45
  You know, I don't want to be confronted to this reality.
• 44:49
  I'll just stay aside and I'm going to go do something else, you
• 44:51
  know, without confronting myself.
• 44:53
  Because we know this, one of the things that we are doing by saying, for women, by
• 44:58
  women, is that we can go to that teenage girl and say, I don't want to hear it.
• 45:02
  Get up and do it again.
• 45:03
  Because I'm a female, you know, I can go to her and say that.
• 45:07
  So we are trying to change the narrative in that way.
• 45:09
  So, it is important to see those things because it's at that age
• 45:14
  that we can create individuals that then grow up seeing the world
• 45:18
  that there is no differences.
• 45:20
  So this is what we are doing with the racing, the scene for STEM, what we're
• 45:24
  doing with the movement from screen to speed is trying to tell that story,
• 45:28
  you know, and make everybody feel like, of course, there is no difference.
• 45:32
  We are all treating the same.
• 45:33
  I can get up and do it again.
• 45:35
  So that's one important part that sometimes is forgotten.
• 45:39
  Because it's part of human nature, there is going to be the Steffi out there, like
• 45:43
  there is the Jamie Chadwick out there.
• 45:45
  Even if they say, Hey sweetie, it's okay.
• 45:47
  I'm like, are you saying it's okay?
• 45:48
  Let me show you.
• 45:49
  You know, like there is not enough because it's the culture that we live in
• 45:54
  because there is always the father figure that wants to protect the little girl.
• 45:58
  And there's nothing wrong with that.
• 45:59
  You know, it's just that we need to kind of like change a little bit
• 46:02
  the narrative and say, no, you are capable to do anything you want.
• 46:06
  You know, in this world.
• 46:07
  And another thing to unpack the question that you put out there is
• 46:10
  for me, it's like, we need to do way more the model the extreme E is doing.
• 46:15
  So one male, one female, at least to generalize like this, then one day, okay.
• 46:22
  It's going to be non binary, whatever.
• 46:24
  It's all good.
• 46:25
  But right now to be able to give the same media attention.
• 46:28
  That's the way, and in fact, you know, the young demographic is very much attracted
• 46:32
  to what's happening with extreme E.
• 46:34
  If you look and you talk to the young one, that's what they look up.
• 46:37
  They say, Oh, I can have my teammate, you know, like, and it's a woman
• 46:41
  or a boy to compete with me.
• 46:43
  The ER1 series, the boat series, copying the same model.
• 46:47
  So I think that's the future.
• 46:49
  If we can start to do that.
• 46:51
  More and more, then we started to get the balance, but it takes a village
• 46:55
  because the cultural effort, the way that we are brought up thinking, and
• 46:59
  also the fact that there are a lot of brands don't want to take the risk.
• 47:03
  Somebody told me that there will never be a Formula One or Indy 500
• 47:07
  car woman compete at the highest level because the industry is
• 47:11
  scared of her dying in an accident.
• 47:14
  And I'm like, Oh, a woman and a man's body is the same, you know, like,
• 47:19
  And men can die like a woman can die.
• 47:21
  Yeah, but culturally, women and children first, then women get killed.
• 47:24
  It's a big problem.
• 47:25
  So if that's got your logo on there, it's a way bigger deal.
• 47:28
  The contrapositive to that is that men are disposable, women are not.
• 47:31
  And yeah, that's a huge hurdle to have to culturally overcome.
• 47:34
  But that's not the truth, though.
• 47:36
  Like, we are all human beings, so there is no difference, really.
• 47:39
  You know, like, Especially sport, you know, but in anything you do.
• 47:43
  Right.
• 47:43
  But the only hope is like to get the young demographic to start treating E.
• 47:47
  coli from the very young age when they hit that puberty.
• 47:51
  Then they're started to, you know, the DNA working like we've been
• 47:54
  for many, many centuries now.
• 47:57
  Little by little, you know, give her the opportunity to
• 48:00
  think like that she can do it.
• 48:01
  And it goes back to the fact if you can see her, you can be her.
• 48:05
  So it goes back to the media attention.
• 48:07
  So more we can show that those girls are out there and there is other girls
• 48:11
  out there that they are doing it, more we're going to kind of tilt that needle
• 48:14
  and eventually not have ever anymore the discussion who is behind the helmet.
• 48:19
  It doesn't matter.
• 48:19
  It's just an individual that wants to race.
• 48:22
  Stephie, you've tiptoed us across the threshold of this next subject.
• 48:26
  A couple of times, you've mentioned your Sim4STEM program.
• 48:29
  So let's talk about that.
• 48:30
  How does that work?
• 48:31
  What's that all about?
• 48:32
  So the Sim4STEM program, it's an idea that came about between me and
• 48:36
  my very good friend, Nikki Daly.
• 48:38
  She's a former Olympian from Ireland and her uncle is Derek
• 48:42
  Daly and her cousin is Connor Daly.
• 48:44
  So she never had the opportunity to really race or be involved as
• 48:49
  a participant in motorsport, but she always been around motorsport.
• 48:52
  So she has a very similar passion on the one that I have.
• 48:56
  So she started to come up with the idea, what if we use STEM, you know,
• 49:00
  like to get the attention of girls and me being the esports sim racing
• 49:05
  for girls, it was just a natural opportunity to get together and create.
• 49:09
  seen for STEM.
• 49:10
  So what this program does goes into schools and put the younger in a role of
• 49:16
  a motorsport team by using STEM activities motorsport related and then they
• 49:21
  apply what they learn into simulators.
• 49:24
  So now you have the racing line, you have a bunch of other things
• 49:28
  that they can actually use math to understand and then goes into the
• 49:32
  simulator and they can see results.
• 49:34
  So it becomes an experiential learning.
• 49:37
  So now schools are like, Whoa, you open the Pandora box here because not only,
• 49:42
  you know, you meet the kids where they are online, but also you get them to do math,
• 49:47
  engineering, science, and technology in a way that is very appropriate to what they
• 49:52
  are doing every day when they play games.
• 49:55
  And using motorsport, it's a no brainer because everybody can relate to it.
• 49:59
  Now you can have the principal of a school or a superintendent then.
• 50:03
  Put them into a sim and they're like, Oh, now I get why you want
• 50:07
  to have eSport in the schools.
• 50:09
  This is an opportunity.
• 50:10
  And I'm not saying that sim racing is the only way, but it's definitely a way
• 50:14
  that opens tons of possibility for eSport to become more and more popular in every
• 50:19
  school in the world, not just in the US.
• 50:21
  With that though, we create the pathway.
• 50:23
  So we discover the talent, then we can create the online school championship
• 50:28
  for girls, and then they can escalate to the screen to speed online series.
• 50:33
  So compete against girls all over the world.
• 50:35
  And then eventually, you know, we can figure out ways to put them in
• 50:38
  cars to test or go karts, depending on the age, right, and get them to
• 50:42
  have an experience in real life.
• 50:44
  And yeah, Who knows, maybe along the way we'll do find that talent that
• 50:48
  she didn't even know that she has.
• 50:49
  Because it's all about inclusivity, and for me is incredibly important.
• 50:53
  In school now, we are also running the program mix.
• 50:56
  But the thing that we say is like, yes, you are allowed to
• 51:00
  run the program mix, but it has to be at least 50 percent girls.
• 51:04
  So now it touches back to the extreme model.
• 51:07
  So now if you are a boy, of course, you're going to want to do sim racing, you know,
• 51:11
  and do math and whatever to get better.
• 51:13
  But now you're going to have to recruit the girls.
• 51:15
  Otherwise you don't get to do it.
• 51:17
  So STEM or STEAM?
• 51:19
  Well, right now we call it STEM, but of course, you know, we
• 51:22
  can put art in there for sure.
• 51:24
  You know, like we have not explored that part yet, but it's all
• 51:28
  about building and not dividing.
• 51:29
  We are doing this.
• 51:30
  We have the passion.
• 51:31
  If You know, like other people, like David is doing too, and
• 51:34
  we got connected with him.
• 51:36
  Let's just unite the energies, you know, and try to elevate everybody together.
• 51:41
  So that's the most important thing I say.
• 51:43
  So Steffi, when you look back over your motorsports career, there aren't a ton
• 51:48
  of female motorcycle riders out there.
• 51:50
  I'm sure, you know, a lot of them, but you're at the pointy end of that spectrum.
• 51:54
  Beer, but who was somebody that you looked up to?
• 51:56
  Somebody that inspired you in the motor sports world?
• 51:58
  Yeah.
• 51:58
  So when I was a very little, I didn't know of any woman doing this, you
• 52:02
  know, like all of my competition, when I was a young girl, up to my
• 52:06
  teenager, I turned professional at 17.
• 52:08
  They were all the boys.
• 52:09
  So, you know, I, I was like, Oh yeah, I like to do this.
• 52:12
  I was looking up, of course, at the dream of the American supercross racer.
• 52:17
  So all of these guys I was telling you earlier that they were on my wall, you
• 52:21
  know, like that's what I was looking up.
• 52:23
  But when I got a little bit older, like around that teenage years, I
• 52:27
  discovered, and guess this was the age where there were no social media
• 52:31
  and the internet that you can discover everything like in a split of a second.
• 52:35
  I learned about this female athlete.
• 52:37
  Her name is Mercedes Gonzalez and she's American.
• 52:41
  I remember still nowadays, the thing that I loved, she was
• 52:44
  featured on a box of Axo boot.
• 52:47
  So every boot that was be sold worldwide, there was her image in there.
• 52:51
  And then he's like, Oh man, I need to do this.
• 52:54
  I want it to be her.
• 52:55
  And it's funny again, like the very first time that I got to come
• 52:58
  to the United States of America to race, I was 14 years old.
• 53:02
  And guess what?
• 53:03
  I competed in this international women's race event in the Paris Raceway in
• 53:09
  California, where there was Mercedes.
• 53:11
  That was almost toward the end of her career.
• 53:13
  So for me already, you know, be there and compete with my idol was
• 53:17
  incredibly like something to Out of this world and I have won the race.
• 53:21
  So you can imagine, you know, like how I built my confidence and continue to do
• 53:26
  what I ended up doing in life, but like, we are great friends, her, you know,
• 53:31
  give me the opportunity to say, yeah, you are this little one now coming up,
• 53:35
  you know, like, and be able to be the queen of the sport, but with respect.
• 53:39
  You know, back and forth, it's never been, you know, like any situation
• 53:43
  with anybody in the women's series.
• 53:45
  Like, Oh, you know, like the ones, the young ones come in and
• 53:48
  so we need to keep them back now.
• 53:50
  I did the same back to, you know, like when I was toward the end of my career,
• 53:54
  I was inviting rider that I knew that they were getting to be faster than me.
• 53:58
  But I was not scared that they were going to beat me because
• 54:01
  that's the evolution of the sport.
• 54:03
  You know, you need to help the young generation to want it to continue to grow.
• 54:08
  And they look at you and say, you've done it before.
• 54:10
  So I want to be you, you know, and when you turn around and say, let me
• 54:14
  help you get there, then it's magical.
• 54:16
  So Steffi, I got one more question.
• 54:18
  As we wrap up this thought about Sim4STEM screen to speed program and all these
• 54:24
  different things that you're working on.
• 54:25
  And we've sort of hinted at this the whole time and you've said it, but
• 54:29
  I want to hear your elevator pitch in a way, you know, a little girl
• 54:32
  walks up to you in the paddock and says, Stephie, why should I race?
• 54:36
  What do you say to them?
• 54:37
  Well, if they come up to me and say, why should I race?
• 54:39
  It's like, first of all, you're already in the paddock.
• 54:41
  So you have the bug.
• 54:44
  And second, let me help you get that desire where it can go.
• 54:48
  So the sky is the limit always go for it.
• 54:51
  So if you have a passion, that's the key though.
• 54:53
  It's passion.
• 54:54
  So if you have the passion, just keep going in newer, like the negativity
• 54:59
  because it comes, we live in a world where we are connected with everybody
• 55:03
  in your that just keep on working out and keep on going because sooner or
• 55:07
  later, you're going to get what you want.
• 55:08
  Just follow your passion.
• 55:10
  Well, Stephie, we've reached that part of the episode where
• 55:12
  I like to invite our guests.
• 55:13
  To share any shout outs, promotions, or anything else
• 55:16
  that we didn't cover thus far.
• 55:17
  Now, you know, Dorna is putting together the championship for women in road racing.
• 55:22
  So that is going to be launched this year.
• 55:24
  There is movement, you know, in motorcycling too, you know, and I hope
• 55:28
  that by trying to get girls interested in e sports motorcycling as well, we can
• 55:33
  kind of continue to feed that system.
• 55:36
  Possibly get more women involved.
• 55:38
  We have the movement that they school screen to speed.
• 55:40
  My company's name is in it.
• 55:42
  So our tagline is be in it.
• 55:45
  So be part of something to make a difference.
• 55:48
  So in it, uh, esport.
• 55:49
  gg can find that the championship that we run in there, you see the two category
• 55:54
  near motorcycle and sim racing with cars.
• 55:57
  And yes, you know, like.
• 55:58
  This is kind of like what we do.
• 55:59
  We do activation, of course, also, and you know, this is part of sim racing.
• 56:03
  So if you wanted to engage, you know, the female world or like make something that
• 56:08
  is a little bit different than everybody else, probably we are the one for you.
• 56:12
  Steffi takes pride in being part of a woman led company, blazing a trail
• 56:16
  of diversity, equity, and inclusion.
• 56:18
  With a cutting edge platform, they are on a mission to eradicate bullying
• 56:22
  and cheating from the e sports world, ensuring a level playing field where
• 56:25
  safety and fairness reign supreme.
• 56:27
  In it e sports is here to unleash a tidal wave excitement, pushing the
• 56:31
  boundaries of what's possible in the gaming realm and motorsports.
• 56:34
  To learn more about how you can join them as they revolutionized the
• 56:37
  motorsports and esports landscape, be sure to log on to initesports.
• 56:42
  gg or follow them on social at init underscore esports
• 56:47
  on Twitter, at initesports on Facebook, Instagram and on YouTube.
• 56:52
  And with that, Steffi, I can't thank you enough for coming on break fix
• 56:55
  and sharing your story with us.
• 56:58
  And I have to say being paisani, it's in the DNA to be passionate
• 57:02
  about motor sports as Italiani, but your passion goes beyond just
• 57:07
  the heritage and the ethnicity.
• 57:09
  It comes through in everything you're doing and the way you speak and the
• 57:12
  way you're putting this out there.
• 57:14
  And I'm excited as a father of two daughters that are entrenched in
• 57:18
  the motor For world that there are opportunities like this for them
• 57:22
  to explore when they come of age and they're getting close to it.
• 57:25
  So we'll be looking to work with you more in the future, but I'm really
• 57:28
  excited on the foundation you've built.
• 57:30
  And I have really appreciate the way you're continuing to
• 57:33
  promote motorsports enthusiasm.
• 57:36
  Thank you so much.
• 57:36
  It's been a pleasure to be here.
• 57:38
  Thank you everybody for listening to my story and I can't wait to keep
• 57:42
  providing an opportunity for young girls and anybody that wants to be in
• 57:45
  this fantastic world of motorsport.
• 57:47
  Grazie.
• 57:48
  Prego.
• 57:49
  Ciao, ciao.
• 57:55
  We hope you enjoyed another awesome episode of Brake Fix Podcast brought
• 57:59
  to you by Grand Touring Motorsports.
• 58:01
  If you'd like to be a guest on the show or get involved, be sure
• 58:04
  to follow us on all social media platforms at GrandTouringMotorsports.
• 58:08
  And if you'd like to learn more about the content of this episode,
• 58:11
  be sure to check out the follow on article at GTMotorsports.
• 58:15
  org.
• 58:16
  We remain a commercial free and no annual fees organization through
• 58:20
  our sponsors, but also through the generous support of our fans,
• 58:24
  families, and friends through Patreon.
• 58:27
  For as little as 2.
• 58:29
  50 a month, you can get access to more behind the scenes action, additional
• 58:33
  Pit Stop minisodes, and other VIP goodies, as well as keeping our team
• 58:38
  of creators Fed on their strict diet of fig Newtons, gumby bears, and monster.
• 58:43
  So consider signing up for Patreon today at www.
• 58:47
  patreon.
• 58:47
  com forward slash GT motorsports, and remember without you, none
• 58:52
  of this would be possible.