Voices: Motorcycle racers' moms show bravery
AUSTIN — Racers may get the glory, but it’s their mothers who have the guts.
I was at the Circuit of the Americas racetrack in Austin in the paddock area when I spotted a small woman with a mass of curly hair carrying a leather motorcycle racing suit nearly as large as she was over her right shoulder and a helmet with her left arm.
She was doing laps of her own, bringing gear from the garage, to the racer’s trailer, to manufacturers' trailers and back.
On her shirt was LS39, which stood for Moto2 racer Luis Salom and his number. “Are you one of the team managers?” I asked. “No,” she laughed. “I’m just the mama.”
Maria Antonia Horrach, 50, travels the world with Salom, 24, nearly eight months out of the year, following him to all his races since 2009 from their home in Mallorca, Spain, to Asia, South America, Europe and Texas.
What’s it like to watch your son go out on the track, competing against 29 other racers, speeding at over 150 mph while being feet away from the other riders? I ask.
“It’s a crush of different emotions all at once,” she says through a Spanish translator. She wants her son to do well and to be in the front, but she also worries that he might crash if he pushes too hard. Still, she knows he has to push his limits to get faster. “It’s a fear all mothers have that their son is going really fast on the track.”
Anna Roberts, whose son Joe Roberts, 18, races for Moto America, has a similar sentiment.
“It’s nerve-racking when he goes out. … But you can’t be feeling that anxiety,” Roberts says. “I want to make sure I spread a sense of calm” to Joe and the entire team before the race.
“It’s the biggest thing I do,” she says. “I can always see when he’s kind of nervous before a race. I can see everything that’s going on in his head. And I’ll give him a big hug and flow all that love I have to him and all the motherly affirmations like 'you’re wonderful' and 'you’re fast'. Have fun, enjoy yourself.”
Horrach, too, says the most important thing she does for her son is to make sure he is in the right state of mind before he races. “Sometimes he is impulsive,” she says. She tries to calm him down while giving him a boost of confidence. It’s important for him to remember to just have fun, she says.
Neither mother really talks about crashes. “The mistakes are high,” Roberts says. “This is a very, very big game to be playing as an individual.” Then she quickly turns to the positive, “So it’s incredible to be seeing your kid being in his element. Doing what he was born to do.”
Horrach says traveling with Salom wasn’t something she had expected to do. When he started racing in the championships in 2009, he asked her to come to his races and "'help me take care of my things,'" she says. “I didn’t ask to go. It was Luis who asked me to come.” So she did, because "it's my son. Now, if it's some other guy, I'd say no."
Because most Sundays are race days, the mothers don’t get a break on Mother’s Day. “I’ve always worked through Mother’s Day since 2009,” Horrach says. But the moms don’t mind. They are just happy they have the opportunity to be with their sons. “As many sacrifices as we make for our kids, and racing in particular is demanding, you get so much back,” Roberts says. “In the case of the racing experience, we’ve had such fantastic adventures as a family. … And I’m so happy we get to keep sharing this with Joe.”
“I think all moms have these moments with their kids where time seems to stand still for a second or two and you look at this little human and get such a sense of past, present and future, who they are and what they are going to bring to this world,” Roberts says. “You want to understand them, what they need from you and how you can help and support them. It’s amazing, and one of the most beautiful and interesting parts of being a mom.”
They remain by their children's sides even if their career choice — and what makes them happy — is something that can give them weekly anxiety attacks.
Yu is the front page editor at Paste BN. Her passion for motorcycles has given her mom lots of extra gray hairs.