Larry Lawrence 

Melissa Paris has done a lot in her decade as a professional motorcycle racer. She is the first female to qualify for a World Supersport race, is the only female to test a Yamaha YZR-M1 MotoGP machine, scored a top-10 finish in the Daytona 200, won a WERA West Superbike Championship, and was part of a class-winning team in the 24 Hours of Barcelona Endurance race.

This year, she’s taking on the new task of being a team owner. Actually, it’s not new to her in the strictest sense of the word, since she’s long been the team owner of her own racing efforts, but it’s different now since she’s now running a team, MP13 Racing, for which she is not racing and, instead, is helping to mentor a young rider new to the sport.

That young rider is 16-year-old Jamie Astudillo, a former up-and-coming motocross and off-road prospect who Paris is helping make the transition to road racing in MotoAmerica’s KTM RC Cup.

Paris is just about at the midway point of her first season as solely a MotoAmerica team owner, without being rider/owner, and I asked her how it was coming along.

“It’s going pretty well so far,” she said. “It’s been a real learning experience, I think, for both Jamie and me. It’s hard to know because we didn’t really have any expectations. She had zero road-race experience coming into this. I took her to one club race weekend. I really threw her in the deep end. There were some times where I was feeling like maybe we’d hit a little bit of a wall, but I feel like maybe we figured something out at the last race. So, I’m starting to feel better about it. She seems to be getting more confident.

“Jamie was able to go to a track day last weekend, and she was so pumped on it. For someone who’s used to riding motocross, something she’s so good at, I know it’s hard to go do something that you’re not as good at. It sucks to not be the fastest one. So, I think that’s been a bit of a challenge for her. But we’re getting through it and she’s making progress. So, I’m happy with that.”

  Jamie used her #spideysense to come out on top of a last lap battle for 13th! #girlswhorace #JoeRocket #tcxfocusonboots #KTM #RCCup #motogeezer 📸 @ampmediahouse A post shared by MP13 Racing Team (@mp13racing) on Jun 24, 2017 at 5:50pm PDT

As Paris pointed out, being a team owner isn’t exactly new to her, but she admits there are a few differences with the position she’s in now. Fortunately, she says there are plenty of great people in the MotoAmerica paddock to look to as an example of how things should be done.

“The team owner side of things is really nothing new to me,” she said. “I’ve been running my own program for ages. Honestly, if anything it’s a little bit easier now because I’m not riding around thinking, ‘If I crash this thing how am I going to fix it?’ That’s been trial and error for me for the last 10 years I’ve been racing.

“Obviously, there are certain people in this paddock who are role models to me. I look at the way Keith McCarty manages his [Yamaha factory] team. It’s something I hope to be farther down the line. He’s a genius with the way he deals with his people. I deal with Chuck Giacchetto [Westby Racing] a lot, just for advice on how to put a bike together. The guy has the most beautiful bikes in this paddock.”

Paris admits that looking into the future she could envision herself being a team owner on a long-term basis. “I’m sure a lot of people are like, ‘It’s great, she’s out there supporting women,’ but it’s really a selfish endeavor because I don’t want to get a real job. If I can find a way to carve out a career for myself, then even better.”

Paris isn’t done as a rider yet, in fact she’s racing in the USBA Superbike Challenge in Utah this weekend. She was hoping to do a full season in the FIM Endurance World Championship, but the team she was riding for fell apart.

  It's #fastbikefriday guys! And I finally got to twist a throttle! 💜✊️🏍 #yamaha #R1 #R1mafia #joerocket #tcxboots #HJC #yoshimura #hotbodies #dunlop #UMC #girlswhorace #motogeezer 📸 @ampmediahouse A post shared by Melissa Paris (@melissaparis13) on Jun 23, 2017 at 4:03pm PDT

“This year’s been real trying,” she explained. “We had really great plans to do the whole EWC season. I was really excited about it. As soon as we wrapped up Le Mans, the girl who kind of ran the show was like, ‘No, we’re done.’ So, it’s really frustrating. It happens, but I really had all my eggs in that basket.

“It’s hard because I have a lot of people on Facebook or Instagram who are like, ‘Let’s do something to get you back out there!’ But I’ve made a commitment to Jamie and for me to try to go racing in MotoAmerica would make it hard to do the deal right for her. I’ve done it before in the past couple years, those half efforts where you really didn’t have enough money.

“I can’t do it anymore. You can’t be riding around worrying about if you can afford another set of tires. That’s just not the way to do it. I would rather race less and more quality. So, I’m here this weekend doing the support class on this R1 that was supposed to be a practice bike for me, and here I am racing it.

“At the end of the day, I’m an enthusiast like everyone else. I like riding motorcycles. It’s scary when you start thinking, ‘What if this is it?’ Then, I come out here this weekend and I get to ride my motorbike and I’m happy. So, I don’t really know what the future holds. I know there’s not going to be much going on this year. Hopefully, I can regroup and do some cool stuff next year.”