Courtesy of al.com

By: Doug Demmons

Elena Myers is probably too young to remember legendary female racers like Janet Guthrie and Lyn St. James.

The career paths of the 16-year-old high school student from California and other women in motorsports were made easier by the trials and tribulations of Guthrie, St. James and other female racing pioneers.

But Guthrie and St. James would surely smile at what Myers has been able to accomplish on a motorcycle in her first season in the AMA Pro Series.

Myers became the first woman in series history to win a race when she won in the Supersport class at Infineon Raceway in May.

And if that wasn’t impressive enough, she did it with a broken foot,

“Yeah, that was pretty awesome,” Myers said of riding her Lucas Oil and Roadracingworld.com Suzuki GSX R-600 to the top of the podium, broken foot and all. “And what was really great was winning it on my grandpa’s birthday.”

Myers is in Birmingham this weekend to compete in AMA’s season finale races at Barber Motorsports Park, sponsored by the National Guard. Practice and qualifying begin Friday with races in each top class on Saturday and Sunday.

She’s hoping to score win No. 2 at the highly technical track. But she also wants a “legit” win, as she described it in an interview at Infineon.

Her win at Infineon was by the book, but it was somewhat unusual.

She had passed race leader Joey Pascarella, a three-time winner, on Lap 9 of the scheduled 18-lap race. Pascarella passed her back on Lap 10 but then crashed to bring out the second red flag of the race.

AMA officials ended the race early due to the second red flag, but because Pascarella caused the red flag Myers was declared the winner.

She’ll take the win, she said, “but I think the best kind of weekend is the one where you win the pole, lead every lap and win the race.”

But there was also the matter of the broken foot.

“The whole weekend I was racing with a broken foot and didn’t even know it,” she said of an injury she sustained at Road Atlanta when she took a spill because of fluid on the track.

“It was just kind of a nightmare weekend,” she said.

By the time she got to Infineon she needed several injections in her foot to be able to compete and then special inserts for her racing boots.

The foot is fine now, she said. ‘It just needs some resting time.”

The Supersport class that Myers competes in is a development series for younger riders ages 16-21 on 600cc bikes. Her plans for 2011 are still undecided.

She might move up to AMA’s intermediate class, the Daytona Sportbikes. Eventually, she said, she’d like to compete in MotoGP or maybe even the much heavier American Superbike class. Otherwise she plans to return for a second year in the Supersport class.

At 5-foot-3 and 110 pounds, racing the bigger bikes might seem an arduous task for her, but she isn’t fazed by the challenge.

“I don’t think it’s something I couldn’t do if I want to some day,” she said.

But before that happens she has to finish high school, which she is scheduled to do in a few months. And she also wants to be known for more than just being a female winner.

“I don’t want to be the fastest girl,” she said. “I want to be the fastest racer.”

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