Kicking dirt in their faces

When the big 450cc-powered off-road motorcycle comes blasting past leaving behind a trail of dust, few think that the petite-looking Taye Perry (22) from Pretoria is the rider. Her long, dark hair billows from underneath the white helmet and her attitude says she is in control – the young Perry cannot wait for the 2014 off-road racing season to start.

Perry is a small (1,65m), bubbly young lady who has been doing off-road racing since the age of 15 when she competed on a 125cc motorcycle. Her latest results say it all – her commitment and passion for racing resulted in her finishing second in the Ladies Class Challenge after she finished all seven rounds of the 2013 national off-road season. Racing for Team Bert Smith Racing Powered by RAD KTM, she also walked away with a double victory after winning the Ladies Class on both days of the gruelling Mantswabisi Botswana Desert, completing a course of almost 1 000km over just two days.

These two victories completed her list of 29 class wins after completing 102 races in her short racing career and she plans to add a few more to her list this year. Perry will again form part of Team Bert Smith All Stars Racing Powered by RAD KTM when she competes in the Combined Ladies Class National Championship. She will also compete in the competitive Gauteng-based PS Portable Shade GOC Series and will tackle the shorter 180km sprint events with the same enthusiasm she has for the longer and more serious national events.

Although Perry grew up in Centurion, she went to Bekker High School in Magaliesburg, where she matriculated. She still lives in Centurion, near the headquarters of Team Bert Smith Racing. But it all started before that in 2006 when the bike racing bug bit her at the tender age of 15. Taye’s father, Hein, had a bike and although it was quite natural that she might enjoy racing, the family did not expect their model-type daughter to like it so much that she made it her ‘career’.

In 2007 she competed in the Junior National Off-road Championship, finishing all the races, and the next year she took her racing to another level when she became the highest placed female rider in every race she participated in. In the same year, she attempted to race quads and although she scored podium positions, she realised that she preferred to compete on two wheels.

In 2009 she joined Junior Team Suzuki as well as the all-women team (Team Perfect Look Racing) and started competing on a national level. Again the results and the trophies streamed in. A year later she moved on to a bigger bike and won the Ladies Class of the GOC Off-road Series competing with a 250cc-powered motorcycle. She won this class again in 2011 and also competed in Super Motard racing, where she finished fourth for the day in her first national attempt. While competing in more Super Motard races, she was still focused on her off-road racing career and this dedication paid off, as she scored a hat-trick by winning the Ladies Class in the GOC series for the third consecutive year.

Perry trains for her racing by riding her motorcycle after work together with members of the Bert Smith team. Although she is a real girly-girl, towing her bike on a trailer to wherever she needs it is no problem for her. She usually meets the rest of the team at tracks outside Pretoria where they train together and is also involved in training other women and youngsters.

A busy racing schedule awaits Perry, who will compete in seven national off-road events all over the country as well as eight GOC races. She hopes to be competing in the Namaqua African Rally, a ‘Dakar-style’ Rally Raid event that takes place from 25 April to 3 May at the Western Cape coast, where riders will have to complete more than 350km a day for six days.

Perry is serious about her responsibility towards her team and sponsors as well as women in motor sport in South Africa and wants to promote her beloved sport to draw more into the industry. Perry will compete in the Seeding Event outside Bronkhorstspruit on 1 February. This event will determine the starting order for the first round of the national off-road championship, the Diamond Route 400, at Wolmaransstad in the North-West.