Women's champ on R1

From Yamaha Racing

Yamaha has long recognized that not only many women ride motorcycles, but that they like to ride fast on a race track too. The most recent proof comes in the shape of current Women' Road Racing European Champion in the 1000 class Nina Prinz, who will team up with Yamaha in 2008.

Twenty-five-year-old Nina, from Mannheim/Leutkirch in Germany, won all three 2007 European Women Championship races sanctioned by the UEM (European Motorcycle Union). This success landed her with the opportunity to defend her title on Yamaha's YZF-R1 Superbike flagship, which she will race for the first time at Misano (I) on April 13, then Assen (NL) on June 15 and the final Championship round will be held at Albacete (ESP) on Oct. 12.

Prinz and her R1 will also be competing in the male-dominated IDM German Superbike Championship for Team Yamaha Motor Germany, riding alongside former 2000 World Supersport champion Jorg Teuchert and Polish rider Andrzej Pawalec.

Prinz got into motorcycle racing via minibikes and got really serious when she entered the national ADAC Junior Cup in Germany in 2000. Since then she has graduated through National Supersport racing, improving all the time, before adding some IDM Superbike experience and European Women's Championship rides to her portfolio in 2006.