A Motorcycle Mom Races for the Big Time : Leaving Her Life as an Executive in the Dust, Susan Zobler Pursues an Exciting, Gritty Sport
Susan Zobler, a regular at the Willow Springs International Raceway near Lancaster, sure made a grand entrance when she appeared on the racing scene.
She drove a gleaming black Mercedes when most around her drove dusty four-wheel-drive vehicles. In tow was a top-of-the-line Honda motorcycle, the kind that most riders could only hope to own.
And now, 2 1/2 years later, when she climbs aboard her motorcycle to focus on a race, it’s with the aggressiveness and grace that her former high-paying job as a retail executive demanded. But for Zobler, one of only half a dozen women in the United States who raced at the national level last year, breaking gender barriers in a sport dominated by young tough guys is at times as challenging as breaking speed records.
“Some of the guys thought that the only reason I was participating in the sport was that I have tons of money and I don’t have anything better to do,” the Northridge resident said with a smile.
She has little patience for those who tell her she can’t do something because she’s a woman or because that’s not the way things are done.
“I’m out to prove them wrong,” Zobler said. “That is part of my motivational package--the challenge of someone saying you can’t do it.”
Zobler first rode a motorcycle in May, 1992. Her boyfriend, ski instructor Eddie Schipper, had taken her out on his sport bike on Angeles Crest Highway, and she asked if she could drive. She was instantly hooked. A month later she bought her first motorcycle, one with a powerful 900-cubic-centimeter engine. She took classes to learn the basics of track riding at Willow Springs, and by November, she had earned her racing license.
Many male racers were aghast when, 18 months after she first started, the 5-foot-4, 100-pound novice began racing her Honda CBR900--the equivalent of an inexperienced skier’s using super-long skis. Zobler, who races a middleweight 600 as well as the 900, said she just took their criticisms in stride.
She is comfortable riding the more powerful bike, and “that’s more important than what people think.”
Others wondered how the raw sport of motorcycle racing could hold an attraction for the polished manager of an upscale department store, Bullock’s in Thousand Oaks.
Zobler, who said she is in her late 30s but declined to give her exact age because she fears that potential sponsors will shy away from an older racer, said a midlife crisis spurred her toward the expensive, often-dangerous sport. Three months before taking her first ride, she separated from her husband of nine years.
Racing, Zobler said, “did give me the opportunity to put myself into something that I could call my own after a long time of working long hours, raising kids and a husband that was never home at night. I had no life.”
Zobler’s penchant for breaking the gender barrier can be traced to her childhood. A self-described tomboy, she preferred playing army with the boys to playing with dolls. She has had a fascination with fast cars since her teens, and with a daredevil spirit, she and her former husband used to race their “his and hers” Porsches on Mulholland Drive.
Already, Zobler has tasted success as a motorcycle racer, particularly in endurance racing, in which teams compete in four- to eight-hour races. Last year, she was invited to participate in the national endurance-race series of the Western Eastern Roadway Assn., or WERA. She is one of only six women who compete with men on a national level, said officials at WERA and the American Motorcyclist Assn.
She and a teammate earned enough points in the series to compete in WERA’s Grand National Final, where they finished a respectable sixth in their racing class.
Her admirers call her a smooth, consistent racer who has made solid progress in a short period of time.
“She’s intelligent; she’s a thinking rider,” said Kenny Kopecki, operations manager at Willow Springs, in Rosamond, where she is a member of the racing club. “Considering her amount of time, I’d have to say she’s doing excellent.”
Keith Code, known as the guru of motorcycle road racing, has worked with Zobler. “I think she can become the best woman racer in the United States,” he said. “She’s got a calm determination about it.”
But others say they are not sure she will be successful enough to make a full-time career of racing.
“She could have a real nice hobby as a racer, but I don’t see her as a professional superstar,” said John Ulrich, editor of Roadracing World & Motorcycle Technology, who provided the Suzuki GSXR600 that Zobler raced in the endurance series.
Motorcycle racing is a tough sport, particularly for women, Zobler and others said. There are few other women racers with whom to share concerns, and some male racers openly express their disdain for the women racers.
Serious injury is among Zobler’s worst fears. She has crashed four times in the past two years, once seriously enough to send her to the hospital with a fracture.
Zobler has set some high goals: She wants to be a competitive national racer, the fastest woman in the country, and attract enough sponsors to pay her racing expenses, which can add up to $900 a month.
Those goals may be easier to reach now that Zobler has more time to devote to them. In October, she left her job at Bullock’s, feeling that her advancement opportunities were limited. She now lives off her savings.
Although sometimes her sense of parental duty makes her wonder if her motorcycle habit is a form of irresponsibility--she has two sons, Derek, 8, and Sven, 6--there is no question of giving it up.
“When you’re riding at this level, you completely forget about everything else,” she said. “It’s walking the fine line; it keeps you in touch with your mortality.”
