Team Principal Maddi Patterson shares her ambitions with Motorsport Week for Sekhmet International Motorcycle Racing Team in the inaugural FIM Women’s Motorcycling World Championship set to kick off in Emilia Romagna this June.
From fire to the front lines, each day in the paddock led Maddi Patterson to start her very own race team after a decade in motorsport.
Sekhmet, an Egyptian deity born from fire, is more than just a team name. Patterson was involved in an accident in 2020, which burned 60% of her body.
Reborn from the flames, Patterson endured and overcame the pain to make a full recovery in parallel to Sekhmet.
“I had to learn to wake up every day with a bit of gratitude,” Patterson told Motorsport Week. “Not every day is a good day, but that’s fine. A little bit of gratitude goes a long way, and it makes me feel excited that I get to live my life on my own terms and create something that other people want to be a part of.
“You don’t get the opportunity to have your first time more at something than once. So to run an all-female team in a women’s dedicated championship, to make history, to go out and win respect, to show capability and the right to be there made a lot of sense to me.”
Patterson doesn’t come from a line of racers, she started in motorsport as an umbrella girl and then jumped into sales, marketing, and presenting to work her way up to becoming a Team Principal.
Sat in a press conference during the Prometeon Spanish Round at the Circuito de Jerez in April last year listening to the announcement of a new all-female motorcycle racing series, something clicked for the Aussie.
Patterson explained: “This is a bit of timing is everything, believe it or not. They announced the Women’s World Championship and I thought, ‘Maybe I should do it’. I made sure that I asked every single question I could in that press conference.
“I went to TT two weeks later and saw a lot of my friends struggling because their teams weren’t as prepared as they should have been for what was the most dangerous race that you could run. I left that event thinking, ‘No, I will start the team,’ and then it clicked.”
The all-female motorcycling race series received the go-ahead in October last year, with plans for one pre-season test and six rounds integrated into the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship.
Working in secret alongside her full-time day job in the paddock, Patterson has rallied up several sponsors and partners to make this dream become a reality.
“It’s been nine months of secret hard work. I don’t know exactly how I’ve managed to do it, but it’s been 10 years of buildup so I’ve got quite a good feeling.
“I can’t imagine doing this with anyone else now. Everybody supports each other, they’re able to come to work and feel special and valued. I have no doubt we will have arguments, but it’s my job to handle that and be there step by step.”
Founded as part of her agency PHNX Powersport Promotions, Sekhmet International Racing Team has industrial partners like Life & Engines, Females in Motorsport, Click Diversity, and Moto California.
The team will make a debut in Emilia Romagna on the Misano World Circuit on June 14th 2024, with riders Lissy Whitmore and Mallory Dobbs.
The 19-year-old British rider Lissy Whitmore started her journey on mini bikes, picking up trophies across bikes and karts until she earned her ACU license in 2019 to kickstart her journey onto racing bigger bikes on iconic circuits like Donington Park.
“I met Lissie when she was 16, she was friends with TT rider Dominic Herbertson. I always say she reminds me of a bottle of champagne, you open the champagne and there are bubbles – that’s Lissie. Since I’ve known her for quite a long time, I loved the idea of as a rider because she’s not your typical circuit racer.
“She wants to do crazy things like racing the Isle of Man TT one day so Lissie made perfect sense in my mind. If you give her the right tools, she will give you the right outcome. She takes that very seriously and it gives her a lot of value.”
Mallory Dobbs, on the other hand, is a civil engineer by day and rider by night. Joining Sekhmet for the inaugural FIM women’s championship, Patterson approached the 30-year-old American rider with conviction.
“I’ve never actually met Mallory in person, which is wild,” Patterson explained. “I asked my friends in the US about Mallory and they told me ‘she kicks ass’.
“She is very good on a bike, and she has that drive to win. She’s a spirited, compassionate person, but that doesn’t mean she’s not ruthless. Mallory just respects who I am and what I’m trying to achieve, she’s willing to give me everything she can to get those goals as a team.”
Patterson doesn’t describe Sekhmet as just a racing team, they’re a family all fighting for the same thing. Drawing from her own experiences having to fight and endure, Patterson is confident that she has what it takes to be a Team Principal.
She explained: “I think experience matters. When you’re in the paddock for a long time, it’s hard and challenging. You don’t see your friends or family, and you spend so much time on the road.
“It’s my job in that position to lead with the values I want to see. I often say that the quality of a leader is presented in the values they set for themselves, not just for others. But you know, at the end of the day it’s racing and that’s a pretty freakin cool job.”
Women’s motorsport is not as barren as it used to be. More women are taking on mechanical jobs in the factories, more young women are jumping in karts and bikes, and more women are winning races.
It’s only a matter of time before women are at the forefront of motorsport, and Patterson is helping to pave the way.
“Giving young women the opportunity to see people like them on a grid is only a good thing. Whether that’s an athlete or in the background as a journalist or marketing manager, there are so many roles, engineers, mechanics, you name it. It can only be a good thing in my view.
“The reason why a lot of young girls play with dolls is because they feel safe in their community. It’s not inherently a bad thing to play with dolls, but young girls are taught from a young age that that is their community.
“If we want to broaden our community, we need to start making it more welcome. We need mums and dads telling their daughters that ‘motorsport is great, cars and bikes are fun’. This championship is all about challenging perceptions and creating a community that will be seen, heard, and respected.”
With the full list of participants for the championship confirmed, riders will kick off the women’s championship in Misano on identical Yamaha R7s on June 14th 2024 with two races per round.
