History-making American woman gets Marc Marquez MotoGP chance

History-making American racer Kayla Yaakov has had the chance to jump on Marc Marquez’s MotoGP bike at Misano.

Yaakov, who races in the Supersport class of MotoAmerica, made history earlier this year by becoming the first woman to finish in the top-three of the famous Daytona 200 race.

She rides for the team co-owned by former MotoGP rider Ben Spies and six-time IndyCar winner Graham Rahal, which runs Ducati Panigale V2s in Supersport.

This Ducati link paid off earlier this year for that Daytona performance, and once again last week when Yaakov was able to head over to Misano for World Ducati Week and sample MotoGP machinery for the first time.

Oh, and the machinery in question just happened to have Marc Marquez’s number 93 stuck on the front.

“My first time on the MotoGP bike and it was absolutely unbelievable,” Yaakov wrote in an Instagram post.

“I’ve never smiled so much on a bike like I did when I was riding this beauty of a machine.

“Thank you to every single person who made this experience possible, to all of the people who have been in my corner to allow me to achieve what I have so far with Ducati, and to those who have believed in me along the way!

“A special thank you to Ben Spies, none of what I have been able to do this season would’ve been possible without you. 

“I also want to thank PJ Jacobsen and Casey Stoner for sticking around to help and support me through the whole experience. Days like this make me realize how grateful I am to be surrounded by the best people and athletes in the world.

“The first woman to ever ride this bike, and truly a dream come true. Five-year-old me would be so happy.”

Yaakov heads back to the US this week for the next round of MotoAmerica at Laguna Seca. She currently sits fourth in the standings, 67 points behind Darryn Binder at the top, having taken a best result of second in Race 2 at Barber.