Tuesday Conversation: Melissa Paris

This weekend, Melissa Paris will make history by possibly becoming the first woman to compete in the World Supersport class, at the Miller Motorsports Park round of the World Superbike series (we’ve been unable to definitively confirm this). Paris, the wife of American Superbike racer Josh Hayes, also campaigned this year’s Daytona 200, and she’s been working hard to prepare for this weekend. We caught up with her this afternoon by phone in Utah, where she’s spending the week after campaigning a WERA round this past weekend.

RRX: How did the decision to do this race come about?
Melissa Paris: You probably remember a month and a half ago, a press release went out, basically inviting whoever wanted to to put in an application for a wildcard ride. So whenever that happened, I remember seeing it, and I was like, “Oh, okay, whatever,” and then I got a call from Mark Rozema, who builds all my bikes and basically runs everything that he put in an application for us. Honestly, at that point, I still didn’t think much of it, because I just figured that they wouldn’t ever give me that shot. And then a lo and behold, a couple weeks ago, I got a phone call, and they’re like, “You’re in!”

What did you think when you got the call?
It’s funny, it’s such a mixed emotion: on the one hand, it’s like, “Oh my gosh, it’s so exciting,” and on the other it’s like absolute, sheer terror [laughs]. Because before, it was like, “Man, wouldn’t that be cool if I got a wildcard?” and then all of a sudden you do, and you’re like, “Oh, crap, I’ve got to actually go do this now!”

How have you been preparing?
Well, the first thing was a huge, mad scramble to try to get everything in order: the FIM license, reading all the rules and figuring out what kind of a motor we need to get built, and all the things that are different from the AMA stuff, so we could get all that sorted out. That was a big task, and then aside from that was just trying to find the funding to pay for it, because it’s really expensive. GYTR is helping us get the parts to build the engine and everything else we need, and LeoVince stepped up a lot too, just to help me cover all the fees for the race—that was huge. Other than that, Josh has got some on-board camera from 2006 at Miller Motorsports Park that I’ve been watching about four or five times a day. I actually raced here this past weekend for a national and got some track time in. At this point, I’ve just got to go out there and do my best.

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