Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Rayra Motorsports

I ran across this shop/driver/blog about a month or so ago; Rayra (Layla?) Motorsports. I wish I knew a little more of the back story behind this driver/shop, but through these photos (and reading a bit on her blog/website) you can see she's been driving what you wish you were for over a decade. This particular driver, a mother of two sons, 20 & 25 years of age (just for an indirect reference to her age), started off as with motorcross at age 14. With experience growing up racing Honda motorcycles and eventually a few modded EG6s, she went on to drive a couple of EK9s and a DC5 in various west-Japan one-make race series for a shop called Prime Garage. As a three time Civic West Series champion in '94, '95, and '97, and the Integra West Series champion in '02, she then took the reins behind a N2 Nissan Sivlia Cup S13, and an N2 AE11. She currently pilots the Rayra Motorsports' pink SXE10 and AP1 that holds the Gold Cup SS2 class course record at Autopolis.

I suppose the rarity of highly-skilled female drifters (GalDori if you wanna call it, thank Tosh and the JDM Insider guys for that term) might be more enticing than women who grip-drive well, but I don't know if I agree though. There's definitely something worthwhile to say about a woman who can out-drive her man gripping, and she's a rarity herself. But does she exist in the United States? Or is this just one more thing better sought after and shipped over from Japan? Haha.

Regardless, check out some of the Rayra Motorsports autos (and past chassis with Prime Garage), and don't forget the pink racesuit that I could totally see Tym donning:

http://www.rayra.com/

-Nick

Bonus - Video of Rayra Motorsports AP1 participation in the HSR Honda one-make race, on Nov. 23, 2008. Just follow the link, ignore the Japanese if you can't read it, and click play. In-car footage from Autopolis awaits: http://minkara.carview.co.jp/userid/272201/blog/11168504/

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