Debbie Matthews, right, instructs a rider. Matthews will go into the AMA Hall of Fame in early October. Matthews holds the record for longest consecutive professional and amateur career in women’s motocross after racing for 27 years.
Debbie Matthews said her decades of work in the motorcycle, motocross industry has been a labor of love.
Her passion for the sport started at the age of 15, and still drives her to this day.
She co-founded the Women’s Motocross League in 1996, paving the way for female riders across the country.
After 50 years of competing, teaching and working in the industry, the Gardnerville resident will go into the AMA Hall of Fame Oct. 10 in Pickerington, Ohio.
“To be recognized as one of the best of our industry means a lot to me,” Matthews said. “The sport is something I am super passionate about; still passionate about. … Anything I can do to grow the sport and make it better, encourage people to be themselves, … I am all in.”
As a woman in a male dominated industry, Matthews has been challenged nearly every step of the way in her career.
LIFETIME OF COMMITMENT
Matthews remembers her introduction to motorcycles vividly.
When she was 15, growing up in Southern California, her parents sold one of their Porsches to buy everyone in the family motorcycles as a way to keep the family together.
Even before they got motorcycles, Matthews was learning the ins-and-outs of mechanic work from her father.
“It drove my mom nuts. (She’s) supposed to be teaching (me) how to cook and clean. You have to remember this was in the 1970s,” said Matthews of her early work in the garage. “I look back on it now and I have these conversations with my mom and I learned those things. It was just different.”
Matthews scored a 97 percent on her mechanical aptitude test as a youth, surprising enough people that she was forced to take it again.
She scored a 98 percent on her second test.
“They brought me back in and re-tested me because they thought I cheated or there was a mistake. I scored higher the second time and my dad just laughed,” Matthews said.
It didn’t take long for her riding career to take off, either.
In 1974 at the age of 15, Matthews got on the bike for the first time. She needed all of two years before she was rated as the No. 2 amateur racer in the country. She went on to turn pro at 18.
Her success spanned decades and she still holds the record for the longest consecutive career — spanning 27 years on both professional and amateur circuits.
Racing against male competitors in an industry dominant by men exposed Matthews to plenty of chauvinistic attitudes.
“It got to the point that I took my name off my gear because when you go flying past a guy and it says Debbie on your gear they come after you because they don’t like that,” said Matthews. “They grew to respect that. It was never a girl versus a guy thing. I’m a competitor and if I’m racing with you it’s my job to try and beat you. … It was challenging across the board, it didn’t matter which aspect.”
She credits plenty of her success to her mechanic work, too, being able to keep the same bike in racing shape after hours of practice per day.
COACHING AVENUE
Matthews began coaching the sport before she had retired from racing.
She saw a need and pursued an opportunity to continue growing the sport she loved in another way.
After co-founding the Women’s Motocross League in 1996, Matthews continued to be involved until her retirement from racing in 2004.
In the early stages of growing the league, Matthews was doing it all – from racing professionally, to running a teaching business, all the while growing a young family at home.
The turnout she inspired forced the industry to take notice.
“A lot of times when women would try to go to motocross schools that existed, they were passed over. … The women were not being marketed to in our industry. My partner and I looked at that and said this is nuts,” Matthews said. “We started with four women to use as a catalyst and get the media’s attention on it. We then started getting that info disseminated to the women. We went from four riders to 3,000 in six months.”
She was her own publicist, too, writing articles and taking photos in-between the races.
“I was taking pictures in the pits, then (would) hand my camera to a professional photographer and say ‘hey can you take the pictures because I have to go race,’” Matthews said. “I was getting calls from all over the world. Australia, Italy, Iceland. My phone was ringing 24 hours a day. My poor kids, the fax machine was by their room and it was going off at 3 in the morning.”
Looking back on it, she’s still not entirely sure how she pulled it off.
After all, there are only 24 hours in a day.
PURSUING A PASSION
Today, Matthews is still coaching, working with riders as old as 70 and as young as age four.
She’s coached professionals such as Ashley Fiolek, who went on to win two gold medals in the X Games and became a four-time National Pro Champion.
Her hands and mind still love to tinker in the garage, too, even if that has become more challenging on her body with age.
She credits her long tenure in the sport to the support of her children and husband, Brian, who she met while racing.
The AMA Hall of Fame recently asked for her bike — a Kawasaki KX 250 — to put on display.
It was the same bike she had raced on for decades.
Matthews has lived in Gardnerville for about six years. She said while getting into the Hall of Fame is a momentous honor, it won’t be the bookend of her fondness in motorcycles.
“Maybe people say ‘I’m in the hall I’m done.’” said Matthews, “Not me. I don’t think I’m going to stop loving motorcycles or being involved with it until the day I die. I kind of feel like, in some ways, it’s my life work.”
(Debbie Matthews flies through the air, during a race in Los Angeles. Matthews will go into the AMA Hall of Fame Oct. 10. / Courtesy Debbie Matthews)