Bente Boer

Her passion for motorsport started long before she was old enough to understand what racing meant. Her parents raced rally cars together for years, her father driving and her mother navigating. She kept competing while pregnant, until it was no longer possible.

Where other children played with dolls, she played almost exclusively with toy cars. Years of ballet taught her discipline, perseverance and control, but the passion for motorsport never moved. When she was twelve her parents divorced, and her father went looking for something the two of them could do together. He came across an old go-kart. They restored it and started at Kartbaan Strijen, and in her first season she finished third in the club championship, the only girl among all the boys.

Club racing became the Dutch championship and European rounds, where the limit was the equipment rather than the driver. Working inside a race team from 2019 showed her the answer: one-make cup racing, where the cars are equal and the driver decides. She promised herself she would be on the Mazda MX-5 Cup grid in 2022, found the sponsors, made the plan and bought the car. In 2024 she finished third overall out of 65 drivers, the only woman in the field.

Everything that pays for it happens off the track. She teaches school, runs her own karting competition for girls who want a way into the sport, and organises her own events for partners.