Pioneering youngster ready for big challenges
Ran Yochay grew up riding motorcycles, inspired by her father’s love for racing and encouraged to push herself to the limit. Having also been a keen dancer and horse rider as a child, she played piano and guitar too, before “at some point everything became about motorcycles”. The 21 year-old from Tel Aviv works as a rider coach to children and adults at her father’s race track and having become the youngest ever female finisher of the epic Red Bull Romaniacs hard enduro event she is an inspirational figure.
From the local scene to European competition
Yochay describes ‘falling in love’ with motorcycles when she tried her first bike – a PW80 – as a young child. She started racing in motocross when she was just eight years-old and she would go on to win the Israeli championship in that discipline in 2017 and 2018, also competing in supermoto and winning national championships in that format in 2018 and 2019. Notably at the age of 15 in 2018 she competed in Red Bull Romaniacs and became the youngest ever female finisher in one of the toughest enduro races in the world. She began road racing in 2018 and soon decided that would be where she would put her sporting focus. Her first full SSP season was in 2021 in the Women’s cup in which she finished 12th. In 2023 she finished sixth in the Women’s European championship and this year she combines her WorldWCR debut with participation in the Italian R7 cup.
On raising her level in Europe
In terms of making progress once she began to compete at the international level, Yochay states, “It was difficult for me to learn how to ride, to know what to do and when I rode in Europe I was shocked. It was another world for me. It was like going into space! Like the most basic things in Europe for me were incredible. Like having a box or like the trucks that the teams come with, my mind was exploding. We are trying to get it here in Israel, but it will take a long time. Even the coaches in Israel are riders that learned to ride by themselves. I went to Spain a lot of times and spent time there with coaches. Really there’s no feeling compared to the freedom and joy felt on the bike, and nothing compares to the adrenaline in a race.”
A remarkable Romaniac
Explaining the story behind her Red Bull Romaniacs participation, she says, “There was a guy around my age that was riding with me and he went to do Red Bull Romaniacs when he was 15. He was a little bit older than me, I didn’t know the race yet and I watched him and said, ‘I want to do that next year’. My Dad was like, ‘What? It will be tricky, but if you really want to do it we can try’. I was really small when I was young, now I’m taller and I have more power, but then I was 15 and I didn’t even really reach the ground on my bike. We spent a whole year preparing, training and learning how to navigate with the GPS. Then when we went there, the first few days we were training before the race and that’s when I got the realisation of what I’d got myself into. All the other competitors were really big guys, really tall and strong. It was a special year, the 15th year and they decided to do a special edition. Instead of 150km each day it was 250km, you had to go into the mountains and it was raining so much. People were getting stuck on the uphills. You looked up at the mountains and it was just full of riders, so you had to go in between them and it was incredibly hard. Only 20 people finished the first day out of 500. It’s something that I’ll remember forever. An experience that I’m so happy I’ve done, but I don’t think I’ll ever do that again!”
Respect for Marquez the warrior
“My favourite rider is Marc Marquez because he never gives up and he has the mentality of a winner,” comments Yochay, noting that watching the Amazon Prime Video documentary ‘All In’ about the eight-time World Champion had a big impact on her. She explains, “I remember watching the series about him, the injury he had with his shoulder, how he got over it and so on. It showed a lot about how strong he was to have this really difficult injury, thinking he might even have to quit, to coming back and being on top again. Getting podiums again, finding another team that would be better for him. I was really looking up to that, how much strength you need to find inside yourself to do something like that. It was really important for me to see. I’ve had a lot of injuries in motocross, I’ve broken a lot of bones and had to come back. But the most difficult one for me was a big crash in Misano and I had really bad concussion, I was evacuated with the helicopter. It was a really difficult experience. Then I had a really difficult time to get back on the bike because I had a fear of crashing, but I didn’t realise I had a fear of crashing. It was around the time the show came out about Marc and I was watching it and it really helped me with what I was dealing with.”
An inspirational father
In addition to the motivation Yochay has garnered from watching Marquez’ career and his many comebacks, she states it is her father who has taught her the most. “Not just riding wise but with everything, my Dad for sure is the one I’ve learned from,” she reveals. “On the mental side of riding, how to manage yourself with the teams, with people. If ever there is a problem he’s the one you are going to call, because you know he’s going to have the solution. He always has the answer. Even if he is not telling you what to do, but telling you how to think about it. Giving you the directions. My Mum is also there at every single race, every time cheering for me, maybe a little bit scared! She is also the best supporter, making sure I eat and I drink properly, taking care of me and always there to help.”
Promoting racing in her home country
With her father Yochay works closely together on many aspects of racing, not only on furthering her career, but also on the promotion of the sport in Israel at a national level. “I work at my father’s racetrack coaching kids and adults,” she comments. “He started it in 2017 I think it was. It was the first road racing track in Israel and after that two more were built following it. His goal is to develop motorsport in Israel, so he is really involved in the racing direction and the federations with the racetrack. Racing here is still really at the beginning. As the years go by it’s something that people have started to understand more as a sport. Right now a lot of the riders are from the road coming to try a race track for a track day and that’s our main work at the track. We have the Israeli championship but it’s not a lot of riders yet. It’s just starting to build up slowly.”
Ran on her hobbies and her love for travelling…
“I like surfing, going to the beach and I love working out. I love travelling and hiking. I’ve been to Zanzibar and Tanzania and they are the most incredible magical places. We went on a safari and then we went to the jungle, then the beaches and the sea. Everything there is so magical. The people are just always happy, they have this joy that is unbelievable. It’s incredible to see how happy they are with the small things in life and it teaches you a lot about how you should be so much more appreciative of everything you have.”
