The series is motorcycle racing’s answer to the burgeoning F1 Academy.
Now into just its second year, WorldWCR is an all-female road racing series on the support card to the FIM Superbike World Championship.
WorldWCR features bikes two tiers below WSBK. In single-seater terms, that’s the equivalent of a Formula 3 car.
Yamaha supplies the championship with a fleet of YZF-R7 bikes, which are powered by a 689cc engine.
While men and women can compete on four wheels as equals, Relph says the reality isn’t the same on two wheels.
“Everybody does say that women can race against men — it’s something that’s really opened up my eyes in WorldWCR is that for so many years, women have been trying to do something that is statistically impossible,” Relph told Speedcafe.
“There are no women racing in World Superbikes, there are no women racing in MotoGP, and there never has been. WorldWCR, what it actually does is finally give us an opportunity to race on the world stage in something that’s not a Supersport 300.
“Supersport 300, yes, women are incredibly competitive against the men because we’re on a lighter machine. You then step up that machine weight and horsepower and then statistically it does get incredibly hard to be a woman racing in the higher competitive categories.
“What WorldWCR basically does is finally give us an opportunity to race something that’s bigger and also be incredibly competitive at the same time.”
Relph, 28, said she initially wasn’t fond of the idea of a female-only series.
Growing up, she had always raced against her male counterparts in the Australian Superbike Championship and was able to beat them on any given day.
However, the reality of trying to make any meaningful headway up the ladder internationally was increasingly difficult.
“To be honest, I’ve always been against female dedicated championships, because for so long I’ve just been trying to prove myself – I am as fast as the boys,” she explained.
“It got to a stage where I was getting older, the kids that were going into Supersport 300 were getting younger, I tried to ride a Supersport 600 and it was so incredibly tough on my body, on my strength, on my size as well. I’m only 155 centimetres tall. I just couldn’t throw the weight around as well as I could on the Supersport 300.”
In 2019, Relph retired from riding. She was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease and gave away the sport to focus on her health.
The advent of the WorldWCR in 2024 opened the door for her to make a return to riding at a level she never thought possible.
“I retired because my health was just incredibly bad. Crohn’s disease is a pretty crap diagnosis and I knew that there was nothing else to do because I tried the Supersport 600 and I just wasn’t really as fast as what I wanted to be on it,” Relph explained.
“I took a bit of a break for four years or so and then finally got my health back under control. The second that this women’s world championship came up, I was like, ‘Hey, this is my time. This is finally my chance to race on a world stage’.
“I put my application in and I didn’t think I was going to get selected, especially after having so many years away from racing. I got the notification that I got selected and I guess the rest is history.”
Relph finished seventh in the 2024 season with a season-best third place finish at the Cremona Circuit in Italy.
She’ll begin her 2025 campaign at Assen in the Netherlands as part of the third round of the FIM Superbike World Championship.
“For me to have this opportunity was a no-brainer for me,” said Relph.
“It’s something that I’ve been working so hard towards for my whole entire life, and now I finally get to do that.
“I’m 28 years old and I take a lot more appreciation for my sport now. So I think it’s come at a really, really good time.
“I’m the fastest that I’ve ever been, I’m the strongest that I’ve ever been, I’m the fittest that I’ve ever been. I thought that this opportunity was never going to be available for me.
“I gave up all hope that I could race full-time in a world championship. When that aspiration gets taken away from you, when it finally then gets given to you, you’re like, right, this is what I thought was never gonna happen.
“I’m going to put in 110 percent to do everything that I can. So for us now, I guess the pinnacle is to win a race in the world championship.
“Last year I was on the podium. This year I want to win.”
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