March 2, 2022 Open letter to the Vancouver Island Motocross Association, RE: Recent cancellation of the young ladies motocross race class Who we are: The MudHunniez is a women’s race team affiliated with the Vancouver Island Hare Scramble Series (VIHSS). Our mission is to build community in the womens’ riding scene and propel women into racing. We’ve become well-known in Western Canada for hosting ladies’ riding events. We are also excited to be hosting monthly ladies nights this year at Nanaimo MX. In the interest of promoting women in racing, we have some collective experience to share. Our experience: Up until 2017, we had just a handful of women riding single-track and even fewer racing in our island hare scrambles. This prompted a decision from the race committee to remove the women’s class from the roster and invite women to join into an equivalent co-ed class. After that happened, we saw the numbers decrease even further. In any given race, in the co-ed classes, we would see an average of three women TOTAL in a race field of 75-100 racers. On building engagement: We formed as the Mudhunniez and began hosting women's-only riding events and inviting new riders to join. At first, these events were drawing about a dozen women, then more like 25, and now for our weekend events, we're confident in 70-90 female participants. In tandem with these women's events, we brought back a women's race class that went from about 3 regularly attending racers to around 25. Current numbers: From there, we've seen steady growth. We have continued to add more race classes for women and girls. 2021 saw 3 full classes and for 2022, we have four on the schedule. The most recently added class is for Jr. Girls. What we know: Having a women’s class absolutely makes a difference to many riders and racers. In our case, we can directly correlate attrition in the womens’ field to the time that there was no women’s specific class. Many women have expressed to us that it is much more comfortable for them to jump in to an all-women’s class, for many reasons including the intimidation factor of being in a mixed class; wanting to compete against their own same-gender peers; or that unless it's "for them specifically" they put other commitments (including their families) first and just don't come 1 out to do this for themselves. Other women or girls who would like to ride or race, who don’t have a male partner or father in their lives to be the entry point, find even more barriers to enter the sport. We’re attempting to bridge those gaps and remove the barriers, to make it easier for girls to show up, and to build that passion for riding and racing! As we know, young racers grow in the sport and it’s important that there are events and race classes to support their transition through the ranks into higher levels of competition. Without having a structure built for succession, girls and women do not have the same chance to succeed as their male counterparts. Do you really want to be the organization that breaks the link in that chain? In closing, we've seen that there really is something powerful about holding an open space for women and girls. In our experience, when we've saved the space just for women, they DO come out, and often they'll bring a friend or two. They’ll be stoked to ride, their confidence increases and you will see fantastically skilled riders who want to represent the island nationally. We believe that it is in the interest of girls and women’s sport, as well as the interest of the VIMX to continue holding the young ladies race class. Sincerely, MudHunniez Instagram: @Mudhunniez Facebook: @vancouverislandMudHunniezRacing E-mail [email protected] 2
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