Kayla Yaakov beats Darryn Binder, what a story: first woman on the podium at the Daytona 200

In the previous 83 editions of the Daytona 200, the best race finish achieved by a female rider was ninth place. Kayla Yaakov, born in 2007 and turning 19 next June, has emphatically raised that bar. Her podium on Saturday, beating Darryn Binder in a sprint for third, further cements her place in American motorsport history.

Now three years into MotoAmerica Supersport with the Rahal Ducati Moto team owned by Graham Rahal and managed by Ben Spies, Kayla Yaakov has established herself as a consistent Top-5 presence. A podium is nothing new for her, but doing it at Daytona, only in her second appearance at the event (she finished 11th in 2023), marks the pinnacle of her young career.

Women’s motorcycling began making inroads at the Daytona 200 in the early 1980s. Gina Bovaird, the only woman to have also raced in the 500cc World Championship, was the first to qualify for the event in 1980: 42nd on the grid before finishing 20th in the race. Soon after came appearances by Canadians Toni Sharpless and Kathlenn Coburn, who did not finish higher than 25th, in an era when Yamaha also took them to race the Suzuka 8 Hours, the Bol d’Or, and the 24 Heures Motos at Le Mans. Before Kayla Yaakov, the 2013 edition marked a prestigious milestone for women’s motorcycling with two riders in the Top 10: Elena Myers (who won an AMA SuperSport race at Daytona in 2012) ninth, and Melissa Paris tenth.

Despite her young age, Kayla Yaakov has built substantial experience in the MotoAmerica paddock, from her victories in the Junior Cup to podiums in Supersport. The latest at Daytona, with full merit: throughout the contest she stayed in the top-5 mix, nipping former MotoGP rider Darryn Binder by 0.166 seconds in the dash to the line. She quickly learned a fundamental rule of the Florida Speedway: to win a photo finish, you must exit the Bus Stop behind your rival. That’s what she did, and that’s how she earned a podium already etched in the history of American motorsport.