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Sonya Lloyd brings an exceptional level of versatility to the paddock, as she has proven herself a standout talent not only as a FIM Women’s Circuit Racing World Championship rider but also as a degree-holding biological engineer! Her multidisciplinary talents and knack for learning quickly have enabled her to be one of the most well-rounded riders in the paddock.

A QUICK LEARNER: "I started riding pretty late, it’s true, but I instantly fell in love with it”

Lloyd's path into the WorldWCR paddock began later than many other riders, only starting her career racing on flat tracks at 17. From there, she started road racing at 20. While she is comparatively newer to the sport than others, she has picked it up stunningly quickly and has ascended to the World Championship level over the span of just three seasons, perhaps in part due to her highly active lifestyle back across the pond, where she enjoyed playing soccer and competitive cheerleading.

On her path into the WorldWCR paddock, she said: "I started riding pretty late, it’s true, but I instantly fell in love with it. I started flat-tracking at about 17, then road racing at 20. Before I started riding, I did soccer and competitive cheerleading and stuff, so nothing super serious, just a lot of club sports. I’ve always been pretty active."

A STUDENT-ATHLETE: I really like the inventiveness of it, whereby we take inspiration from forms found in nature to engineer something

While riding competitively, Lloyd graduated in biological engineering from the University of Georgia back in 2024. Juggling both of those pursuits would understandably have been a lot for anyone to handle; however, Lloyd was not fazed by what others may have deemed as a very full plate.

On her time as a Georgia Bulldog, Lloyd said: "It wasn’t as hard as people would think to juggle it all, in fact, it was kind of nice, as I would get stressed with one part of my life and could go work on a different part of it. So, it was kind of a good balance to have my studies and my racing. But I graduated last spring after completing my capstone project. My degree is in biological engineering. I started out studying biology but then realised I really like the engineering side of things. Most people in my field go into prosthetics or something more medical. Still, I really like the inventiveness of it, whereby we take inspiration from forms found in nature to engineer something - it’s called biomimicry – for example, turbine fins are inspired by whale fins because they're the optimal design for pushing fluid. You actually see a lot of this in motorcycle racing too."

CROSSING THE POND: “I love racing with the guys in the States, but here is where I can grow as a rider, which is why I came”

While the United States have produced many legendary riders like Colin Edwards, Doug Polen, and Ben Spies, many of the sport’s teams across all classes are based in Europe. Particularly for young riders, it takes a big family commitment to send their young daughter or son across the Atlantic to pursue their career. New projects, however, like the Rookies Cup, provide an excellent opportunity to develop more North American talent. With them, Lloyd hopes to see more American riders in the WorldWCR paddock in the future.

On the development of American talent making it to the world stage, Lloyd said: "I think there is a way for children to come up in America and become professional racers, but you have to know where to look, and it's not as easy as putting your kid into soccer or something. I think the hardest part is working out how to do it, but we have some great initiatives, like with Build.Train.Race for women and now the Talent Cup and the Mini Cup, to help youngsters get into the Rookies Cup, so there are opportunities if you look for them. It’s also a bit harder to send your kid across an ocean to race, rather than just the country next door, so it's definitely a family commitment. WorldWCR is fantastic for launching women into the sport and giving them that platform. I love racing with the guys in the States, but here is where I can grow as a rider, which is why I came. I started late and obviously missed a lot of the ‘bar banging’ and tight racing growing up, so I'm starting to experience that here. I think it's great to put all these women who want to be Champions together so we can elevate each other. I think we're getting closer, and the girls at the front are no joke. I'd love to see us on some bigger bikes in the future, to help showcase that women can handle bigger bikes, maybe R9s or R1s. I'm sure the organisers had no idea how everybody was going to stack up in the first year, but it already seems a lot more competitive this year."

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