- Tracey Bryan is the only woman rider to win multiple races at the Whanganui Cemetery Circuit, achieving back-to-back victories in 2024 and 2025.
- Her success spans riding and passengering at the highest levels of sidecar racing in New Zealand and internationally, including the USA and UK.
- Bryan’s achievements are based on performance, not novelty, in one of the most demanding and dangerous forms of road racing.
Tracey Bryan has rewritten Whanganui Cemetery Circuit history, becoming the only woman rider to win multiple races at the iconic Boxing Day event.
While 2025 rightly celebrated Harriet Grace as the first woman to win a solo motorcycle race at Whanganui’s legendary Boxing Day meeting, another piece of motorsport history had already been written twelve months earlier — and it deserves just as much recognition.
At the 2024 running of the iconic Cemetery Circuit, Tracey Bryan became the first woman to win a race from the controls at the notoriously unforgiving street circuit, taking victory in the fiercely competitive Formula 2 sidecar class. She then backed it up in 2025 — so winning not once, but twice — cementing her place in New Zealand road racing history.
Women have stood on the top step at Whanganui before. Margaret Halliday famously won as a sidecar passenger alongside Australian legend Doug Chivas in the 1980s. But Bryan’s achievement was different. She wasn’t swinging from the platform — she was steering the outcome, wrestling a sidecar outfit through concrete-lined streets where precision and commitment matter more than brute force.
A Sidecar Career Built the Hard Way
Tracey Bryan’s sidecar journey began back in 2006, when — at the age of 30 — she bought a $500 outfit and decided to go racing. Unsure whether to ride or passenger, a simple coin toss made the decision. It landed in her favour — and Bryan has been behind the handlebars ever since.
She later upgraded to a machine with serious pedigree: a former Isle of Man TT–winning sidecar built and raced by 17-time TT winner Dave Molyneux. Bryan made it unmistakably her own by painting it pink — a deliberate statement that there were two women racing head-to-head in a field dominated by men.
Results soon followed. Over the years, Bryan has claimed three consecutive New Zealand Formula 2 sidecar titles with different passengers, recorded a third place at an Australian Championship round, and finished first-equal on points in the 2022–23 NZSBK Formula 2 sidecar championship.
Bryan also took a break from riding and passengered a Formula 1 outfit for Aaron Lovell and then Barry Smith, gaining numerous race wins and NZ TT titles. Barry Smith and Tracey took the Carl Cox Formula 2 machine to two BSB Rounds, one at Knockhill in Scotland and then to the Brands Hatch GP Circuit where they held their own amongst world class teams. She also went on to passenger for 8 times world champion Tim Reeves at Phillip Island and for Estelle Le Blond (TT Rider) at the Hengello Street Circuit in Holland. And if that wasn’t enough, she has also passengered on a classic sidecar over the years, laying claim to being the current lap record holder at the Cemetery Circuit with her brother Bryan riding – a record held for the last 8 years! It is rare to get someone who can both ride and passenger at such a high level.
An attempt to race at the Isle of Man TT was cruelly derailed by injuries sustained during the New Zealand nationals, preventing her from receiving medical clearance. But international ambition didn’t stop there.
Taking on the World
In 2023, Bryan and long-time passenger Jo Franzen shipped the Carl Cox Honda CBR600-powered outfit to the United States, firstly racing at Laguna Seca where they not only took out a win, but briefly held the lap record and followed up with a 2nd place. Then they headed to the prestigious Barnett Sidecar Revival and Barber Vintage Festival. Backed by DJ and motorsport enthusiast Carl Cox, the Kiwi pairing stunned local competitors with a string of impressive finishes with a first and second place.
Street Racing Success at Whanganui
With Franzen stepping away temporarily to start a family, Bryan teamed up with Kendal Dunlop in 2024. The new pairing clicked immediately, culminating in Bryan’s first Cemetery Circuit victory at the end of the year, followed by a solid fourth place in the NZSBK sidecar standings and the first F2
Franzen returned for the 2025 season — and the results were emphatic. Bryan and Franzen won every race of the Suzuki International Series, starting at Taupō, continuing through Manfeild, and finishing on the streets of Whanganui on Boxing Day.
Switching from circuits to public roads required setup changes, but pace was never in doubt. Despite not starting from pole, Bryan and Franzen forced their way to the front in both F2 races.
Race one delivered classic Cemetery Circuit drama: three sidecars locked together, inches apart, paint traded and the crowd packed between Turns 1 and 2 watching the leaders fan out three-wide. Bryan committed to the inside line, held her nerve, and emerged in control — never relinquishing the lead.
Race two threw even more at them. Heavy rain arrived just before the start, forcing last-minute setup calls and an educated guess at tyre pressures due to running the team untried Hoosier rubber. The gamble paid off. Despite a rival sidecar flipping and the leaders briefly gaining a full straight advantage, Bryan and Franzen fought back with a stunning double pass through the tight esses — one of the boldest moves of the meeting — and rode it home for another win.
By season’s end, Bryan had eight wins from eight starts in the Suzuki International Series and had secured back-to-back Cemetery Circuit victories.
In doing so, Tracey Bryan became the only woman rider to have won multiple races at the Cemetery Circuit — one of New Zealand’s most demanding and dangerous road racing venues.
More Than a Milestone
Bryan’s success isn’t about novelty — it’s about performance. Sidecar racing demands extreme physical effort, absolute trust between rider and passenger, and the ability to make split-second decisions at high speed with zero margin for error. Bryan has mastered all of it.
Her achievements sit proudly alongside a growing list of Kiwi women excelling at the highest levels of motorcycle racing, from Avalon Lewis in the Women’s Circuit Racing World Championship, to motocross superstar Courtney Duncan, and off-road standout Rachael Archer dominating in the United States.
But when it comes to conquering Whanganui’s narrow streets on three wheels, Tracey Bryan stands alone — calm, committed, and rewriting history one Boxing Day at a time.
To follow Tracey and the Carl Cox Motorsport NZ Sidecar Team, make sure to give them a follow on FaceBook. You can find them HERE.
