It’s not been easy to give you updates for many reasons, mainly because this is just so hard for me to take in right now. So thank you for your patience.
I can tell you I have moved hospitals and some rehab has started but I’m still waiting to go to a specialist hospital. The bruising has gone, my wrist has been plated but some bones are still mending.
I don’t have a lot more to share now but I be taking you on this journey with me, as I don’t think I can do it without you because your support so far has absolutely made the difference.
This weekend is the Goodwood Festival of Speed (I’m missing everyone so bad)!
My heartfelt thanks go to The Duke of Richmond for sharing my fundraiser page during the event. I also want to thank Duncan Pittaway for his part in raising more funds. This all means so much right now.
If you are able to donate, no matter how small the amount, every contribution really will make a difference. If you’re not in a position to donate, please consider sharing my fundraising page instead.
Thank you to everyone who has already donated 🫶🏻🫶🏻🫶🏻
Many of you will know that on the 26th May Maria was involved in a serious accident during the opening sidecar qualifying session at the Isle of Man TT. Maria is thankfully stable and is extremely grateful to the marshals, medical staff, doctors and circuit staff who helped her and remains incredibly thankful to the staff, including Doctors and Nurses in Liverpool, where she is now being treated. Her injuries have been confirmed as:
Currently paralysed from T5/T6 down
Broken back (T5 and T6 vertebrae)
Broken arm
Multiple broken ribs
Grade 4 Large Liver Laceration
Broken nose
Broken eye socket
Lacerations between her eyes
Broken sternum
Maria will need specialist help with physio care and perhaps surgeries to hopefully help Maria regain use of her legs.
One thing that is clear from Maria’s injuries is that this will have a lifelong impact on her, not just preventing and affecting a return to sport but impacting Maria’s every day life. Maria will need to adapt almost all aspects of her life. After a life of giving everything to a sport she loves, she will now turn that determination to recovery and recuperation.
From the initial determination of her injuries it is already clear that Maria will need to move house or make house alterations, with accessibility adjustments needed wherever she is based. She will need an adapted bed, shower, kitchen, stairlift and specialist vehicle for transport. Maria will need further surgery over the coming weeks and months and require specialist rehab and physio support.
Maria is beyond determined to bounce back and apply every ounce of focus to being back as well as possible. Maria’s recovery is highly expensive and after a career spent raising money from sponsors and backers for racing we now find ourselves asking for support for a very different but all to real problem. Whatever you can give will go some way to helping Maria’s recovery. We hugely appreciate any support and promise to continue to update you all on progress.
Maria Costello MBE will make her 17th appearance at the Isle of Man TT Races later this year and her 37th start on both two and three wheels.
The Northamptonshire rider will contest both Metzeler/Entire Cover insurance Supertwin TT races on a Galgorm Resort branded VRS Racing Kawasaki Z650 and will again line up in the two 3wheeling.Media Sidecar TT races onboard her own Galgorm LCR Honda F2.
Costello, now in her 30th year of motorcycle racing, will be joined by Alice Smith, the 20-year-old set to tackle the 37 and ¾-mile Mountain Course for the very first time and the pairing have been building up to this, their biggest challenge on three wheels, since they started racing together in 2023.
Maria Costello MBE has been revealed as an expert pundit for this year’s Isle of Man TT races, which returns for the first time in two years offering fans more ways to follow with live uninterrupted TV coverage of the world’s greatest road races.
Maria, who held the Guinness World Record for five years as the fastest woman to lap the Isle of Man TT course, joins a fantastic line-up of presenters, commentators and pundits who will deliver all the action, reaction and insight direct to smart TVs or devices.
Maria Costello MBE will race on both two and four wheels when she competes in the prestigious Goodwood Revival at the weekend (September 17-19). The Northamptonshire racer was the first woman to be invited to race in the Barry Sheene Memorial Trophy races in 2019 and has been racing classic motorcycles at the event ever since.
Maria with the MG YB she will race with owner Richard Colburn Image credit: Mark Saunders
The Revival provides the perfect backdrop and racing track for a historic themed meeting that recreates the glorious days of glamorous motor sport. Formula One legend Jenson Button and 23 times TT winner John McGuinness are among those taking part in a packed programme that will see Maria compete in both motorcycle races and the St Mary’s Trophy car race and become the first woman to race both classic two wheeled and four wheeled machinery.
Both races are a two-rider or driver affair. Maria will team up with Gordon Russell on a 1961 Norton Manx 30M owned by his wife Sally Russell (who is also the Deputy Clerk of the Course for the bike races). The race is run in two parts and starts on Saturday in Le Mans style with one rider running across the track to leap on the running bike held by their team-mate and concludes with the second half held on the Sunday.
Classic car racing is still something new for Maria who was given her first experiences on four wheels thanks to Julius Thurgood, who runs the HRDC. He introduced Maria to her Revival team mate Richard Colburn, who is running three cars alongside his two sons, James and Ben, and their team-mates. Maria and Richard will be sharing a 1953 MG YB in the St Mary’s Trophy two-part race that runs on Saturday and Sunday.
Maria said: “I always feel so privileged to be invited to compete at the Revival. It’s an absolute highlight of the motorsport calendar and I love every moment, from the dressing up in period costume to racing on this incredibly fast track onboard classic machinery. I adore the nostalgia and heritage that is brought to life. I didn’t think it could get any better but having the opportunity to race both two and four wheels has done that, I want to thank everyone who has made this possible and I can’t wait to savour the amazing experience and atmosphere!”
Maria gets to try out the Russell Manx Norton in a CRMC parade. By Neil Kirby
The circuit is just one part of the period backdrop. The glamorous costumes of the era are worn by all who attend, including spectators, and the sights and sounds of the racing along with all the additional entertainment take you back to the halcyon days of motorsport, to find out more & buy your event tickets/hospitality head to the Goodwood Revival website.
Maria Costello MBE continues to improve in sidecar racing despite a stand-in passenger at the BMCRC-MRO Championship at Donington Park last weekend. Looking to build on the previous meeting’s positive race results at Croft with the FSRA British Championship, the pairing of Maria and passenger Vicky were keen to return to Donington Park with increased confidence as they felt they had unfinished business there after a lacklustre event earlier in the year.
Maria Costello MBE enjoyed a weekend of racing both her sidecar and the Mark Coverdale Paton at the North East Motorcycle Racing Club’s Battle of Britain meeting that featured a round of the FSRA F2 British Championship at Croft. Racing at the North Yorkshire track for the first time, Maria took the Mark Coverdale Paton as well as her sidecar to Dalton-on-Tees to help with learning the track she had never seen before.
Maria & Vicky qualifying for the FSRA race in the wet. Image Credit: Brian Blackett
All-female sidecar team Maria Costello MBE and Vicky Cooke head for Donington Park this weekend looking to build on their brilliant start to the 2021 race season.
Northamptonshire-based Costello and Yorkshire-based Cooke will compete on the LCR/Kawasaki F2 outfit in the ACU/FSRA British F2 Sidecar Championship at the famous Leicestershire circuit having been boosted by their outstanding effort in their opening event of the year at Oulton Park with the Wirral 100 Club.
Maria and Vicky Cooke on the LCR Kawasaki F2 racing sidecar. Credit David Johnston Motorsport PhotographyContinue reading
Maria Costello MBE and Vicky Cooke are teaming up to compete as an all-female sidecar team for the 2021 racing season and beyond. Northamptonshire racer Maria has taken on sidecar racing in recent years to add to her already successful career on two wheels, and is delighted to be partnered with Vicky, an accomplished passenger who comes from a family steeped in racing history.
Vicky and Maria ready to take to three wheels for the 2021 race season. Image courtesy Myles Bradbury.
Recent Comments