With a worldwide fanbase, motorsport is one of the most popular areas of sport. However, it is more than just cars, with several forms of motorbike racing being just as popular as the famous car racing series. Amy Dargan has been a reporter in the Motocross World Championship, Speedway and MotoGP, so I spoke to her about working with bikes and how a young girl from a football household became one of the go-to presenters in MotoGP broadcasting.
Sport was always popular in Amy’s family, but her love of motorcycle racing came from a friend. “My passion for bikes came from my friend’s dad. He owned a tyre garage in Nottingham and he was really into it. He had 2 Hondas in his garage and would watch the World Super Bike Championship, MotoGP and British Super Bikes. That was really where my first contact came with motorbikes,” she told me. However, her first contact in-person with any of these championships came when she was in her late teens, and in order to get closer to the sport, she became a grid girl. “I decided the best thing for me to do was work around it and try and get involved. I was getting to meet the right people, and it was an opportunity to be where I wanted to be in the end,” Dargan said.
Amy went on to study Broadcast Journalism at university, with a particular interest in sport’s journalism, citing Suzi Perry as an idol of hers at the time. “Suzi Perry was a big inspiration of mine. When I was younger I thought she was really cool, she knew exactly what she was talking about, and just the way she carried herself,” she explained of her fellow MotoGP presenter.
Following her studies Dargan continued to work as a grid girl, and her first proper role in the sport actually came through this. “My first job came off the back of one of the companies I used to grid girl for, Monster Energy. Their main series was the World Motocross Championship, where I was working as a ‘Monster Girl’ and the woman who did the reporting moved to the US. It was all quite last-minute and they found themselves without a reporter and about 1 month to go until the start of the season. It was suggested that they should consider me because I had a broadcast journalism degree and that was what I was looking to go into. I knew the series and the riders and that’s how it all started really,” Amy explained.
After 3 years working in Motocross, in 2014 Dargan began working in MotoGP. This year she will cover MotoGP solely and will no longer work with Speedway after covering the series for the 2017 season. “Last year I was doing Speedway and MotoGP. I had a pretty hectic schedule, but this year I’ve got some breathing space and can focus on MotoGP. When I’m there, my role is reporting for FoxSports, and also for MotoGP’s rights holders, Dorna, so I get the rider interviews after the sessions, film features and on a race day I do a preview of what to expect,” Amy told me. An important part of her role is ensuring there is a relationship and trust between herself and the riders as this allows her to do her job to the best of her ability. “I think the important thing is I always try and be as empathetic as I can be, and the best way to do that is to put yourself in their shoes,” Dargan said, “normally if you show empathy, and you both celebrate and commiserate with them, that gets you on side with them. They know we’re not trying to set them up and that our job is to get the information from them, but I don’t think you can build relationships with the riders if they think you’re trying to lead them down a path to say something.”
Amy will this year go into her 4th season of MotoGP and she’s still fulfilling a dream working with one of the riders. “One of my main targets was that I just wanted to get a job in MotoGP before Valentino Rossi retired. If he had and I hadn’t managed to interview him, I would’ve been so disappointed,” she said. But one of her favourite interviews has been with another motorsport figure, this time from 4 wheels. “I’ve had the pleasure of interviewing Mark Webber twice now when he’s come to MotoGP. I watch Formula One and he was always someone that I really liked. He’s got a fantastic personality, and it’s fantastic that he’s into bikes,” Amy added.
Having originally grown up in a football household and her starting aim being to work in football journalism, Dargan would still like to work in other sports. “If I carry on working in MotoGP until I retire, I’ll be happy because I absolutely love it. It almost feels like it’s a part of me now. I would also really love the opportunity to cover different sports like the winter Olympics. Sport for me, is everything that I really like about life. I really like celebrating other people’s triumphs, and also then when you see the raw human emotion. I just love sport in general,” Amy told me.
Having studied Broadcast Journalism at university and being involved in motorsport even before her studies, it was always clear for Amy Dargan which direction she wanted to go in. Despite the recent debate over the use of grid girls in motorsport, it is unlikely Amy would be in the job she has now without having done this role initially which helped her to meet the right people. “I would say get in there any way you can and just be around the sport,” Dargan said of the advice she would offer those wanting to work in the industry. “It’s always best to have a good idea of what area you think you might like to have a go at. There’s so many roles from marketing to data analysts and engineers, all the hospitality crew, it’s a massive industry with so many different opportunities.” This year, Amy’s full focus will be on MotoGP so the features and interviews she will work on this year will surely be bigger and better than ever before.
(all photo credits: Amy Dargan)
Fast and Fearless 