The average tortoise travels at around 0.5kph, which makes it an unlikely pet for one of the world's fastest women on two wheels. Britain's Maria Costello will, beginning today, bid to become the quickest woman in history around the Isle of Man TT course. The current woman's speed record is 188.027kph, held by Jenny Tinmouth, who outdid the previous best time set by Costello herself. A former veterinary nurse, the only reminder of Costello's past work is her sole pet, a tortoise called Bob.
"I'm still an animal person," explains Costello, "but I don't really have any time for other pets." Costello barely sits still long enough for an interview, let alone to look after animals. In the three weeks before our meeting, she has taken a staggering 12 flights, including trips to America to visit her boyfriend and an excursion to Portugal for some track time. Her schedule shows no signs of slowing down. All manner of competitions are lined up, ranging from Brands Hatch to the North-west 200 and, the main focus of her season, the two weeks of the Isle of Man TT, which begins today and goes until June 11.
The legendary island course was the scene of the worst accident of Costello's prestigious career to date, back in 2006. Heading to Keppel Gate, she slipped on an oil spillage from a previous crash and was catapulted from her bike. She ended up slumped on the Tarmac with a broken femur and scapula, which resulted in her spending the next two weeks in hospital on the Isle of Man before months of learning to walk again.
"That's the most damage I've done in an accident," she says. "I wouldn't say I felt particularly lucky lying in hospital for two weeks, but I guess it could have been worse. I remember when I did it, the first marshal that came over to me was someone I know. "He said 'You're all right Maria' and I was like, 'I'm definitely not all right'." The accident was so severe that Costello had decided she was done with the Isle of Man TT. She recalls: "Initially, I felt I'd had enough of the place, but I was back the year after. It was a long process getting there but I got there. The leg's still not perfect and I have to work a lot on it but it's OK now."
Her recovery has been a long and painful process, but she finally feels she is back to her best form since that accident. "This is definitely the best I've felt since then, and the aim is to get the women's record back at the Isle of Man TT and just enjoy it really," she says. "A class win's too much to ask, but I'm hoping to do myself proud." Costello will be riding a BMW S1000 RR, and her ambitions are very simple.
"I just want to go fast and get my record back," she says. "That's what my whole season is all about." Just the mention of the TT gets the hairs on the back of Costello's neck up and the excitement starts coursing through her veins. "It's a very special place, the greatest place to ride in the world and I get the jitters just thinking about it," she admits. "Just talking about it raises my heart rate as it's the very best place to ride a bike. I absolutely love it."
There are those, her family included, who think she is crazy to go back to a place where she suffered her devastating crash. "I don't think I'm crazy, and I guess if I thought it was crazy I wouldn't do it," she says. "It's the fastest ride of your life. Sure, there will be a part of me in practice that will think about the accident as I come through Keppel Gate, but that won't last long once I'm racing. You don't have time to think about that sort of thing."
One person who will be apprehensively cheering her along as she races over the terrain is her mother. When Costello announced she was quitting a career as a veterinary nurse to focus on her motorbike career, her mother took some time to come around to the idea. "She said to me eventually 'OK, that's fine, as long as you don't go to that Isle of Man place'," says Costello. "I agreed with her as I'd never heard of the place. But not long afterwards an all-girl team was put together to ride the Manx and it was announced at a launch party. I remember her walking out at that point.
"I can understand her point, as I've had two big crashes there and I know my riding's put me off being a parent!" Costello has managed to pacify her mother of late after becoming a Member of the British Empire (MBE) for her services to motorcycling last year. To pick up the award, she and her family were invited to Buckingham Palace, where he parents proudly watched as Prince Charles awarded her the accolade.
However, unsurprisingly the day turned into a fast-paced and hectic one and nearly ended in Costello herself missing out on the honour. "We'd allowed loads of time to get there but the traffic was just awful," she says. "I managed to get a friend of mine who works for Virgin taxi bikes to come and get me and I managed to get to Buckingham Palace and left my Dad to drive the car. "I left my family in tears, gutted that they were going to miss out. When I got to the Palace, I was met by a police officer who told me my parents still had 20 minutes to spare. So I called them but Dad had gone the wrong way and it looked like they were going to miss it - I could hear them crying in the car.
"Once in the Palace I wasn't allowed to have my mobile on so I had no idea of knowing if they'd made it in. But they did, the policeman at the gate let them park right in front of Buckingham Palace and I saw just before getting the MBE that they'd made it in. "It was an amazing day that nearly turned into an utter disaster. It was quite an honour and my mum almost thinks the bike racing's all worth it after that."
Her mother looks to have well and truly lost the battle to dissuade her daughter from racing bikes at high speed. While Costello watched bike racing as a youngster, she only fell into it by default on purchasing her first bike to get around on for her job as a veterinary nurse. A group of lads in her village also had bikes and her passion for all things two wheels began. "I'd hang out with these guys and we'd tear around on our bikes whenever we got the chance." she says. "But almost straight away, I got knocked off my bike by an old guy with bad vision, which left me with broken bones. The compensation money got me my first race bike so it'd be fair to say I got into racing by accident."
Growing up, her idol was Steve Hislop and she gradually learnt what she needed to become a racer from her mentor, Dave Weston. The race wins and accolades have followed ever since, leading to all sorts of opportunities ranging from doing reviews for bike magazines to acting as a stunt woman in a Hollywood movie. Looking back at her one acting foray to date: "I had to ride around on this scooter in this film called Penelope as a stunt double for Reese Witherspoon, which was great fun. It's great watching it back and showing people 'oh that's me' and so on.
"I didn't really get to meet her but did get to take Christina Ricci, the star of the film, on the back of my scooter. That was crazy, though, as we came around one corner to be met by a wall of paparazzi. I got one tiny insight into what her life is like." Costello would be happy to get calls for more acting work but, for now, is happy just to be racing, whether it be on the track or the road. "I just love racing and going fast," she said. "My real passion is on the road but I want to get back to track racing as well. As I said, I just love to go fast."
How fast remains to be seen for the two weeks of the Isle of Man TT. motoring@thenational.ae