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Australia’s Tayla Relph will enter this weekend’s opening round of the 2025 Women’s Circuit Racing World Championship (WorldWCR) in a strengthened position compared to one year ago, determined to build upon lessons learned in her maiden European campaign last season.

The 28-year-old’s prospects as part of her refined – and rebranded – Full Throttle Racing team have elevated for the second season of WorldWCR after finishing seventh in the inaugural series.

Relph claimed a podium result at the Cremona Circuit with a P3 result last year, eventually becoming the highest-placed non-European competitor in the championship despite enduring three non-finishes. It’s a position she is motivated to build upon this time around.

“We are excited to go racing this weekend at Assen,” Relph told CycleOnline. “Obviously we’re starting the season with a lot more experience under our belt this year in comparison to last year. Basically, the first few months of last year’s season was spent just pretty much figuring out how to survive in Europe, let alone trying to race in a world championship.

“Whereas this year we know how the championship works, we know a lot more about the R7, and we’re just a lot more well set up here in Europe – that just makes this a lot more of an easy transition into the season commencing. That in itself makes me really excited to get the season started.

“We did some testing here in Assen not so long ago – we are actually only one of three girls who have tested in Assen over the last 12 months, so we’re definitely starting the weekend in a really strong position. It’s a very cold right now, but just knowing that we actually know the track whereas a lot of girls are sort of coming into this weekend blind, so that gives us a little bit more confidence.”

A two-day official WorldWCR test at Cremona at the beginning of this month saw Relph eventually end ninth on the timesheets, however, expect rapid progress when the season commences from this weekend at Assen in The Netherlands. She isn’t ruling out a first victory at the world championship level as the year progresses.

“Looking back on the test we weren’t super-happy with how we finished, but I was just missing a slipstream in that final lap and I ended up losing half a second just because of that, which would have actually placed me in sixth. Overall, on paper the test wasn’t as successful as what we wanted, but we were always within the top-five of the first three sessions on both days, so it shows that we got up to speed quickly, which is more of race weekend scenario.

“Our goal for this year is to still be within the top five, I think still setting the goal of being the first non-European is also a really good thing to focus on, but we want to be finishing on the podium this year and we want to hopefully win our very first world championship race.

“We know that we have the pace, we have the power, and we have the ability to do that, but we just still need those little one percenters, which again we’re working really hard to try and find. I think this weekend’s going to be a really good one for us.”