Mirell Victoria on racing, investment banking and the green effect
Introduced to us by Frode Sundsdal from F2boat.com we were invited to have an interview with Mirell Victoria. PBP not being one to pass up an opportunity to meet beauty, brains and brawn to talk about boats hooked up with Mirell. We were curious how this gutsy lady from Norway became involved in modeling and powerboat racing and where her ambitions lie for the future. Read on to find out what this intriguing lady had to say.
Asked how Mirell became a model she answers that she never aspired to become one. It all started when she was 15 years old, walking the streets in baggy clothes . At that time Mirell was totally into tennis and did not care much about fashion and accessories. She was approached by a lady on the street that asked her whether she was a model. With the answer being no, the lady set up a photo shoot and three weeks later Mirell started to make her mark in the fashion capital of Italy, Milan. From Milan her career took her to London, the US, and actually all over the world. Being a successful model for over ten years now, Mirell recently decided to move back to her native Norway to focus on her music career and her ambition to race powerboats. As much as Mirell likes the model life style she was never totally committed to move exclusively to glamour land. All the hard work made her good money but because of the extremely busy schedule with travelling non stop all over the world for almost ten years it felt right to move back to Norway for some time to focus on her own ambitions.
A lot of the dreams and ambitions Mirell had, she already was able to turn into a reality. Over the last year Mirell has recorded and released 4 singles. Followed by the dream to one day say to her grand children that granny was a rock star. Being the independent lady that she is, Mirell was looking a couple of years ago for possibilities to secure a future for herself with the money she makes from modeling. Her boyfriend at the time was one of the leading men with Goldman Sachs which inspired her to take courses and pick up investment banking. The excitement of the trade attracted Mirell and with some solid knowledge under her belt it turned out she had a feeling for the trading game and now works as a full-time investment banker.
Mirell has a long standing love for the sea. She was born in the beautiful seaside town of Arendal Norway which most of us know from Class 1 racing. Almost everybody here has a boat and is out on the water for most of the summer. Being so close to the sea and on the water for most of her childhood summers Mirell developed a love for the sea.
The racing bug was instilled in Mirell when she started co piloting in the 2002/2003 ZapCat season in England. From that moment on she was hooked and made it a goal to one day have a racing career. This year Mirell finally had the time and opportunity to take her first steps towards her superlicence. On board with Tobias Munthe-Kaas in the Norwegian 3B series to jointly form Team B-77 Racing. Mirell feels very lucky to be pairing with Tobias. They have driven up to second place both in the Norwegian Championships and the Norway Cup after the first races of the season. Tobias is a fantastic pilot, he is brave, and has several years behind him of racing, and we are both totally hooked on the racing and boat lifestyle, Mirell says.
“We are very excited to be racing the World Championship in Arendal in July. It will be my first World Championship, and It is at the same time as Class 1 so It will be a huge racing circus! It will be great to have so many great boats and talented pilots together at the same time in my own hometown!”
Apart from the racing Mirell hails the friendship between the crews of all the different powerboating teams and classes. She absolutely loved the fact that the organizers of the previous race put every class on the water in the same racing weekend. “It was so spectacular” Mirell says “in the aqua bike event 70 pwc’s were out on the water. With classes for young and veterans. Everybody helps each other. It is a really good atmosphere to be a part of. I absolutely love it”. Mirell goes on to tell us that there were also a number of people in her life that encouraged her to go out and race. “Gino Passchier, the 2B1 Racing Team from Belgium; Pierre Colpin, Frank Hemelaer and Benjamin van Riet were all great. Also Jean-Marie van Lancker was a great help in getting my powerboat race career started. Kim Collins and Daniel Cramphorn from team 26 were also very supportive in getting me going in the powerboat world , and also the fantastic people in the Norwegian federation and all the other team s over here. Lets hope they haven’t gone crazy about all my questions about the engines, the boat and all else. They are all very friendly and supportive and it has meant a lot for me to be supported in this way.”
When asked whether she thinks there is a difference between men and women when driving a boat she disagrees. Mirell is sure that the basis for every good racer is respect. You have to be afraid. Once you lose that, things will become dangerous. The sea is to be respected if you want to win races and live to tell. Despite the fact that men and women are equally talented to drive boats fast, Mirell would like to see more women pilots coming in. That is why she is also a staunch supporter of the facebook initiative of the International Group of women pilots by another PBP favorite we spoke to before; Jennifer Milani. This group is dedicated to bring women pilots from all sorts of disciplines together on facebook and help aspiring racing ladies to get a career started.
Mirell is also big on saving the planet and green politics. She readily admits that might seem in opposition to her racing but this is how she feels. That is why she is all for environmental rules and green consciousness in racing. “Racing might not be a green sport for the foreseeable future” she says “but we have to give it our best effort to make it as green as possible”. That is why Mirell is proud that the environment is also high on the calendar when Class 1 comes to Arendal in July. It makes Mirell proud that the Norwegian organizers are leading the way in green thinking in racing.
So now it is on to the next race for Mirell. We will keep a close eye on how she will be doing so check back regularly to PowerboatPro to see the latest on Mirell.
Article and pictures courtesy of Mirell Victoria and Team B-77
For more information on Mirell Victoria, please visit her website.
More information and pictures of Team B-77 can be found on FaceBook.
Frode Sundsdal, powerboat racer and the guy introducting us to Mirell can be found on F2boat.com
Promoters and coaches of Mirell in her powerboat racing and UIM Grand Prix of the Sea competitors in the SuperSport Class, Team 26 can be found here.
2B1 Racing, features here also on PBP and supporters of Mirell’s racing efforts can be found here.
