Meet the country singing, trailblazing motorbike racer
· Yahoo Sports
"No-one kind of expects me to ride motorbikes. There's less women in the sport, obviously, and there's a high contrast from singing to motorbike racing.
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"I love both of them equally and I'm very fortunate I can do both. When I'm not racing, I'm singing."
Country music and motorcycle racing would usually be worlds apart, but not for Alanna Maher.
One week the 31-year-old could be standing on stage, the next she could be standing on the podium in her racing leathers.
For Maher, racing is in her family and the sport makes up some of her earliest memories.
She first came to the North West 200 aged nine in 2004 to support her uncle, Roger, who was racing at the event.
Maher was milling about the pits, where she said there is "no better place to be than amongst it all".
Her brother, Ryan, has also raced around the Triangle circuit and, this year, she is back in the paddock with BBC Sport NI's coverage of the famous road race.
"When my uncle was racing were all part of the crew and in the thick of it, they are some of my best memories of racing," she said.
"I've had many years watching the racing from from the side of the road like everyone else, but it's just not quite the same as being in the middle of it. So I'm really happy to be back."
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'I thought I was too late to the party'
While Maher always had an interest in racing, she only took to the track four years ago.
Her other passion is country music and that started at a much younger age - all thanks to a group of aunties.
"I always sang throughout school from primary school and I was at my auntie's birthday party, when they all pushed me to get up with the singer.
"It kind of stemmed from there. I just started gigging when I was 18 and when I came out of college I was I just kept on singing.
"I've made a bit of a career out of it, but I just have a love for country music and music in general".
While her music career was taking off, her desire to race had not disappeared.
"I've always wanted to race when I was younger but I wasn't allowed because as it was just me and my brother, so I suppose Mum really wasn't too happy about the idea of me racing as well.
"But when I was 27 I decided I didn't really need permission anymore so I went and got a pit bike and went racing.
"I was kind of too late to the party and I thought, 'I'm past it now, there's these kids coming through and I'm like, I'm never going to be able to start'.
"I just got a notion one day, I was in Mondello with my brother racing and I said I want to do this, time next year.
"I just had to go for it and it was actually easier than I thought to get into it."
Maher races on short circuits in Ireland and has competed in the Mondello Masters and Ulster Superbike Championship.
The Cavan racer said she "can't even describe the difference" between the feeling singing on stage gives her compared to racing motorbikes at high speed around circuits.
"They're very different feelings and I love both equally," she said.
"There is a thrill singing in front of a crowd and when you are on a bike, everyone talks abut adrenaline and while that is there, there is a focus in racing.
"You're completely focused on what you're doing and you are locked in, whereas you're soaking up the atmosphere when you're singing."
Maher says she is "quite competitive by nature" and she "really had to work at it" when she first started racing.
But the results started to come.
She is third in the Championship at the Mondello Masters after the opening round of the season in the Supersport 300 class, and her next target is to get that elusive first win.
"My first podium was a second place in 2024 and I had never been so delighted," Maher said.
"Then the podiums kept on coming and it became a thing where a third or second place wasn't good enough.
"I've been waiting for that win now and it's still bugging me, so I hope it comes soon."
So how does it feel to be a trailblazer in her sport? Maher says it is "unreal to see" more young girls taking up the sport.
She recalls meeting Anita Buxton at the Ulster Grand Prix in the mid-2000s, and that was the moment she realised that women were allowed to race.
"Anita became my hero and I didn't care if she was first or last, it didn't matter as I thought she was amazing.
"So for little girls or for younger women to see that there is other women doing it and to think, 'well I can do it too', I think that's really important."