At just four-years-old, Yuliana Grasman started to showcase
her love for all things cars. And at the age of 11, the Kazakhstani girl got
her first taste of being behind the wheel. Today, that passion for all things
motors has bagged her the title of the UAE's first female 4x4 freestyle
drifter, and she says it's been the ride of her life.
Going by the track name 'Afra', Grasman told Khaleej Times
that she's been a "petrol head" (car fanatic) from as young as she
can remember. "Growing up in Kazakhstan, I used to take the cushions from
the sofa and stack them in a square, then I'd tell my brother to sit behind me
and I'd pretend to drive it like a car."
Yuliana Grasman aka Afra in action during a race in the UAE.
- Supplied photo
When she got a little older, Grasman's father took her
off-road to teach her how to drive a manual car. And she hasn't looked back
since.
"I was always the one to put my hand up first when he'd
ask me and my brother who wanted to get behind the wheel. I loved that feeling
of movement, motion, being in control."
First race
As the years went by and her interest in driving and fixing
cars grew, Grasman, now in her mid-twenties, competed in her first competition
at 15. And as the only female competitor, she went on to bag her first victory
against an all male competitor line-up.
"I won the equivalent of about Dh500 in that first drag
race. It was a lot of money for me back then but it was the rush that excited
me, not the cash. I got a real taste for success and was so obsessed with
movement, racing and learning more about cars."
Yuliana Grasman drives a Nissan Patrol called black edition,
rebuilding it herself from the scratch.- Supplied photo
At that time, in her home country, she said very few females
participated in such activities; so winning against men in front of a crowd
gave her even more motivation to continue.
Fight for her dream
But it wasn't without its struggles. Grasman said her
parents raised concerns at the beginning about being involved in such a
male-dominated sport.
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