Grid girl Kyly Clarke and her motor racing fairytale romance
Former cricket WAG Kyly Clarke turned heads when she popped up for a pash with racing car driver James Courtney on the Bathurst 1000 track this week. But Clarke was simply returning to her roots, in this modern-day fairytale, writes Annette Sharp.
NSW
Don't miss out on the headlines from NSW. Followed categories will be added to My News.
- Download our app and stay up to date anywhere, any time
- What you get as a subscriber to The Daily Telegraph
Motor racing writers have been predicting explosive shenanigans on the bitumen at this weekend’s Bathurst 1000, but what no one could have predicted was that the former wife of cricketer Michael Clarke, Kyly, would ditch her cultivated European cricket WAG persona to engage in an old-school trackside pash with racing car driver James Courtney on the hallowed Bathurst mountain track.
Cue loveheart-in-the-sky fireworks. Welcome back to the pits, Kyly Clarke nee Boldy.
Clarke, when we first met her, was a Gold Coast IndyCar grid girl, and eventually Miss Indy winner. A blonde cheerleader for motor sports who cut her teeth posing up in a Lycra bikini and a ready smile.
Sure, it wasn’t highbrow work, but it was honest, if not flirty, fleshy, employment. Not quite a job at Hooters, but somewhat akin to it.
MORE NEWS
Gladys Berejiklian: ‘I’ve given up on love’
Revealed: When NorthConnex will finally open
Barrister fights parking fine after saving woman
Then, after landing emergent euro boy Clarke in 2010, the cricketer on the rebound from the similarly flirty and fleshy swimsuit model Lara Bingle, Kyly began a style transformation that wowed fashionistas — but didn’t sit so well with those who thought her talents might be wasted away from the track and away from the bikinis.
As the wife of cricketer Clarke, she would leave behind her cheeky modelling work and turn to the more refined arts of candle making and interior design before more recently landing a TV presenting gig on Channel 7.
Now a more glamorous brunette, Clarke had reinvented herself in European fashion labels that cost as much as some family cars, having left the world of racing far behind her.
Until, that is, the hottest thing on legs in motorsports flashed her a smile recently and she remembered who she really is, a former grid girl and passionate motor racing fan.
The motor racing world has been quick to embrace her.
She brings a spot of welcome razzle dazzle to Bathurst in a year when Australian motorsports needs a touch of bling and the race was almost cancelled due to the pandemic.
And then, of course, there’s the backstory that might one day inspire a Shannon Noll tune.
Clarke and Courtney go way back. They were boyfriend and girlfriend some 20 years ago before splitting and marrying virtual doppelgangers.
Courtney has the same fair-haired coiff and athletic style as Michael Clarke – and Kyly the same dark-eyed lean style as Courtney’s former wife, Carys. Clarke’s friends have revealed she was just 11 when she first met Courtney, who was a keen go-karter in his teens, as was Clarke’s brother Troy.
As The Daily Telegraph reported on Friday, the pair are in love. “It is early days but they are very happy,” a source close to the couple said.
The romance comes a year after Clarke split from the retired cricketer and three years after Courtney split from his wife, and comes after the pair recently reconnected via social media.
“Kyly loves motorsports, it is something she has been passionate about since childhood,” a friend told The Daily Telegraph. “They just clicked when they reconnected and everything is going well.
“It is like a fairytale because they were together all those years ago so it has come full circle.” So here’s to motor racing fairytales and a love affair that has come full circle.