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- Riki-lee was 173 kilos before she underwent a weight loss transformation
- Her passion for motor racing fuelled her drive to lose the weight when she could not longer fit in the car
- Now she has transformed her life and is back behind the wheel again
Here Riki-lee Lipschinski, 36, Barossa Valley, SA tells her own story in her own words
As the smell of burning rubber filled the air, I smiled.
It was April 2012 and I was at the local racetrack, where I was having a lesson to learn how to drift.
Growing up in a family of car enthusiasts, Mum, Linda, competed in burn out comps. Dad, Allan, even built her a burn out car! And my aunt Anne was a mechanic.
After finishing school, I enrolled in a one-year mechanics course at TAFE.
As I became absorbed in my course, I relied on junk food to get me through the day. I’d gorge on pasta, pizza, chips, chocolate, fries and drink sugary drinks such as iced coffee.
By the time I turned 20, I weighed 120kg and was wearing size 20 clothes.
‘I hate feeling so unfit,’ I moaned to Mum.
Determined, I quit takeaways, swapping them for healthy home cooked meals like tuna salad, stuffed capsicum and stir fries and walked on the treadmill.
Within a year I’d lost 20kg.
In November 2010, aged 21, I opened my own mechanics workshop.
Incredibly, business was booming. As life got chaotic, and I had no time to eat properly or exercise, I gained all the weight back, plus some.
Weighing 130kg and wearing size 24 clothes, I tried to hide my bulging frame in leggings and oversized men’s t-shirts.
By now my growing tummy was causing me back issues. But when my GP brought up weight loss surgery during a routine check up I brushed it off.
‘I can do it myself,’ I said.
For a few months I’d eat healthily go back to the gym and lose a few kilos.
But the stress of running the business meant the weight would pile back on.
While I continued to work on my weight, I bought a Nissan 180SX to take it drifting.
But my waistline kept growing.
Soon, I could barely walk a few hundred metres without panting – and I needed seatbelt extenders in my car and on flights.
Depressed, I refused to look in the mirror or step on the scales.
In January 2019, I had a new roll cage – a special safety frame – installed in the Nissan. Mum came to watch me test it out.
Squeezing past the safety bars, I looked down.
‘This isn’t going to work,’ I said, embarrassed.
My flabby belly rested on the steering wheel and I couldn’t even do up the harness. I’d spent $80,000 over seven years to upgrade the car, and I couldn’t even fit into it.
I couldn’t believe I was too big to drive.
‘Darl, if you want to chase your dreams, you need to take action now,’ Mum said, concerned.
Visiting my doctor to discuss gastric sleeve surgery, I was asked to step on the scale.
173 kilos, it read.
I thought, ashamed.
At $20,000, the surgery wasn’t cheap, but I knew I couldn’t keep putting it off.
Taking out private health insurance, I had to serve the 12-month waiting period before I could get the surgery.
Three weeks before the op I went on a shakes and salad diet and started walking daily.
When the big day rolled around in February 2020 I’d already lost 15kg.
During the five-hour op, 80 per cent of my stomach was removed, meaning it would take less food to fill me up.
‘Your new life starts today,’ Mum said when I woke up.
After two weeks recovering in hospital, I was back at work.
The doctors had warned my stomach could stretch again, so I knew I had to make a complete lifestyle change.
I walked 4km daily and hit the gym six days a week. I also walked Mount Lofty every weekend. It took me two to three hours to walk the 8km.
And instead of carb-heavy takeaways, I ate smaller portions of lean meats, as well as fruit and vegetables.
Whenever a sugar craving hit, I’d look over at the drift car sitting in my shed.
With every kilo I lost, I knew I was one step closer to fitting back behind the wheel.
Incredibly within six months I was down to 95kg after losing 78kg.
I felt energetic and more confident.
In June 2021, 16 months post surgery, I’d lost a whopping 110kg, and was down to 63kg.
For the first time in years, I felt beautiful when I looked in the mirror, and I no longer lost my breath from simple things like walking.
Better yet, I could easily fit behind the wheel of my beloved car.
‘I’m so proud of you,’ Mum smiled.
Two months later I met Troy, then 29, a fellow drifter.
Bonding over our love of cars, we soon fell in love.
He was incredibly supportive when that same month, I underwent a tummy tuck to remove five kilos of loose skin, bringing my weight down to 58kg.
In July 2022, I took my car to a drift event for the first time, rocketing it around the race track at 120km/h, then pulling the handbrake to initiate a drift.
‘I did it,’ I beamed proudly.
Three months later, I joined Glitter Gang Drift Ladies, a group of female drifters who compete in professional events alongside men.
Troy and I got married in August 2023 and our weekends are spent hiking or at drift demos.
Two years on, I weigh 68 kilos and wear a svelte size 10-12.
I’ve not only achieved my racing dreams, but transformed my life.
If you believe in yourself, you can too.
Visit glittergangdriftclub.com
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