CARSON, Calif. — Ashley Fiolek experiences motocross like no one else, and it's not because she's a 17-year-old girl.

In a sport dominated by noise, she can't hear a thing.

She's a typical, text-messaging teen, but for two things: She's a motorsports champion and she's been completely deaf since birth.

Saturday she and other female racers will make their X Games debut in the first year of Women's Moto X Racing.

Fiolek (pronounced FYE-lick) is no mere novelty act. She is the top rider on the AMA/Women's Motocross Association tour in her rookie year after winning the season's first three stops.

But how does she manage without hearing the rev of the engines, and with such a severely limited knowledge of what's going on around her?

"That's probably the question I get the most from other riders is, 'How do you ride? I, couldn't do it. I rely so much on my hearing.'" Fiolek said through her father Jim, who translates her sign language.

The disadvantages are clear. She can't hear to know when to shift, though that can be solved by relying more on vibrations. A bigger problem is knowing where her opponents are when they are behind her, which they quite often are. She must pick a path and stick with it.

"She has to hold her line, she can't cut across the track," Jim Fiolek said. "Say there's something in the track she wants to move over, she can't really move over if she's committed to that line."

But the Fioleks say there can be advantages, with a philosophy that might be called "Zen and the art of motorcycle racing."

They say being oblivious when another rider is bearing down on her can be a sort of blessing.

"The noise doesn't bother her, so if you're behind her, the pressure's not there," Jim Fiolek said.

Both father and daughter talk about the peace she gets amid the chaos, especially at the start of a race, where Fiolek has proven especially potent.

"I don't feel it, I don't hear it, so it doesn't bother me," Ashley Fiolek said.

On first glance at the Fioleks it looks like the father, who is young and tan in shorts and a T-shirt, should be the X Gamer, and he has raced motorcycles all his life.

He is constantly at his daughter's side at races and public events, serving as adviser and translator.

She mouths and signs; he translates and tries to relay as much of the surrounding conversation as he can. Both have a near-permanent smile on their face when they interact with fans and reporters. They appreciate the oddity of a teenage girl having to have all her words filtered through her father.

Jim Fiolek asks some questions twice when he isn't sure about his daughter's response.

"I have to make sure she's not lying to me," he said.

A home-schooled Florida native, Ashley Fiolek has long, curly blond hair usually topped by the energy drink sponsor cap favored by most X Games athletes.

She's small, barely looks 17, and could easily be mistaken for a preadolescent fan.

She's a rare fresh face at this year's X Games, which despite its emphasis on youth is increasingly home to aging and well-established champions.

Saturday's event, Moto X Racing, was a new event on the men's side last year. This year it becomes the first women's motorsport at the X Games.

It's a leaner, more TV-friendly version of classic supercross, with shorter heats and smaller fields. Keeping track of fewer opponents could play to Fiolek's advantage, and she's considered the gold medal favorite.

Fiolek got her first motorcycle at age 3, though after a quick ride on it with her father it was put away until she was a more mature 7 years old.

She was competing against young boys the same year.

"My first race was in Michigan," Ashley Fiolek said. "It was a mud race. I didn't care I just wanted to ride. I got fourth place out of 12 boys so it was really fun.

"Definitely in this sport you pretty much race against boys all the time," she said. "Once you get old enough at 12 years old you can ride with girls. But I stayed in with boys as well. I raced in the amateur national championship with boys."

She insists she doesn't have a special gift for riding.

"I don't know if anything was really given to me, I think I worked for it," she said. "I think I just work hard and I practice a lot and I try to fix the things that are not right with my riding and keep making it better."

She was certainly born with a taste for action, though.

"I like to wakeboard, that's a lot of fun," she said. "Snowboarding is fun. I'm not that good at that but I like it. I like making videos with my friends, texting."

Jim Fiolek jumps in.

"What else? You love to eat," he says, putting his fingers to his mouth to make the sign.

She nods and puts her fingers to her mouth.

"Yeah, I love to eat."