Fast Women: The Indy 500

          The Indianapolis 500 is racing’s most important event. 

          Formula 1 racing has a bigger footprint, worldwide, than does IndyCar and that’s nice for the F1 crowd, but no single racing event is bigger than Indy. You avoid absolutes as often as possible when writing for public consumption, but it is safe to say that very few sporting facilities have been around as long as the midwestern jewel and none have the rich history of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The 500 captures the attention of the world’s sporting public every year and drivers the planet over want to race on the famed American oval.

          Some of those drivers are women.

Women have been racing in the 500 since 1977 when Janet Guthrie became the first of her gender to make the 33-car field. Including Guthrie, nine women have started the great race. Guthrie started three, Lyn St. James was the 1992 Rookie of the Year at Indy and had seven career starts in the 500, Sarah Fisher started her first 500 in 2000 and was in the field nine times during her driving career. Later Fisher fielded a competitive team as an owner at Indy. Danica Patrick had her first of eight 500 starts in 2005 and Milka Duno raced three times at Indy, starting with the 2007 race. Simona de Silvestro raced as a 500 rookie in 2010 and had five Indy starts. Ana Beatriz was also a rookie in the 2010 race and had four total starts. Pippa Mann, who is racing in her seventh 500 this weekend, had her first 500 start in 2011. Katherine Legg has had two starts, beginning in 2012.

         Your Loyal Blogger has been fortunate enough to interview Guthrie, St. James, Fisher and Duno. Without exception, all are great interviews. St. James took YLB around the street course at the Long Beach Grand Prix in a press ride-along event one time. The car was a standard-issue street car from a local Ford dealership and friends, she hustled that car around. At one point, St. James said, “Oops,” which nearly caused heart failure on the part of her passenger. When we slowed to return to the pits St. James explained that she said “Oops,” because she had missed the racing line by a few inches in that corner. A few decades later, during a casual conversation, YLB told St. James that she’d nearly caused a heart attack by saying, “Oops,” and related the story. She grinned.

          It says here that a woman will win the 500 someday. It’s hard to tell whether a woman will be elected President of the United States before we have a female kissing the bricks, but both are going to happen. In 1977, when Guthrie made the field for the first time, this writer expected that a woman would have won the 500 by now.

          Eight years earlier, YLB expected the Colts to beat the Jets in Super Bowl III, so take this prediction stuff with a grain of salt.

          The key point here is that automobile racing is one of the sports where men and women can compete equally and we should celebrate the emergence of more and more women into the highest levels of the racing world. Read it here and understand this: Having an increasing presence of women in racing is good for the sport. Women racers give racing a more modern, inclusive profile. If you care for the sport, you support women as racers.

          Think I’m wrong? Take a look at drag racing, where women have been winning championships for a long time. The National Hot Rod Association enjoys great popularity these days and some of the most popular drivers are women. Check it out sometime. Anyone who can handle an 11,000-horsepower monster at 340 mph can also do any darn thing else that she wants to do. You want to get in the way? No, I didn’t think so.

          At Indianapolis, Patrick has the best finish among women, third. Recently retired from racing, Patrick also finished fourth and sixth at Indy. Patrick also had the best starting position, fourth, in 2005 and has led the most laps among women, 29.

Fisher has the most starts, nine. In 2010, the field for the 500 included four women racers and that’s the most ever. The women on the starting grid that day were Patrick, Fisher, Beatriz and de Silvestro.

This year, only Mann will carry the women’s flag and we wish her well.

Thanks for reading.

A final note: The recent ESPN 30 for 30 documentary on Guthrie's first attempts to qualify at Indy, Qualified, was excellent and is highly recommended here.