Janet Guthrie

Janet Guthrie (born March 7, 1938) is a retired professional race car driver and the first woman to qualify and compete in both the Indianapolis 500 and the Daytona 500.

Janet Guthrie
Guthrie at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 2011
Born (1938-03-07) March 7, 1938
Iowa City, Iowa
Achievementsfirst woman to compete in the Indianapolis 500
first woman to compete in the Daytona 500
first woman to lead a lap in the NASCAR Winston Cup Series
Awards2006 International Motorsports Hall of Fame Inductee
1980 International Women's Sports Hall of Fame Inductee
NASCAR Cup Series career
33 races run over 3 years
Best finish23rd (1977)
First race1976 World 600 (Charlotte)
Last race1980 Coca-Cola 500 (Pocono)
Wins Top tens Poles
0 5 0
Janet Guthrie's Wildcat 3-DGS, which she drove to ninth place in the 1978 Indianapolis 500.

Guthrie was originally an aerospace engineer and after graduating from the University of Michigan, she worked with Republic Aviation.[1] She began racing in 1963 on the SCCA circuit in a Jaguar XK140[2] and by 1972, she was racing on a full-time basis. Her sportscar racing career included two class wins in the famed 12 Hours of Sebring endurance race.[3]

In the 1976 World 600, Guthrie finished 15th, becoming the first woman to compete in a NASCAR Winston Cup superspeedway race. Guthrie would go on to compete in four more races that season. The following season, she competed in her first Daytona 500, finishing 12th when her car's engine blew two cylinders with ten laps to go. For the race, though, she still earned the honor of Top Rookie. Overall, Guthrie went on to compete in 33 races in NASCAR over four seasons.[4] Her highest finish, sixth place at Bristol in 1977, is the best finish by a woman in a top-tier NASCAR race, now currently tied with Danica Patrick in 2014.[4]

Guthrie qualified for and competed in the 1977 Indianapolis 500, in a car entered by Rolla Vollstedt, but finished 29th with engine troubles. She would compete in two more Indy 500s, finishing ninth in the 1978 race while driving with a fractured wrist (injured in a charity tennis event two days earlier) she hid from race officials.[3] Overall, she competed in 11 Indy car events with a best finish of fifth. During her unsuccessful bid to qualify for the 1976 race, many of the drivers in the male-dominated sport stated that the reason she did not qualify was mainly due to her gender.[3] These comments angered then three-time champion A. J. Foyt to the point he lent Guthrie a back-up car to conduct a shake-down test. Her top practice lap in Foyt's car would have been adequate to qualify for the field.[5] She was unable to obtain funding through corporate sponsorship, and was forced into retirement.[6][7]

Nevertheless, Guthrie's place in history was secure. In 1979, the Supersisters trading card set was produced and distributed; one of the cards featured Guthrie's name and picture.[8] Her helmet and race suit can be found in the Smithsonian Institution and Guthrie was one of the first elected to the International Women's Sports Hall of Fame.[3][9] She was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame on April 27, 2006. Her 2005 autobiography, Janet Guthrie: A Life at Full Throttle, has received critical praise in such publications as Sports Illustrated.[10]

Guthrie married Warren Levine, an airline pilot, in 1989.[11] He died in 2006.[1]

In 2011, Guthrie signed a petition in support of the right of women in Saudi Arabia to drive.[12][13] The petition called on Saudi King Abdullah to sponsor a Saudi Women's Grand Prix. The project was the idea of human rights activist David Keyes.[14]

Qualified, an episode of ESPN 30 for 30 covering her racing career, aired on May 28, 2019. In it she is quoted "You can go back to antiquity to find women doing extraordinary things, but their history is forgotten. Or denied to have ever existed. So women keep reinventing the wheel. Women have always done these things, and they always will."[3]

In 2019, Guthrie was inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame[15] for her achievements in motorsports. She is the 5th woman to be inducted.

Motorsports career results

NASCAR

(key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)

Winston Cup Series
NASCAR Winston Cup Series results
Year Team No. Make 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 NWCC Pts
1976 Lynda Ferreri 68 Chevy RSD DAY CAR RCH BRI ATL NWS DAR MAR TAL NSV DOV CLT
15		 RSD MCH DAY
15		 NSV POC TAL MCH BRI DAR RCH DOV
33		 MAR NWS CLT
22		 CAR ATL ONT
20		 N/A -
1977 RSD DAY
12		 RCH
12		 CAR ATL
30		 NWS DAR BRI
11		 MAR TAL
32		 NSV DOV CLT RSD MCH
26		 DAY
40		 NSV
32		 POC
11		 TAL
34		 MCH
10		 BRI
6		 DAR
16		 RCH
12		 DOV
11		 MAR NWS CLT
9		 CAR
9		 ATL
16		 ONT
24		 23rd 2037
1978 RSD DAY
DNQ		 RCH CAR ATL
10		 BRI DAR NWS MAR TAL DOV CLT NSV RSD MCH DAY
11		 NSV 41st 592
Buick POC
31		 TAL
29		 MCH
27		 BRI DAR RCH DOV MAR NWS CLT
35		 CAR ATL ONT
13
1980 Osterlund Racing 82 Chevy RSD DAY
11		 RCH CAR ATL BRI DAR NWS MAR TAL NSV DOV CLT TWS RSD MCH DAY NSV 69th 209
McClure Motors 57 Buick POC
28		 TAL MCH BRI DAR RCH DOV NWS MAR CLT CAR ATL ONT

American open–wheel racing results

Indy 500
Year Chassis Engine Start Finish
1976 Coyote Foyt No qualifying attempt
1977 Lightning Offy 26th 29th
1978 Wildcat DGS 15th 9th
1979 Lola Cosworth 14th 34th
1980 Lightning Cosworth Did not qualify
gollark: No, but stuff like that is still at least fashionable.
gollark: Yes, those are possibly most functional, but people do not actually care (see: high heels).
gollark: Yes, I am pretty sure there is, you could join the nuclearcraft discord and talk to them about reactor design.
gollark: I use TBU Oxide generally, because it comes directly from thorium.
gollark: Well, that's hard to say.

References
  1. Litman, Laken. "From sleeping in her car to the Indy 500: How Janet Guthrie changed racing for women," Indy Star, 26 May 2017. Retrieved 7 Aug. 2017.
  2. "Once a physicist: Janet Guthrie," Institute of Physics, n.d. Retrieved 7 Aug. 2017.
  3. Fabrizio, Tony (27 May 2019). "Janet Guthrie: Racing's reluctant trailblazer is 'Qualified'". espnW. espn. Retrieved 1 June 2019.
  4. McGee, Ryan (February 20, 2013). "Janet Guthrie outraced insults to make history". ESPN W. ESPN. Archived from the original on February 24, 2013. Retrieved February 24, 2013.
  5. Martin, Bruce. "From Guthrie to Patrick, women have made progress at Indy 500," Sports Illustrated," 26 May 2011. Retrieved 7 Aug. 2017.
  6. Guthrie, Janet, Janet Guthrie: A Life at Full Throttle, 2005, p. 382.
  7. Dodds, Tracy. "THE INDIANAPOLIS 500 : Why Aren't Women Racing at Indy? Ask Guthrie," Los Angeles Times, 24 May 1987. Retrieved 7 Aug. 2017.
  8. Wulf, Steve (2015-03-23). "Supersisters: Original Roster". Espn.go.com. Retrieved 2015-06-04.
  9. "Janet Guthrie, ’60", University of Michigan Alumni Association. 2017. Retrieved 7 Aug. 2017.
  10. "Janet Guthrie," Bio at International Motor Sports Hall of Fame, 2017. Retrieved 7 Aug. 2017.
  11. https://www.aspentimes.com/news/warren-levine/
  12. Keyes, David (2011-06-17). "Saudi Arabian Women Plan Day of Protest by Driving on June 17". Retrieved 2019-07-04.
  13. "PRI audio player". Public Radio International. Retrieved 2019-07-04.
  14. Keyes, David (2011-06-17). "Saudi Arabian Women Plan Day of Protest by Driving on June 17". Retrieved 2019-07-04.
  15. "» Janet Guthrie | Automotive Hall of Fame". www.automotivehalloffame.org. Archived from the original on 2019-07-24. Retrieved 2019-07-24.
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