Come Sunday at noon, as I have done every year of my life since childhood, I will be among an estimated 300 million people in more than 200 countries around the world who are glued to their television screens watching “the greatest spectacle in racing,” the 94th running of the Indianapolis 500.
They’ve staged this 500 mile contest of speed, endurance, brains, money, tragedy, and guts every year since 1911 (except for the war years of 1917-18 and 1942-45).
Along the way, extraordinarily talented men like A.J. Foyt, Mario Andretti and Helio Castroneves have become famous the world over by excelling in this contest on a four-corner, two-and-a-half mile long track at lap speeds averaging well over 220 mph. Indy is the pinnacle of motorsports in America, equivalent to the Formula One grand prix circuit in Europe and Asia.
But when the 33 drivers take the green flag this year, it will mark the culmination of an amazing chapter in the struggle for gender equality, one that has been happening at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway this month, yet has somehow all but escaped the nation’s notice.
That it is happening at a place and in a professional sport that until relatively recently didn’t even allow women to enter the pits – aka “Gasoline Alley” – much less don a helmet and fire suit to compete, is nothing short of amazing. The contrast with other pro sports could not be more marked.
No woman will be on either team’s roster in the next Super Bowl. No woman will be on either team competing in the World Series this fall. No woman will be on either team in the NBA finals. These might be dismissed as mere products of disparities in physical strength, but for the fact that gender separation is still the name of the game in pro golf and tennis.
But in Indianapolis, capital of Heartland America, no less than four women will be in the 2010 Indy 500, a professional sporting endeavour in which physical strength, mental acuity and pure, raw courage mix with basic athletic prowess as essential ingredients just to survive, much less to reach success. The race is the crowning event in the Indy Racing League’s grueling 17-race annual schedule.
From its inception in 1911 to 1976, Indy had no women competitors. Then in 1977, Janet Guthrie, an obscure sports car racer and engineer, made the race but only finished 29th. Her best finish in three starts was ninth in 1978. In 1976, she became the first woman ever to qualify for a NASCAR race, and made the field in four other races on that circuit.
Another sports car racer, Lyn St. James, made the Indy field seven times, beginning in 1992, with a best finish of sixth in the 1994 race. Prior to her Indy racing, St. James had won several professional sports car contests, incuding twice being a member of the winning team at the Daytona 24 Hour and once at the Sebring 12 Hour. She also had some success in the Trans Am, a professional road racing series for racing versions of Mustangs, Camaros and similar muscle cars.
Since her retirement from professional racing, St. James has been a behind-the-scenes force in encouraging and aiding more women to compete in motorsports.
One of the four women starting the 500 this year, American Danica Patrick, is also likely the most popular driver in the field and among the three most powerful figures in all of American sports marketing.
Two years ago, she became the first woman ever to win an Indianapolis-type race, and she is a genuine threat to win this race, despite enduring a month of frustration in practice and qualifying.
Patrick actually led the 2005 contest, her rookie year, with only 10 of the 200 laps to go, but low fuel forced her to slow to fourth, allowing Englishman Dan Weldon to win. Her near-win vaulted her to fame and she quickly became the Indy Racing League’s biggest draw and a sports phenomenon in her own right.
Last year, Patrick finished third and was among the front runners most of the day. This year, she starts from the middle of the eighth row, her worst-ever starting position. ESPN’s Robin Roberts recently talked to Patrick in, of all places, a New York candy store, and elicited some surprisingly candid responses from the driver.
Patrick is a member of the five-car team owned by Michael Andretti, son of Mario. All four of her teammates had trouble making the field this year, too, as they struggled to find the right “setup” for their cars. Top racing teams like the Andretti outfit have off-years occasionally, so Patrick and her teammates go into the event with a significant handicap.
The other three women are all foreigners, but they made it into the field the same way Patrick did, by qualifying among the fastest 33 drivers. Ana Beatriz of Brazil is making her first 500 start, from the seventh row. Two years ago, she became the first woman to win an Indy Lights race. The Lights are less powerful versions of the Indy cars, making for a racing series that is analogous to AAA baseball.
Simona de Silvestro of Switzerland will start from the 22nd position. Silvestro came to Indy from the Formula Atlantic Series where she won four contests in 2008. Like the Lights, the Atlantic race cars are less powerful than Indy racers, providing a level of competition like AA baseball.
Finally, American Sarah Fisher starts her ninth Indy 500, this time from the middle of the 10th row. She is the most experienced of the women competitors and is also the first to form her own racing team for the Indy circuit. Being an owner-driver is like trying to be both the coach and a player for an NBA team, as did Michael Jordan with the Washington Wizards.
For more on Beatriz, Silvestro and Fisher, check out this excellent piece on Motorsports.com. Liz Clarke of The Washington Post did a solid piece on the four women here. If you are a New Yorker subscriber, check out Peter Boyer’s informative profile of Patrick in the current issue.
Outside of the racing and major sports media outlets like Autoweek, ESPN and Sports Illustrated, Clarke and Boyer are among the few Mainstream Media journalists to notice the miracle at Indy.
Interestingly, Indy car racing was not the first form of professional motorsports to see successful women competitors. The National Hot Rod Association’s 300 mph Top Fuel Dragster class in quarter-mile drag racing has seen multiple women competitors, including Shirley Muldowney, who won the NHRA’s most prestigious title three times in the 1970s.
Muldowney was also the subject of something even rarer than a winning woman professional motorsports racer, “Heart Like a Wheel,” a genuinely entertaining Hollywood movie about racing.
