Hila with Parnelli Jones
Hila Paulson Sweet was an American driver known for her stock car racing in the 1950s, and for being instrumental in setting up all-female racing clubs.Born in Compton, Los Angeles, she spent most of her adult life in California. She started racing in 1950, when she was 22, initially in the "Powder Puff Derby" events put on for wives and girfriends of male drivers. Her younger brother Ray also raced. To begin with, she competed alongside her first husband, Bob Morgan, and the pair owned a car together. She was later married to Ummie Paulson, an expert car builder who acted as her crew chief.
She raced in a couple of official NASCAR Late Model races in 1956 and 1957, in a Chevrolet. Both races were at the Gardena circuit, and she did not finish either of them.
Hila is most famous for her huge success in the “Powder Puff Derby” scene, where she was almost unbeatable. Although there were no rules specifically banning female drivers, or limiting them to ladies' races, they normally had to share a car with a husband, boyfriend or male relative, who would use the car for the main events, hence the popularity of powder puff or "Cheesecake" derbies.
She was part of a group of female drivers who became known as the Lady Leadfoots, which set up a racing league for women. The group's official name was the California Women's Racing Association and it was formed in 1950, amalgamating several groups active in jalopy racing, including the Cheesecake Derby Association. Hila was not part of the combined committee at the beginning, having led one of its constituent groups, but she had risen to the rank of President by 1953. This was in spite of a claim that one of the organisations tried to ban her from competing as she won too often. The CWRA advertised for new drivers in newspaper Situations Vacant columns, promising start money.
The CWRA's home track would become Gardena Stadium, but their first all-female event was at Carrell Stadium in 1950, before the other groups joined them. Hila competed against pre-war Irish driver Fay Taylour, visiting from Europe, as well as the glamorous Peggy Peek, Esta Cornett and Ellen McCoy. Her sister Edna Bates was a regular rival. Most powderpuff races were contested over a few laps in a single heat, but the Carrell event was a full programme of heats and a final.
Hila was never shy of publicity and must have jumped at the chance to enter a match race against Parnelli Jones in 1955, then a leading jalopy racer at the Carpinteria Thunderbowl. According to the Santa Barbara News Press, there was little to choose between the two drivers for the first third of the six-lap race, before Parnelli Jones pulled ahead. Hila kept on his tail until the final corner, when she pulled up the inside of him and sent him off the track, taking the win for herself. Later in the year, she also took on brothers Marty and Tommy Artoff at the San Bernardino track.
In 1959, she also did some sportscar racing, and won a Ladies’ race at Ascot, in a Jaguar. The year before, she took a Ford Tractor stock car to a ladies' race at her home track of Gardena, winning from Barbara Scott and Bonnie Bosley, both in MGs.
After retiring from the track herself, she continued to be active in motorsport until an advanced age, organising get-togethers for other former racers on the jalopy and stock car scenes. Her marriage to Ummie did not last and she later married Bob Sweet. They moved to Florida, where they owned their own track.
Away from active competition, she was instrumental in getting Parnelli Jones drives, alongside Ummie. Parnelli Jones won the Indy 500 in 1963. She also wrote about stock car racing for local newspapers. Later, she organised get-togethers for former racers.
(Image from The Jalopy Journal)
