Simona de Silvestro

Simona in 2010

Simona de Silvestro is a Swiss single-seater driver who competed mainly in America as a professional racer, before being signed by the Sauber Formula One team as an "affiliated driver". She was born in 1988.

Being born in Switzerland meant that, after a karting career, she had to race elsewhere. She did one season of Italian Formula Renault before moving to the States. This season was rather up-and-down in nature, with a fifth place at Monza its highlight, and two other top-ten finishes, but also some disappointing performances, and four retirements. She was 20th overall.

Her first US season proved to be a change in fortunes. Driving in Formula BMW for EuroInternational, Simona was much more on the pace,  and did everything apart from win - she was second twice, at Lime Rock and Mosport, and the only time she was out of the top ten, was when she was disqualified during the second Lime Rock race. She was fourth overall.  

She then moved on to the Champ Car Atlantic junior series in 2007, with Walker Racing. Despite a poor start to the season, with two retirements from her first two races, her best finish was seventh, at Mont Tremblant, and she also managed to pick up a tenth place at San Jose. She was 19th overall at the end of the season. For a change, she also made a guest appearance in an SCCA race, driving a Mazda MX-5.

She returned to the championship in 2008 with Newman Wachs. This proved to be a real turning point in her career. During the first round at Long Beach, she became the second-ever woman to win a race, moving up from her qualifying position of second. After that, she achieved a string of other top-ten finishes, including two fourths at Road Atlanta and Trois-Rivieres. Apart from two retirements, she only finished outside the top ten three times. She was eighth overall.

After being a regular fixture in the Atlantic top ten in 2008, she improved her performance once more in 2009, only finishing outside the top three on three occasions, two of which were retirements. She scored four wins, four seconds and one third, and was third overall. Her team this year was Team Stargate Worlds.

She graduated to the Indy Racing League in 2010, still supported by Stargate, in conjunction with the HVM team. Her season started solidly, although not spectacularly, with a pair of 16th places at Sao Paulo and St Petersburg, then a 21st at Barber. Normally, she qualified slightly higher. Her first Indy 500 led to a 14th place, battling from 22nd on the grid. This earned her a Rookie of the Year award. A trio of DNFs then followed, including a fiery accident at Texas, which left Simona with burns to her hand. However, when she returned for the Toronto round, she shot up from 21st on the grid to ninth, her best finish so far. Later in the season, she managed to better it, with eighth at Mid-Ohio, but she could not maintain the momentum, and had three more non-finishes. She was 19th overall.

She was retained by the team for 2011, and started well, with a fourth at St Petersburg and ninth at Barber. After this, her pace dropped off, leading to 20th places at Long Beach and São Paulo. The Indy 500 gave her a DNF, following a string of dramatic incidents; another spectacular crash during practice left her with burns, of varying severity, on both hands. She was allowed to qualify with the team’s spare car, and was classified 24th, but did not finish.

Two indifferent races at Texas followed, then another practice crash at Milwaukee, which preceded another retirement. Simona did not attend the next race, in order to recover from what appears to have been concussion. Her return at Toronto gave her a tenth place, her only top ten of the season, but then bad luck struck again, and she had to miss another round due to issues with her passport. The last rounds gave her a twelfth, fourteenth and a DNF. She was 20th at the end of the year.

Her contract with HVM continued for 2012, this time driving the new Lotus-engined car. Simona and the team struggled with reliability in the early part of the season, only finishing every other race, and hoped that a new engine from Lotus would improve their fortunes. Sadly, it did not make much difference: the DNFs continued and Simona's best finishes were a pair of fourteenth places, at Belle Isle and Iowa. She did not finish the Indy 500, after qualifying in 32nd place. Her final championship position was 24th. 

Unsurprisingly, she switched teams for 2013, moving to KV Racing Technology, alongside Tony Kanaan. She was on the pace quickly, qualifying third for her first race, and finishing sixth, and following up with top-ten finishes at Long Beach and São Paulo. Indianapolis itself was mediocre, with Simona finishing 17th, although up from 24th on the gird. A mid-season lull followed, but she managed to drag herself out of it, and back into the top ten, at Toronto. Things really picked up towards the end, with a fifth place at Baltimore, then a second at Houston, the best of Simona's career. This was a first podium position for a female driver, on an Indycar road course. A tenth and an eighth rounded out the season, and she was thirteenth overall.

Despite her comparative success, Simona's management have hinted that she was not happy with the KV team, and certain KV people admitted as much in 2014.

Another catalyst for Simona to move on, was a testing deal with the Sauber Formula One team, as an "affiliated driver". This was offered as a year of testing and training, with a view to a race seat in 2015. As she was not one of the team's official test drivers, she was only allowed to drive non-current machinery. She tested a 2012 Sauber at Fiorano and Valencia, and has covered sufficient distance to be awarded a Superlicence. She hoped to secure the place in the team, and had sponsorship from an energy company towards achieving this. Unfortunately, an announcement was made at the start of October, to the effect that Simona's financial backing was no longer in place, and she was no longer in the running for a 2015 race seat. Team principal, Monisha Kaltenborn, was said to be considering an alternative role for her within the team., but Simona's "affiliation" was pronounced over. She ceased working with her manager in November, and was said to be considering a return to the IRL. 

She did, in fact, return to Indycar, but only briefly, driving for Andretti Autosport. She did three races, one of which ended in an impressive fourth place, at NOLA. She was also 18th at St. Petersburg, and 19th at Indianapolis itself. Later in the season, she moved across to the Andretti Formula E team, having done two guest races for them in London. Her season started slowly, with a DNF in China, but she was thirteenth at Putrajaya and eleventh at Punta del Este. She took her first points finish at Long Beach, with a ninth place, and repeated it in Berlin. She was 18th in the championship.

In October, she also travelled to Australia for the Bathurst 1000. She was driving in the first all-female team for over ten years, sharing a Prodrive-prepared Ford Falcon with Renee Gracie. An accident by Renee left them down the order, but they were classified in 21st place.

In 2016, she decided that Australia was where her racing future lay. She and Renee Gracie teamed up again for the Bathurst 1000, driving a works-prepared Nissan Altima. They were fourteenth overall, an improvement on last year. Towards the end of the year, it was announced that Simona would be racing full-time in Supercars in 2017. She signed a three-year deal, which, unusually, was with the series promoters themselves, rather than an individual team.

She drove a Nissan Ultima in Australian Supercars in 2017, supported by Nissan Motorsport Australia. It was a very challenging year and she struggled to get the car working how she liked it. Her best finish was thirteenth, which she picked up twice at Phillip Island.

In 2018, she was 23rd in the Supercar championship after another trying year. Her best result was twelfth at Barbagallo.

At the end of 2018, she was announced as the Venturi Formula E team's official test driver. She took part in the in-season test day in Saudi Arabia in December, alongside other female drivers, encouraged by the Saudi motorsport authorities.

2019 was her final season in Supercars. Her last year in the Altima was still quite underwhelming, although she did manage a seventh place at Pukehohe. Her other activities during the year gave clues to her future destination; she joined the Heninricher/Meyer Shank all-female IMSA team for the Daytona 24 Hours, finishing twelfth in class in an Acura NSX with Katherine Legge, Bia Figueredo and Christina Nielsen. Later, she was announced as the fledgling Porsche Formula E team's official test driver.

Back in Europe, she contested the 2020 ADAC GT Masters with Kus TEam75 Bernhard, driving a Porsche 911. It was an inconsistent season with a couple of strong fourth-placed finishes at the Nurburgring and Hockenheim, but she was unable to maintain any momentum and was not helped by car damage leading to non-starts later in the season. She was 23rd in the championship. 

In September, she made a guest appearance in the GT World Challenge Europe, driving a similar Porsche for Rowe Racing. She and her team-mates were eighth at the Nurburgring. 

The biggest moment of her 2021 season was a comeback at the Indy 500. She had been hired by Paretta Autosport, a "female-led" team with women as managers and engineers as well as drivers, including team principal Beth Paretta. Sadly, Simona retired from the race quite early.

The rest of her year was spent in Europe. Another run in a Porsche in the GT Masters, this time with Precote Herberth Motorsport, led to 23rd in the championship for Simona and her co-driver Klaus Bachler. Their best result was a sixth place at Oschersleben, plus sevenths at Sachsenring and the Nurburgring.

She drove another Porsche in the NLS, a Cayman, in which she won the class for alternative-fuel cars twice. Later in the season, she made another guest appearance in the Scandinavian Carrera Cup at Rudskogen. She scored two fifths and one sixth place, and one fastest lap.

A return to Indycar beckoned in 2022. She did four races for Paretta Autosport. This did not include the Indy 500. Her best result was an 18th place at Mid-Ohio. Away from motorsport, she raced in the one-woman "monobob" bobsleigh category during the winter.

Apart from bobsleigh and some development duties for the Porsche Formula E team, her only race in 2023 was the Bathurst 1000km. She drove a Mustang GT with Kai Allen for Dick Johnson Racing, finishing 20th overall.

Motorsport-wise, 2024 was a quiet year. She raced at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, and drove for the Kiro team in the Formula E Women's Test  at Jarama. Her bobsleigh training continued and she began competing in the two-woman bob event.

(Picture by Lisa Hurley, from paddocktalk.com)

Pippa Mann

Pippa Mann began racing single-seaters in 2003, after several years of karting, including some time spent living and competing in Italy. Her first foray into senior competition was the 2003 British Formula Renault Winter Series, driving for the noted Manor Motorsport team. Although she only scored three points during her first three events, she was signed by JVA Motorsport for the full Formula Renault season in 2004. 
This first full year was beset by some difficulties, including a DNF in her first event, and Pippa had to sit out three races. Her best finishes were two 17th places, at Oulton Park and Thruxton. She was 34th overall in the championship.

Despite her difficult season, she negotiated a deal with Comtec Racing to run in French Formula Renault and the Formula Renault Eurocup in 2005. Her French campaign started slowly, with 18th and 31st places at Nogaro, and remained cautious for most of the season, which was nearly a complete one, bar two meetings. Her best finish was tenth, at Le Mans, and she was 21st overall. In the Eurocup, the opposite was true: Pippa earned her highest finish, a fourteenth place, in the first round at Zolder, but suffered a series of DNFs and did not really progress much towards the end of the season. She was unplaced in the championship, interestingly, alongside future F1 driver Jaime Alguersuari.

Her contract with Comtec continued in 2006. This season, she raced in the Eurocup and in British Formula Renault. The Eurocup, once more, did not give her much joy, with a trio of fifteenth places at Istanbul, Misano and Donington her best results, although she did improve her finishing record somewhat. Again, she was unplaced. In the UK series, she broke into the top ten for the first time, with a ninth place at Donington. Her other finishes were usually just out of the top ten, and she was 19th overall.

In 2007, she moved into the World Series by Renault, now supported by the Cram/P1 Europe team. Despite another early top ten, a tenth in the first round at Monza, plus a pole position, Pippa struggled to maintain momentum. Her season was plagued by DNFs. At the end of the year, she was 27th. During her second year in the championship, she bettered her finishing record with a seventh at the Nürburgring, as well as a repeat of her first round tenth at Monza. Her list of DNFs was also shorter. She was 25th overall, with the small consolation of being the most successful female driver in the World Series. Although she was not among the front-runners, Pippa achieved a certain amount of notoriety within Renault circles, partly for her habit of wearing increasingly flamboyant dresses for pre-race parades, in preference to team uniform.

She also drove in the UK Porsche Cup during this time. From her six races in 2008, she achieved three finishes,  the best being two tenths at Knockhill. Since then, she has shown little interest in sportscars.

For 2009, she moved to the USA to contest the Firestone Indy Lights series, driving for Panther Racing. During her rookie tests, she was one of the fastest drivers on the course. In her first season, she got into the top ten three times, with a best finish of eighth, at Homestead, the last race of the season. During the year, she often qualified very well, in the top ten, but could not quite turn it into results. She was fourteenth overall. After that, Panther Racing ceased their Indy Lights involvement, leaving Pippa to search for a new team.

In 2010, she won her first race, at Kentucky, from pole. This was a welcome change, after the disappointment of crashing out of the lead at Indianapolis. She also managed a second at Chicagoland, and four other top tens. Her partnership with Sam Schmidt Motorsports really paid off, and this was the highest-achieving season of Pippa's career.

In 2011, following her improved performances in Indy Lights, she had her first part-season in the IRL, taking drives from two different teams. Her first race was the Indy 500, in which she was 20th, from 31st on the grid. She was driving for Conquest Racing. Later in the season, she made a deal with Rahal Letterman Racing. During her early tests with the team, she broke a vertebral plate and had to take time off, but later in the season, she entered the Kentucky round, and was 22nd. This led to a seat for the season-ending Las Vegas race, but Pippa was injured in the serious multi-car accident that killed former champion Dan Wheldon, and required surgery to her hand.

She intended to return to the IRL. In 2012, a deal to compete once more in the Indy 500 fell through at the last minute. She occupied herself with some radio commentary in the States in the meantime.

In September, she accepted a one-off drive in the AutoGP series from Campos Racing, at Sonoma, her first road-course race for two years. She was ninth and eighth.

Her career received a shot in the arm in 2013, when she was hired by Dale Coyne Racing. Her first Indy race back after her accident was the Indy 500 itself, which she did not manage to finish. Her next race, at Texas, also ended in a DNF, but at Pocono, she was fifteenth. She then failed to finish again at the Auto Club Speedway race. Her sponsorship did not permit her to do any more rounds, and this left her 31st overall. As she did in 2012, she turned to commentary work for the rest of the season. 

In 2014, she became involved with the breast cancer organisation, Susan G Komen, and was one of their celebrity ambassadors. A team was put together to run Pippa in the Indy 500 again, driving a pink Dale Coyne Dallara-Honda, publicising the charity. In May, she made it to the start line, despite a string of problems which had prevented her from doing most of her planned testing. During the race itself, she was making up ground on her rivals after a poor qualifying session, but a badly-handled pit stop, which took far longer than it should have, pushed her back down the order. She finished the race in 24th place.

This was her only race of 2014, although she has done media work for Susan G Komen. 

In 2015, she did a limited programme of Indycar races for Dale Coyne Racing, still in support of Susan G Komen. From six rounds, her best finishes were two thirteenth places, at Fontana and Pocono. She qualified for the Indy 500, and finished in 22nd place. At the end of the season, she was 29th in the championship.

2016 saw her undertake another very limited race programme for Dale Coyne, carrying the pink colours of Susan G Komen. She got onto the Indy 500 starting grid again, and finished in 18th place, the best result of her career at the Brickyard. Later in the season, she entered the Pocono race again, and was seventeenth. This year, she spoke out about the difficulties of remaining competitive with so few opportunities for high-level racing, and admitted that she had encountered sexism during her career.

Her now-traditional Indy 500 outing with Dale Coyne Racing led to a 17th place finish in 2017. This year, she started to expand her driving repertoire and joined Shea Holbrook in the Lamborghini Super Trofeo. They were sixth in the Am class of the North American series, with three fourth places. Driving solo, Pippa had a best finish of third at Watkins Glen. She now has an FIA endurance driver's categorisation of Silver and is able to race sportscars more widely.

Her 2018 entry for the Indy 500 was in support of organ donation, but sadly she did not qualify due to problems beyond her control. 

Happily, her appearances in the Lamborghini Trofeo at Watkins Glen and Laguna Seca led to four second places. At the end of the season, she entered the 25 Hours of Thunderhill as part of an all-female team for Shift Up Now with Sarah Montgomery, Ashley Freiberg, Shea Holbrook and Amy Dilks. They just made it to the finish in their Mazda MX-5, 23rd and fifth in class, after having to perform some emergency repairs. 

After the disappointment of 2018, Pippa's 2019 Indy 500 was one of her best yet. She was 16th for Clauson-Marshall Motorsport, having qualified in 31st place. She was on the lead lap and out-performed the likes of Helio Castroneves and Scott Dixon.

Aside from Indy, she continued to support and occasionally join the Shift Up Now team and also travelled extensively for other opportunities. At the end of 2018, she tested a Geox Dragon Formula E car at Ad Diriyah, Saudi Arabia, as part of an official female drivers' test. A year later, she was recruited for the X1 Racing League in India and drove a Formula BMW car for the Mumbai Falcons team. The X1 league looks to emulate the Indian professional cricket league with city-based team motorsport. Each team must consist of an international male and female pro, an Indian pro driver and an Indian am driver. The Falcons were second in the inaugural season, although Pippa's car blew up on track during the second round and limited her own participation.

Sadly, she could not raise funds for another stab at the Indy 500 in 2020. She concentrated on instructing and developing Shift Up Now, making occasional appearances in the team's Mazda MX5.

There were no further Indycar appearances in 2021 either, although Pippa was busy, both as a team manager and a driver. Her year began in Germany, racing a BMW 330i for Team AVIA Sorg Rennsport in the first two rounds of the NLS. Her co-driver was Christina Nielsen. They were twelfth and tenth in a competitive class.

Driving an Audi R8 LMS this time, she was part of an all-female team for the Nurburgring 24 Hours with Christina, Carrie Schreiner and Celia Martin. They won their class and were 45th overall.

In between, she did some rounds of the World Racing League for Shift Up Now, then got into a Porsche 718 Cayman for the Indianapolis round of the GT World Challenge. Back on familiar ground, she was 29th in the multi-driver race.

The Girls Only car for the 2022 was a BMW M4 and Pippa was once more part of the team, with Celia Martin, Carrie Schreiner and Fabienne Wohlwend. They were third in their class. Pippa joined them again in 2023 and started the race in class pole position. They were 81st overall.

She did the first two rounds of the 2024 NLS with Girls Only, still in the M4. She shared with Beitske Visser, Carrie Schreiner and Fabienne Wohlwend. This foursome was third in class in the Nurburgring 24 Hours, 47th overall. Driving for a different team, Samantha Tan's ST Racing, she raced in the two Barcelona 12 Hour races, finishing 15th and 20th in a similar BMW.

For the 2025 Nurburgring 24 Hours she joined Breakell Racing in their Porsche Cayman, an Anglo-Spanish foursome. They finished in 73rd place, sixth in class. She also drove a BMW M4 for Girls Only in one round of the NLS, finishing eighth in class.

Away from the track, she has been an outspoken advocate for female drivers, and launched her own talent scholarship in 2017. Shift Up Now has grown since then and became an official charitable foundation in 2022. She often races alongside its supported drivers in the World Racing League. She has also criticised plans for a women-only single-seater championship from their beginnings in 2017, not backing down when the W Series was announced in 2018. By contrast, she praised the inclusive approach of the X1 Racing League and More Than Equal.

(Picture from www.petroleyewear.ca)

Updates

I've been taking a break from Speedqueens while getting on with other things for a while, but from now on, I'm going to be updating the blog again.

Pages for Le Mans and the Indy 500 now with 2011 results.

Ana Beatriz "Bia" Figueiredo

As “Ana Beatriz”, Brazilian driver Ana Beatriz Caselato Gomes de Figueiredo began racing in the Indy Racing League for the Dreyer & Reinbold team in 2010. Initially, she drove in the São Paulo and Indianapolis rounds. She was thirteenth in Brazil, and retired from the Indy 500, after becoming involved in a serious accident to her team-mate, Mike Conway. However, since the crash happened on the last lap, she was still classified 21st. Later, she entered the Chicagoland and Homestead races, but retired from both.

Prior to this, she had mostly raced in South America, using the name Bia Figueiredo. Her American adventure began when she competed in Indy Lights in 2008. She was third in the championship, with one win at Nashville and five more podium places. This won her the Tony Renna Award, and a strong following.

The next year, she stayed in Indy Lights, still with the Sam Schmidt Motorsport team. She managed another win, at Iowa, and a third at Kentucky, alongside a string of other top five places. She was eighth this time, after missing the last round due to a lack of finances, and sitting out one race earlier in the season after a car-destroying accident.

Her South American racing experience began in 2003, when she entered her first Formula Renault championship in Brazil. It was here that she began working with the Césario team. She was a decent eleventh in her first season, with three podium places. In addition to this, she was voted Rookie of the Year.

In 2004, she combined Formula Renault with a few outings in Sudam Formula 3. A more experienced Bia visited the top three on nine occasions, and finished the Formula Renault season in fifth. On the F3 side, she did not disgrace herself, and was runner-up in the Light class.

Her first win came in 2005, in Formula Renault. It was one of three she achieved that year, alongside twelve podium places. This gave her third overall in a competitive championship. It was now time to move on to higher things.

In 2006, still driving for Césario, she was fifth overall in Sudam Formula Three, with four second places and one third. It was a good full debut season.

Between then and her move to the States, she was linked with an A1 GP drive for her native Brazil, although she never actually drove the car in anger. Her quiet 2007 season included some A1 GP testing, and this was continued in 2009.

In 2011, she was retained by Dreyer & Reinbold for almost the whole Indy season. She was not one of the fastest on the grid, and had a best finish of eleventh, at Toronto, but she generally avoided the spectacular accidents with which she had become associated. Sadly, she did not finish her home race at São Paulo, but she got to the end of the Indy 500, in 21st position. She was 21st in the championship.


In 2012, she raced again in Indycars. Andretti Racing offered her a part-season, which consisted of São Paulo and Indianapolis. She was 20th in São Paulo and 23rd in the Indy 500.

Driving for Dale Coyne's team in 2013, she had a bigger racing schedule, seven races this time, in the first half of the season. The first two ended in DNFs. These were followed by fourteenth at Long Beach, her best result. Unfortuantely, she did not finish at São Paulo either, although she came back at the Indianapolis 500 and was 15th, from 29th on the grid. Her other races, later on, at Milwaukee and Iowa, gave her a 19th and another DNF. She was 29th overall.  

There was no Indy racing for her in 2014. She moved back to Brazil, and got herself a deal to race in Stock Car, with the Pro GP team. Her car was a Chevrolet Sonic. This was a tough year for Ana Beatriz, who had not driven a saloon or stock car before. The rest of the grid was very impressive, including former Formula One drivers, Rubens Barrichello, Ricardo Zonta and Luciano Burti. Ana's finishing record was quite good, but she did not break into the top ten, having a best finish of eleventh, at Gioânia. Mostly, she managed to get into the lower reaches of the top twenty. She was 32nd overall, five places below her Pro GP team-mate, Rafael Suzuki. 

A second season in Stock Car in 2015 gave her a first top ten finish, a tenth place at Curitiba. Her season was affected by a high rate of non-finishes, and she was 32nd overall. Her car was a Peugeot 408. She also drove a Toyota Corolla in one round of the Copa de Marcas, at Interlagos, and was thirteenth. 

She raced the Peugeot again in the 2016 Stock Car series, and overcame some of her difficulties from 2015. Her finishing result was much improved, and she achieved her first top ten finish, a sixth place at Tarumã. This was one of two; she was tenth later in the season, at Curvelo, and was 25th in the championship.

She endured a terrible start to her 2017 Stock Car season, failing to finish her first five races. Her Chevrolet Cruze was off the pace and her best finish was another sixth, at Santa Cruz. She was 29th in the championship.

She also did three races in the Porsche GT3 Cup in Brazil.

Unfortunately, 2018 also began with a series of DNFs at Sao Paulo and Curitiba. Her best result was sixth at Campo Grande, but she had too many non-finishes to challenge for honours.

At the start of 2019, she joined up with Christina Nielsen, Katherine Legge and Simona de Silvestro to race an Acura NSX for MSR/Jackie Heinricher Racing at the Daytona 24 Hours. They were 12th in the GTD class after the car was damaged. Bia joined the team again at Sebring, Road Atlanta, Road America, Watkins Glen and Mosport, earning a best finish of fourth in class at the Glen. She was due to join her 2019 colleagues for the 2020 Daytona 24 Hours, but had to drop out due to pregnancy.

Mid-2020, her husband and father-in-law were arrested for embezzling money from a Brazilian government department. Bia was not directly implicated herself but she kept a low profile, aided by her impending motherhood.

Despite this, she made a couple of appearances in 2021. She joined Christina Nielsen and Katherine Legge for the Sebring 12 Hours, driving a Porsche 911 GT3 for Earl Bamber's team. They were fifth in the GTD class. Later in the year, she had a guest spot in the Porsche Endurance Series at Interlagos. She finished twelfth.

Most of 2022 was spent in South American TCR championship, driving for two different teams in an Audi RS3 and a Honda Civic. She was 17th in the championship after being a regular top ten finisher. Her best finish was a seventh place at Goiania. 

In December, she made a guest apperance in the Porsche Carrera Cup Endurance series, finishing 19th at Interlagos. This was good preparation for the Mil Milhas do Brazil in January 2023, where she drove a Sigma protoype with Sergio Jimenez and Beto Monteiro. They were 31st overall. 

She then announced that she would be racing trucks for the rest of the year in the Copa Truck. This proved a good move and she was third in the Super class, tied on points with Evandro Camargo who took second place only after dropped scores. Both won twice during the year.

Bia was also voted president of Brazil's women's motorsport association.

She continued to race trucks in 2024 and ended the year champion of Copa Truck, in the Super Truck Elite class. 

Her third Copa Truck season was not quite as stellar. She was eighth overall after narrowly missing the podium once at Minas Gerais. Otherwise, she was a regular top-ten finisher.

(Image from http://lucyvanderblog.blogspot.co.uk/2010_08_01_archive.html)

Women in the Indianapolis 500

(L-R: Milka Duno, Sarah Fisher, Lyn St.James, Billie Jean King, Danica Patrick)

The first running of the Indianapolis 500, at the Brickyard circuit, happened in 1911. However, it remained a firmly male-only bastion until the 1970s. It was not until the start of the decade that women were permitted into the pitlane as journalists or team staff, partly due to the persistence of women journalists such as Denise McCluggage.

Although female drivers had made specially-sanctioned promotional appearances at the Brickyard as early as 1935, it was not until 1976 that they were allowed to participate in its blue riband event. Janet Guthrie was the first woman driver to pass her rookie test.

In more recent history, the Indianapolis 500 has been one of the few elite motorsport events routinely entered by multiple women racers. Simona de Silvestro was run by Paretta Motorsport in 2021; the team is owned by Beth Paretta and has a majority female crew. Paretta is the first female-run team to enter. 

Below is a list of all the appearances by female drivers in the Indy 500.

1976

Janet Guthrie (Coyote-Foyt) - DNQ

1977

Janet Guthrie (Lightning-Offenhauser) - 29th

1978

Janet Guthrie (Wildcat-DGS) - 9th

1979

Janet Guthrie (Lola-Cosworth) - 34th

1980

Janet Guthrie (Lightning-Cosworth) - DNQ

1982
Desiré Wilson (Eagle-Cosworth) - DNQ (withdrawn)

1983
Desiré Wilson (March 82C-Cosworth) - DNQ

1992

Lyn St. James (Lola-Chevrolet) - 11th

1993

Lyn St.James (Lola-Cosworth) - 25th

1994

Lyn St.James (Lola-Cosworth) - 19th

1995

Lyn St.James (Lola-Cosworth) - 32nd

1996

Lyn St.James (Lola-Cosworth) - 14th

1997

Lyn St. James (Dallara-Infiniti) - 13th

1998

Lyn St. James (G Force-Infiniti) - DNQ

1999

Lyn St. James (G Force-Oldsmobile) - DNQ

2000

Sarah Fisher (Dallara-Oldsmobile) - 31st

Lyn St. James (G Force-Oldsmobile) - 32nd

2001

Sarah Fisher (Dallara-Oldsmobile) - 31st

2002

Sarah Fisher (G Force-Infiniti) - 24th

2003

Sarah Fisher (Dallara-Chevrolet) - 31st

2004

Sarah Fisher (Dallara-Toyota) - 21st

2005

Danica Patrick (Panoz-Honda) - 4th

2006

Danica Patrick (Panoz-Honda) - 8th

2007

Danica Patrick (Dallara-Honda) - 8th

Sarah Fisher (Dallara-Honda) - 18th

Milka Duno (Dallara-Honda) - 31st

2008

Milka Duno (Dallara-Honda) - 19th

Danica Patrick (Dallara-Honda) - 22nd

Sarah Fisher (Dallara-Honda) - 30th

2009

Danica Patrick (Dallara-Honda) - 3rd

Sarah Fisher (Dallara-Honda) - 17th

Milka Duno (Dallara-Honda) - 20th

2010

Danica Patrick (Dallara-Honda) - 6th

Simona de Silvestro (Dallara-Honda) - 14th

Ana Beatriz (Dallara-Honda) - 21st

Sarah Fisher (Dallara-Honda) - 26th

Milka Duno (Dallara-Honda) - DNQ

2011
Danica Patrick - 10th
Pippa Mann - 20th
Ana Beatriz - 21st
Simona de Silvestro - DNF
(all Dallara-Honda)

2012
Katherine Legge (Dallara-Chevrolet) - 22nd
Ana Beatriz (Dallara-Chevrolet) - 23rd
Simona de Silvestro (Dallara-Lotus) - DNF

2013
Ana Beatriz (Honda) - 15th
Simona de Silvestro (Chevrolet) - 17th
Katherine Legge (Honda) - 26th
Pippa Mann (Honda) - 30th/DNF

2014
Pippa Mann (Dallara) - 24th

2015
Simona de Silvestro (Honda) - 19th
Pippa Mann (Honda) - 22nd

2016
Pippa Mann (Honda) - 18th

2017
Pippa Mann (Honda) - 17th

2018
Pippa Mann (Honda) - DNQ

2019
Pippa Mann (Chevrolet) - 16th

2021

Simona de Silvestro (Chevrolet) - DNF

2023

Katherine Legge (Honda) - DNF

2024

Katherine Legge (Honda) - DNF

2026

Katherine Legge (Chevrolet) - DNF

(Image from www.motorsport.com)

Open Wheel Racing in the USA

Arlene Hiss

Since the 1970s, several women have reached the highest ranks of single-seater competition in the USA, in Indycar and its descendants, the Indy Racing League and Champ Car. The best-known, including Danica Patrick, Lyn St. James, Katherine Legge, Cheryl Glass, Hanna Zellers and Janet Guthrie, have their own profiles.

Below are some short profiles of some of the lesser-known female faces on the US open-wheel scene.

Mishael Abbott – IRL Infiniti Pro Series driver in 2005 and 2006, after several years of Formula Mazda and a successful karting career. Her best Pro Series finish was eighth at Miami, in 2005, after qualifying fourth. After her sponsorship ran out, she turned to National-level motorsport. She raced a Formula Atlantic car in SCCA events in 2007 and 2008, with good results. Her best finish in 2008 was second, and she was rarely out of the top ten. In 2008, she also substituted for her father in some Formula Mazda races. The previous year, she also raced sportscars in the revived IMSA series. At the end of 2008, she had to pull out of motorsport, due to serious health problems.

Annette Blenkarn – drove in Indy Lights and Fran-Am in 2004 after many years in karts and Midget cars. She does not appear to have raced single-seaters after that, but has done some more karting, with success. She later ran her own graphics company in the automotive industry, and now runs a business consultancy.

Veronica McCann - signed up for the IRL Pro Series in 2006. Her only race result was an eleventh at Chicago. Despite testing a Champ Car and a Formula BMW, she was not able to compete any further. Since then, she has returned to Sprintcar racing in her native Australia, where she was very successful as a junior, winning a number of regional championships. She also competed as a senior between 2002 and 2005.

Sarah McCune - scored one pole position in the Infiniti Pro Series in 2005, although she retired from the race itself, at Chicagoland. She previously raced in Midgets and Sprintcars in the States, winning many regional championships as a junior and senior. After her Infiniti experience, she set her sights on a NASCAR drive and has done several tests. However, problems with funding have kept her out of the major series.

(Image copyright Marc Sproule)

Sarah Fisher

Columbus-born Sarah Fisher was one of the Indy Racing League's best-known drivers in 2001-3, winning the Most Popular Driver title for three years in a row.

Her parents were both involved in the dirt oval racing scene, and their enthusiasm rubbed off on their young daughter. She started competitive motorsport in 1986, at the tender age of five. Her first car was a quarter-midget, and she raced it for three seasons on indoor tracks. She was on the pace very quickly and won a number of races, as well as a track record.

When Sarah was eight she switched to kart-based competition, first on dirt ovals. She sometimes raced at the same meetings as her father, and they usually travelled together.

After making a huge amount of progress in karting, Sarah was ready for the national championships at eleven. Her parents did not push her into higher competition; in fact they had tried to encourage her into other sports and hobbies, with limited success. Her determination paid off handsomely though, as she won the Grand National Karting Championship on her first attempt. The crown would stay with her for another three seasons. In 2004, she also did some endurance karting on some of America's major racing circuits, such as Elkhart Lake.

After learning a good deal from karting, Sarah hit the road with her father and took to sprintcar racing. She moved rapidly through the junior ranks in the World of Outlaws series, winning a Rookie of the Year award in 1995 and an outright championship in 1997. In 1998, she moved in to asphalt racing and took part in three separate championships, winning five major races, and even working on the car herself when her father was injured and unable to perform necessary repairs.

Sarah had always set her racing sights high, and her goal was the Indy 500. She got her chance to prove herself in the big arena in 1999, in the Indy Racing League with Walker Racing. At the time, she was the youngest person to pass the Rookie Test, which she managed with ease, despite her lack of single-seater experience. Her first race, the only one she entered that season, was at Texas Motor Speedway. She started from seventeenth on the grid, but retired on lap 66 with a timing chain failure.

The young Ohio resident was retained by team boss Derrick Walker for 2000. Her programme was expanded to eight races, including the Indy 500. Here, she qualified her Dallara-Aurora in nineteenth, but retired after an accident on lap 71. This came two laps after Lyn St James had crashed out. They were the youngest and oldest drivers on track respectively, and this was (then) the only time in Indy history that two woman drivers had entered the race.

After a string of lower-midfield results, Sarah really made a name for herself at Kentucky, towards the end of the season. She came third overall and was pounced on by the media, both mainstream and motorsport. She had also attracted attention when she tested a McLaren F1 car at the US Grand Prix, the first time a woman had driven a current F1 machine in public for nine years.

The deal with Walker Racing continued into 2001. This time it was for a whole IRL season. After a shaky start at Phoenix, where she retired, Sarah was on the pace. Her second place at Miami was the best of the year, and a female record which stood for several years. Atlanta, the next race, saw her come eleventh, from 18th on the grid. Her second Indy 500 was not a success, ending in retirement, but later in the season she fared better, finishing tenth at Pike's Peak and qualifying in second at Richmond. She ended the year nineteenth overall.

Despite being one of the IRL's most popular drivers, Sarah was struggling to find sponsorship. Walker Racing was not a wealthy team, and could not afford to employ her in 2002 without the extra sponsor's cash. At the start of the year, things looked bleak, but she eventually got a ten-race deal with Dreyer & Reinbold, another small team. Again she started her campaign well, this time with a fourth place at Nazareth. Her second race was the Indy 500, and she surprised many onlookers by qualifying in ninth. However, she was plagued with mechanical troubles and only finished 24th.

Her other best positions were an eleventh at Fort Worth and a pair of eighths at Brooklyn and Sparta, where she also earned her first IRL pole. She was 18th in the final standings.

Dreyer & Reinbold kept the 23-year-old engineering student on for 2003, offering her a full IRL calendar this time. However, this year would not be as successful as the last. Her best result was eighth at Phoenix and her best qualifying place was second at Richmond, although she only came 19th in the race itself. The Indy 500 was pretty much a disaster; Sarah qualified in 24th and later retired. The lack of testing really showed in the number of non-finishes she recorded, and despite winning the "Most Popular Driver" award for the third year running, the press were now turning against her. The amount of bile and vitriol she endured in the following seasons was quite excessive, but she remained strong and usually ignored her critics.

Again, finances let Sarah down in 2004. She was dropped by Dreyer & Reinbold and only competed in one event, the Indy 500, in a one-race deal with Kelley Racing. She was not especially competitive and somewhat out of practice, qualifying in 19th and finishing two places down, in 21st.

No more drives materialised in 2004, and 2005 was shaping up to be the same, when Sarah decided to switch to stock cars. She signed up with the famous Richard Childress team for the Busch Series Grand National Division, a feeder series for the Nextel Cup. At this time, she had one eye on developing a career in Nascar. Driving a Chevrolet, she entered twelve races and acquitted herself well, earning a best finish of sixth at Thunder Hill Raceway. She was also seventh at Mesa Marin.

Despite showing some promise in the Chevy, she decided not to pursue the NASCAR route, and spent the early part of 2006 concentrating on her studies, having switched to Marketing. However, the chance came up to drive in the IRL again, close to the end of the season. Dreyer & Reinbold re-signed Sarah for two races, and she jumped at the chance to renew her acquaintance with the ovals. She also had a female rival now in Danica Patrick, who was still creating a media storm and therefore deflected some of the attention from Sarah, which was probably a good thing. At Kentucky, scene of her previous triumphs, she was twelfth. She was 16th at Chicago in her other race.

Sarah made her full-time return to Indycars in 2007, after Dreyer & Reinbold retained her services. Although the car was reliable enough to get to the end of all but three races, it was not really on the pace, although Sarah herself showed flashes of “what could be”. She finished in the top ten twice mid-season, coming tenth at Fort Worth and seventh at Newton. Mostly, she ran near the back of the field, although she got further forward at Kansas and Chicago, where she finished twelfth. Her return to Indianapolis was solid but somewhat disappointing: she was 18th, after qualifying 21st.

Dreyer & Reinbold released Sarah at the end of the season. After years of struggling for budget, she got together some money to go it alone, launching her Fisher Racing team. On the track, 2008 was another forgettable year. She only made the Indycar start three times, beginning at the Indy 500. She retired close to the end after qualifying 22nd. Much later in the season, she was fifteenth at Sparta and did not finish at Chicagoland.

Fisher Racing remained a going concern for 2009. At the beginning of the season, Sarah entered five Indy races. She joined the series at the Kansas round, and was thirteenth out of 16 finishers. The next event was the Indy 500, which was more slightly positive for her than previously. She qualified 21st and made it to the end of the race in 17th, in front of Mike Conway. She did not attend the Milwaukee meeting, but was 17th out of 24 at Fort Worth. A gap followed, then she was twelfth at Sparta, her best finish of the season. This drive saw her improving ten places on her grid position. After another break, she was fourteenth at Chicagoland.

Fisher Racing also took delivery of a second car in 2009, which meant that Sarah was able to test more fully, with less danger of destroying her race car. This was meant to go some way to making up for her lack of seat time in the past few seasons.

She returned for another part-season in 2010, still with her own team. Out of seven races, she managed four finishes: 17th at Kansas, 15th at Texas and Chicagoland, and 22nd at Homestead-Miami. Although she just qualified for the Indianapolis 500, she did not finish.

With other female IRL racers on the scene, a lot of the media pressure placed on Sarah as a lone woman in the IRL was deflected. Still, she decided to retire at the end of 2010, in order to concentrate on other projects. She continued as the owner-manager of Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing, running one car in the IRL in 2012. She also gave birth to a daughter in October 2011.

The team remained a going concern in 2013, and had a best Indycar finish of second, with Josef Newgarden, and a second car, driven by Lucas Luhr. This arrangement continued in 2014 and 2015, with new sponsors coming on board. However, Sarah relinquished her joint ownership of the team at the beginning of 2016, after the loss of a major sponsor.

Her latest venture is a new karting track.

(Image source unknown)

Milka Duno

Perhaps the last person on Earth you'd expect to be one of the world's foremost lady racers would be a Venezuelan intellectual. However, with her five master's degrees and impressive sportscar pedigree, Milka Duno is probably just that. She became the first woman to race an LM900 sports protoype in 2002, while she was plying her trade in the American Le Mans Series with Dick Barbour Racing. She and her team-mates struggled somewhat with their new Panoz-Mugen, but the results started to appear, their best being a fifth place. Towards the end of the season the team disbanded, and Milka secured a seat in the British Chamberlain squad next to Christian Vann.

In 2001, she fared better in the smaller, more familiar LMP675 Reynard-Judd in which she and John Graham scored several class wins and outright top ten and five places against LMP900 machinery. They finished the season as vice-champions. Unfortunately, Le Mans itself has not proved fruitful for Milka. She retired in 2001 and 2002 with engine trouble, after relatively promising starts.

She began her career in Venezuela in 1996, racing in the Ferrari Challenge and Porsche Cup. She was second in her domestic GT championship in 1997. The ALMS Womens' Global GT series followed for three years. Although Milka never won a race, she finished in the top five each year and scored several podium places. She was hired by Dick Barbour Racing in 2001.

As well as sports car racing, she spent a couple of years developing a career in single-seaters. A few outings in Barber Dodge and other junior formulas in the States helped the Venezuelan to claim a seat with Vergani Racing for the Nissan World Series Light Division, in 2001. Milka improved steadily, and came twelfth in the 2003 standings. Her best finishes were fifth and sixth, at Vallelunga and Eurospeedway Lausitz respectively. She also raced in the last few rounds of the Formula Nissan World Series in 2002, where cornering speeds are almost as fast as Formula One. Although she was a steady finisher, she was not really challenging for the top spots. She called a temporary halt to her single-seater activities after 2003.

Latina women are not normally associated with motor racing and Milka Duno is proud to be breaking the mould. She contested the Grand-Am sportscar series in the US in 2004, driving a Pontiac-engined Crawford prototype, in which she scored a fantastic win with Andy Wallace in the second race of the season at Miami. When the championship returned to Homestead later in the year, she won again. Added to this impressive tally was a second place at mid-Ohio and a third in Virginia.

She also raced in the ALMS again, having put together a deal with the Taurus-Lola team to race alongside Brit Justin Wilson. They were placed in the top ten of the 2004 Sebring 12 Hours before mechanical woes put them down to 22nd. At the season-ending Petit Le Mans race, they were sixth overall and first LMP2 car.

The Grand-Am series and CITGO Racing became Milka's home in 2004. The Crawford-Pontiac is the most successful car of her career, carrying her to three outright wins. The third outright victory came at the Mont Tremblant 6 Hours in Canada in 2005. On her return to the Virginia circuit she also finished in the runner-up spot again in 2005.

After a couple of indifferent Daytona 24 Hour races, Milka finally made her mark in 2006. Assisted by Scotsmen Marino and Dario Franchitti and Irishman Kevin McGarrity, she drove the Crawford to eighth overall, her best finish at the Daytona classic and a record for a woman driver.

The rest of 2006 was not a vintage year for the Venezuelan driver and her team. The first couple of races of the year led to indifferent results, and an error by an official dropped Milka and Marino Franchitti from top-ten to 17th, at Long Beach. Their luck improved at Virginia, their first time out in their new car, a Riley-Pontiac prototype. Even with a small accident, the duo were eleventh. Milka's best results were a pair of sevenths at Monterey and Sonoma. Her co-drivers were Olivier Beretta and Patrick Carpentier respectively. The Riley was quick and its drivers were able to hold good places, but a series of accidents and technical failures did not allow them to capitalise on their form and cost them wins.

During the off-season, Milka was linked to a drive in Champ Car. She tested for Cahill Racing but did not join the series. Later, an announcement was made that she would be taking part in a limited programme of IRL races for Samax Racing. This came as a surprise to many.

2007 started very brightly indeed for Milka. She beat her own best finish for a woman at the Daytona 24 Hours, coming a brilliant second in the CITGO Pontiac-Riley. Her team-mates were Patrick Carpentier, Ryan Dalziel and Darren Manning. The winners were Scott Pruett, Salvador Duran and former F1 driver Juan Pablo Montoya. She and Patrick Carpentier were less successful in Mexico, and were eleventh, but they were back on the pace in fourth at Homestead. Sadly, she decided to abandon the season here, and was replaced by various other drivers.

Her first season in the IRL was more of a baptism of fire. She entered seven races, including the Indy 500, and finished three, with a best finish of eleventh at Fort Worth. Concerns were raised by various people about Milka’s lack of speed, and she was even considered a safety hazard by some. However, officials gave her the benefit of the doubt in her rookie year, and allowed her to carry on.

In 2008, she drove for Dreyer & Reinbold Racing, for eleven events this time. Her finishing record improved, but her overall results did not. Her best one was a single fourteenth place at Joliet. She managed her first Indy 500 finish in 19th, ahead of Bruno Junqueira. Her final position on the leaderboard was 25th and the knives were now really out for her, from a number of surprising sources. An unseemly ongoing row with Danica Patrick only made things worse for her. Away from the IRL, she was listed as a driver for Samax for the Daytona 24 Hours, but did not drive.

Her services were retained by Dreyer & Reinbold for another part-season in 2009, sharing the car with Darren Manning and Tomas Scheckter. She finished again at Indy, in 20th this time, and got to the end of most of her races. The allegations of substandard driving skills continued, although she was not punished.

Despite disappointing results and a worsening media profile, Dreyer & Reinbold took on Milka for her first full season in the IRL in 2010. She did not manage a single top-twenty finish until the Joliet Chicagoland race, when she was nineteenth, and did not qualify for the Indy 500. A series of accidents and incidents led to Milka being placed "on probation" with the IRL until the end of the season. Unless her lap times and track etiquette improved significantly, she faced being thrown out of the championship. The allegations made related to her slow pace, unorthodox racing lines and unwillingness to move over for faster cars.

Milka and her comrades were a force to be reckoned with in the Rolex Grand-Am series, with three wins, six podiums, nine top fives and seventeen top ten finishes. It is hard to understand why she was so keen to give up sportscar success for the dubious honour of being a pay-driver in the IRL. It is a shame that her continued, and mostly justified, negative press from the ovals has now eclipsed her closed-wheel achievements, which were considerable.

2010 was her last season of single-seater racing. Taking her CITGO sponsorship, she made a move towards stock cars. She had one run in an ARCA event at Daytona, driving a Toyota for Stringer Motorsports. A large, multi-car accident put her out on the sixth lap.

For 2011, she put together a deal with Sheltra Motorsports to run a Dodge in ARCA. Pre-season testing went very well, with Milka among the top ten entrants in speed tests. In the early part of the season, she showed good pace in qualifying, and started in second place at Toledo. However, she had a tendency to get involved in accidents, not always of her own creation, and had a best finish of fifteenth at Toledo, despite crashing during practice and having to use her spare car.

She had to sit out seven races mid-season after the Sheltra team pulled out, although they regrouped for the the eleventh round at Iowa. This led to a DNF. She did not better her fifteenth place for the rest of the season, although she managed to stay on the track to the end for all of them. She was eighteenth overall in the championship.

2012 began as more of the same. This season, the Sheltra car was a Chevrolet. Milka was among the fastest drivers during tests, but for the first five, this did not translate to race results. There was a marked improvement after the team took a break from ARCA, and in July, Milka earned her first top-ten finish, at New Jersey. For the next seven races in which she took part, she stayed inside the top twenty, with only one DNF at Kansas. She was 18th overall in the championship.

She continued in ARCA in 2013, this time for the Venturini team, in a Toyota. This year, she actually started to show some speed in a stock car, particularly in qualifying. Her first ARCA event, at Daytona, had her second on the grid. However, she finished 28th. At Talladega, she achieved a pole position, but did not finish. In between, she had an eighth-place finish at Salem, a new personal best. She managed another top-ten finish at Winchester, a tenth place, and a series of other top-twenty places. After 21 races, she was seventh overall, thanks to a new consistency in her driving, and a reduction in her DNF ratio.

In 2014, she moved from ARCA to NASCAR competition. Her first race was in the Eastern division of the K&N Pro Series. She was 20th at Dover, in a Toyota. Later, in a Toyota again, she made two starts in the Nationwide Series, finishing one of them in 34th. The track was Homestead, a circuit she had raced well on in sportscars. She was driving for RAB Racing and the NEMCO-Jay Robinson team. Her last race of the season was a debut outing in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, for MAKE Motorsports. She was 25th at Talladega.

She does not appear to have raced since 2014, in common with many other Venezuelan drivers who lost their state-backed funding due to political issues.

(Image from http://laradiodelsur.com.ve/)

Lyn St. James

One of the USA's most recognised speedqueens, Lyn St James was born in 1947. She took part in her first races in 1972, at the age of twenty-five. Although she is best known for her exploits at the Indianapolis 500, it was sportscar racing she initially gravitated towards. Single-seaters came much later, after considerable success in closed-wheel competition. She was a regular in IMSA events for the entirety of the 1980s and proved herself a capable driver, with a series of class wins in big races. She also finished in the top ten on numerous occasions, driving as part of a team or on her own.

Her first IMSA entry was the Sebring 12 Hours in 1977, although her team went out before she got to drive. The following season, driving for the same Autodyne team in a Corvette, she was 17th, with Luis Sereix and Phil Currin. She also drove in an IMSA race at Daytona, but did not finish. She repeated her 17th place at Sebring in 1979, driving a Ferrari 365 GTB/4 with Bonnie Henn and Janet Guthrie. At the Paul Revere Daytona event, she and John Carusso took the Autodyne Corvette to eighth, fourth GTO.

In 1980, she was 17th yet again, but at the Daytona 24 Hours with a different team. She, Mark Welch and Tom Winters drove a Trinity Racing Mazda RX-7. Lyn’s results were not always brilliant; later in the season, at Sebring, she and Ralph Kent-Cooke could only limp home to 49th in a Porsche 935. She changed teams yet again for the 1983 season, competing for Nimrod Racing in their Aston Martin. She was 44th at Daytona and did not start at Miami, but was fifth at Sebring, with Drake Olson and Reggie Smith. An accident put her out at Road Atlanta. She transferred to a Mercury Capri for the Daytona finale, but could only manage 37th.

In 1984, she drove an Argo JM16 Ford. After a couple of non-starts, she and Jim Trueman were twelfth at Road Atlanta and 39th at Charlotte. Driving solo, Lyn was tenth at Laguna Seca and Sears Point, and did not finish at Road America. With Herm Johnson, she was eighth at Watkins Glen. With yet another co-driver, Howdy Holmes, she was a lowly 21st at Michigan, but a career-best third at the second Watkins Glen event. Back with Trueman, she steered the somewhat unreliable Argo to seventh.

Still with the Argo, she had a poor start to 1985. During the Daytona 24 Hours, the car's gearbox went after only 54 laps. She and Eric Lang were 28th at Miami, and she was 25th at Road Atlanta with Brent O’Neill. A switch to a Roush-run Mustang was more profitable; she and Bruce Jenner were ninth at Riverside, 17th at Charlotte, and third at Mid-Ohio. A solo Lyn was 16th at Laguna Seca and 30th at Portland, but fifth at Sears Point and ninth at Watkins Glen. With Bill Elliot, she was fourth at Watkins Glen. Driving a Mustang Probe at Sears Point, she only managed 17th. A high point of this season was her class win in the Roush car with John Jones. They were eleventh at Road America. They repeated the class win, with a ninth overall, at the Daytona finale. Another high point was her lone-driver second place at Columbus.

The 1986 season began at Miami, with Lyn back in a Mustang Probe, this time for Zakspeed, with Pete Halsmer. They were eighth. The same duo were 15th at Road Atlanta, and a faltering 42nd at Riverside. Paired with Tom Gloy in the same car, Lyn was fifth at Portland, although Sears Point only gave them a 16th, and the finale a disappointing 33rd. Driving with Bobby Rahal, she was 27th and not classified at Columbus.

Back in the Roush team for 1987’s Daytona 24 Hours, Lyn, along with Tom Gloy, Bill Elliot and Scott Pruett, was seventh, and first in the GTO class. The rest of the season was steady rather than stellar. She drove alone for the greater proportion of it. Her best finish was sixth at Summit Point. She was also seventh at West Palm Beach, and came eighth four times. Her team attempts, including Sebring, were less successful.

1988 saw a much-reduced IMSA programme for Lyn, who was still with the Roush operation. At Daytona, she retired late on. Her team-mates were Mark Martin, Deborah Gregg and Pete Halsmer, and the car was a Lincoln-Mercury Capri. At Sebring, Lyn and Deborah did much better, finishing eighth and second in class. The car this time was a Mercury Merkur XR4Ti, a Ford-based GT car. These were her only outings of the year.

1989 started poorly. After an accident to the Tom Milner Ford Mustand Probe, Lyn was unable to start at the Daytona 24 Hours. This was her only entry into an IMSA event that season.

1990 was a much shortened season too, but it led to a far better result. Lyn, Robby Gordon and Calvin Fish were fifth and first in the GTO class in their Roush Lincoln Mercury Cougar XR7, from a lowly 25th on the grid. Later, at Sebring, the same driver trio were sixth, and won their class once more, again from a long way down the grid. The same year, Lyn, driving solo, scored five top-ten finishes in Trans-Am.

She also raced in Europe on occasion, and entered the Le Mans 24 Hours twice. The first time was in 1989, in a Spice SE89C Ford, which lasted fifteen hours before breaking down. Her team-mates were Ray Bellm and Gordon Spice. The second time was as part of an all-girl team with Cathy Muller and Desiré Wilson, in an updated Spice SE90C Ford. She did not fare any better this time as the team crashed out early on.

For 1992 Lyn took her considerable racing experience to the ovals of her homeland. She took to single-seaters fairly easily, and passed her Indy rookie test straight away. She also qualified her Lola Chevrolet first time round at the fabled Brickyard. From a lowly 27th on the grid, Lyn made her way up to eleventh overall at the end of the race. This single battling performance netted her the Indy Rookie of the Year award. She remains its only female recipient.

Switching cars for the to a Lola Ford for the 1993 race, Lyn qualified again, in 21st. She retired with gearbox trouble. The 500 had not been her only race that year; she had entered six Indycar rounds and finished three. She was thirteenth at Phoenix, seventeenth at Long Beach and twentieth at Portland. She retired at Cleveland and Michigan and did not qualify for one race in Detroit.

1994 was a limited year in many ways, with Lyn only making a "guest appearance" at the Indy 500, after failing to secure more seat time. However, she certainly made her mark in her one race, qualifying a career-best sixth, the highest-ever for a female driver at the time and a good grid position for a relatively inexperienced oval driver. The race itself did not live up to its early promise, and she was nineteenth at the end of it. It was a similar story at the next Indy 500, where Lyn broke the womens' closed-circuit record in qualifying (at 225.722 mph), but crashed out of the race proper at the first corner.

In both 1995 and 1996 she managed to compete in some other races too. She was 20th at Milwaukee, and retired at Michigan, in 1995. As well as the 1996 Indy 500, where she dropped out while in fourteenth position, she drove at Phoenix and Orlando. The Orlando race gave her her best finish of her career - eighth.

By 1998, the best part of Lyn's career had probably passed. She returned to Indy and gave a reasonable early performance in the race, but retired whilst running in thirteenth. By now, she was more involved in motorsport promotion and administration than in actual racing. She was pivotal in setting up the ambitious but short-lived Womens' Global GT Series which ran alongside the American Le Mans series, and founded her own scholarship fund for female drivers, the Kara Hendrick scholarship. Kara Hendrick had been a promising karter who died in an accident.

She did not qualify for the 500 in 1998 or 1999, but scraped on to the grid for the 2000 race. This time she had the distinction of being the oldest driver ever to take part, at fifty-three. The 2000 Indy was also so far unique in that two women started the race that year - Lyn and Sarah Fisher. Lyn's participation came to an end on lap 69 when she crashed her G-Force Aurora. This heralded the end of her professional driving career and effectively handed the reins to Fisher as the "First Lady" of Indianapolis.

Lyn continues to work tirelessly to promote female participation in motorsport and has become an outspoken ally of women racers everywhere. She still races historics on occasion at events like the Goodwood Revival, where she drove a Galaxie 500 touring car with Desiré Wilson.

Although Lyn was not the first, nor the most successful woman in Indy racing, she was definitely the best-known for a long time and has used her profile to do a great deal of good.

She was one of the judges for the initial driver selections of the W Series in 2019.

(Image from www.caranddriver.com)

Janet Guthrie

Janet at Indianapolis, 1979 (Image copyright www.indycar.com)

Janet Guthrie has never been one to take the easy option in life. While other girls were playing soccer or cheerleading, she was working hard towards her pilot's licence. She first flew solo at sixteen. In school she also never took the simple subjects and opted for physics and engineering, in which she gained a PhD some years later. Her earliest ambition was to become a commercial pilot; although she had the appropriate flying experience, women were not being recruited by airlines in the 1960s. She worked as a physicist in the aerospace industry instead. This led her to apply for NASA's Scientist-Astronaut programme, although she was rejected for being a woman. Her failure to be selected was one of the factors that pushed her towards full-time motorsport. The main factor, however, was sheer love of it.

After working in her chosen field for a few years, Janet acquired a Jaguar XK140 sports car and began competing in club speed events and autotests, in 1963. She used her engineering expertise to run and maintain the car herself, and although she was not an automotive engineer by trade, she learnt quickly. After a short while, she became very competitive and started entering national-level races. Her first big result was a sixth in the Watkins Glen 500 Miles in the Jaguar, in 1964. She carried on with the Jaguar until 1967. It was replaced by a Toyota Celica, which would become Janet's regular ride for some years, between 1973 and 1975. As before, she maintained the car herself, which proved a challenging job with many setbacks. It was this model that helped her to an outright win in the 1973 North Atlantic Road Racing Championships. She also used it in some Trans-Am events.

She also drove other cars during this period, including a Chevrolet Camaro in which she won her first big race, the New York 400 in 1971. The same year, she shared George Zimmerman’s Porsche 911 for the Summit Point IMSA round, but they did not finish.

She was part of two all-female sportscar teams: first the Autosport team in 1966, then the Ring Free Oil "Motor Maids". In 1966, she was 32nd in the Daytona 24 Hours, driving a Sunbeam Alpine with Suzy Dietrich and Donna Mae Mims. For Ring Free, she raced a Ford Mustang at Daytona in 1967. Her team-mates were Smokey Drolet and Anita Taylor, and they were 20th. Later she drove a Matra Djet at the Sebring 12 Hours with Liane Engeman. They did not finish. Liane and Janet were retained by the team for the 1968 Sebring race: this time, they were 32nd in an AMC Javelin. Donna Mae Mims rejoined for 1969 and they were 23rd in an Austin Healey Sprite. Janet and the Sprite returned in 1970, alongside Judy Kondratieff and Rosemary Smith this time. They were 19th and won the two-litre prototype class. Disaster struck for the team in 1971: Janet had only completed a single lap when the head gasket on their Chevron B16 went, meaning that Rosemary Smith did not even get to drive. The Ring Free Ladies’ team was disbanded after that, and Janet did not take part in any more World Championship sportscar events. She did enter another Sebring 12 Hours in 1976, when it was run by IMSA, but she did not finish. She was driving a Chevrolet Monza with Stephen Behr.

This was about as much road racing as much as her small budget would allow until 1976, when she received a call that would change her life, and hopefully the face of motorsport in the USA.

Rolla Vollstedt was a small team owner who was interested in running Janet in Indycars, hopefully as the first woman to start the Indy 500. The team's budget was not much more than her own, but she jumped at the chance. After some testing, her first race was at Trenton. Her admission to the race did not go down too well with the traditionalists at the circuit, and everywhere she raced she got a hostile reception for quite some time. However, the officials were sufficiently happy with her performance to allow her to take the Indy 500 rookie test, amid more protests. She ignored her doubters and passed the test first time, but when the time came, she was unable to qualify for the race itself. This was a disappointment for Janet and an apparent victory for the chauvinists, some of whom had deliberately misled her into holding her line against the faster cars, claiming that this was appropriate for rookies. It was not. Arlene Hiss was subjected to the same treatment earlier in the year.

It wasn't long before she was back proving herself on the ovals, in the NASCAR Winston Cup this time. She was a promising fifteenth out of forty starters at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Charlotte's circuit boss, Humpy Wheeler, wanted to bring in a female driver, having seen the popularity of Billie Jean King and her "Battle of the Sexes" with Bobby Riggs. He recruited a local banker, Lynda Ferreri, to come in as team owner, and the Kelly Girl recruitment agency as sponsor. Lynda Ferreri would run Janet's cars throughout her NASCAR career.

She returned to NASCAR in 1977 and started 19 races out of 33 in the season. She recorded twelve top-ten finishes, led her first race at Ontario and managed to qualify ninth on the grid twice, at Bristol and Talladega. Her best finish was sixth at Bristol. In her first attempt at the elite Daytona 500, she came twelfth. As well as American events, she also travelled to Australia for the Hardie-Ferodo 1000 at Bathurst. She and Johnny Rutherford did not finish in their Holden Torana.

There was unfinished business on the open-wheel side to attend to as well in 1977. Janet attempted to qualify for Indy again, driving a privately-entered Lightning. She started well, setting the fastest time on the first day, and eventually qualified 26th. It was the first time a female driver had started the race. Unfortunately, she retired on lap 27 with a broken timing gear, but she was not done with the Indy 500 yet. She came back in 1978, after forming her own team with sponsorship from Texaco, driving a Wildcat. Qualifying went much better this time, which was a good start, and Janet finished the race in a career-best ninth, the best-ever finish for a woman and an excellent achievement for someone with comparatively little testing time under her belt. What was more remarkable was that she was driving with a broken wrist sustained in qualifying, making gearshifts very painful. She had hidden the extent of her injury from the official circuit medics. It was now that she started to earn the grudging respect of her peers.

A part-season in Indycars followed in 1979. Janet contested only eleven Indy races in her career but made a big impact at the time. Her finish at the Brickyard gave her much more confidence and her best placing that year was fifth, at Milwaukee. Her highest qualifying position was fourth, at Pocono. On her return to the 500 in the summer, she managed to qualify fourteenth without much difficulty, but damaged pistons on lap three stopped her from repeating last year's heroics.

Due to dwindling funds, that was her last season in open-wheel competition. A couple of NASCAR races beckoned in 1980, including an eleventh-place finish at the Daytona 500, but after that, Janet went into retirement. In her autobiography, she places the date that she gave up on another single-seater ride as some time in 1983. She did return in 1985, as part of the works Peugeot sportscar team in the States, and scored one class win, but she was now concentrating on other things. By now, she was rightly lauded by the male stars of the day, such as Al Unser, as a tough and talented driver, who was much missed on the track.

Janet's 1976 Indy 500 car (Image copyright Rachel H-G)