Women in Indy Lights

Sarah McCune in 2004, during a test for Kathryn Nunn Racing

Indy Lights is the second-tier racing series of the Indycar ladder. Over the years, it has had several changes of name and been run by CART, Indycar and the IRL. The basic formula of a one-model junior championship has remained roughly the same, however.

Until recently, Indycar was not a particularly welcoming place for female drivers. Indy Lights has had correspondingly few women entrants. A higher number were involved with the Toyota Atlantic series, a similar championship in the USA.

1986 (CART American Racing Series)

Desire Wilson (driver) - 24th

1987-88

No female entrants

1989

Cathy Muller (McNeill Motorsports) - 26th

1990

Cathy Muller (McNeill Motorsports/Stuart Moore Racing) - 16th

Cheryl Glass (Glass Racing) -22nd

1991 (CART Firestone/PPG/Dayton Indy Lights Series)

Desire Wilson (Leading Edge Motorsport) - 24th

Cheryl Glass (Glass Racing) - unplaced

1992

Kat Teasdale (Leading Edge Motorsport) - unplaced

1993-2004

No female entrants

2005 (IRL Infiniti Pro Series)

Mishael Abbott (Hemelgarn) - 13th

Sarah McCune (Sam Schmidt Motorsports) - 23rd

2006 (IRL Indy Pro Series)

Mishael Abbott (Michael Crawford Motorsports) - 26th

Veronica McCann (United & Classic Trailers) - 37th

2007

Leilani Munter (Sam Schmidt Motorsports) - 33rd

2008 (Indycar Indy Lights)

Bia Figueiredo (Sam Schmidt Motorsports) - 3rd

Cyndie Allemann (American Spirit Racing) - 14th

Christina Orr-West (Alliance Motorsports) - 30th

2009

Bia Figueiredo (Sam Schmidt Motorsports) - 8th

Pippa Mann (Panther Racing) - 14th

2010

Pippa Mann (Sam Schmidt Motorsports) - 5th

Carmen Jorda (Andersen Racing) - 16th

2011-23

No female entrants

2023 (Now running as Indy NXT)

Jamie Chadwick (Andretti Autosport) - 12th

2024

Jamie Chadwick (Andretti Global) - 7th

Lindsay Brewer (Juncos Hollinger Racing) - 21st

(Image copyright Gregg Ellmann/motorsport.com)

Leilani Munter

Leilani Münter has raced in stock cars and the Indy Pro Series (Indy Lights). She is unusual in that she combines a career in motorsport with environmental and animal rights work. Most of her racing has been in the ARCA stock car series.

She has a Hawaiian mother and a German father. Her childhood was not spent at the karting track; she was academic as well as being interested in animals and nature. She was 26 before she got into a racing car, having earned a degree in biology and worked as a film stunt double. Her first races were in her home state of California in 2001, then she moved to North Carolina to be closer to NASCAR action. By 2003, she was taking part in the NASCAR Weekly Racing Series. Her programmes took in Late Models and the occasional single-seater race.

Out of 39 races between 2001 and 2007, she finished in the top ten 19 times, and the top five, nine times. Her highest finish was fourth, at Texas Motor Speedway in 2006. The same year, she passed her Daytona rookie test.

She decided against a run in ARCA stock cars in favour of a part-season of the Indy Pro Series in 2007. She only did two races, finishing thirteenth in Chicago and retiring at Kentucky, despite qualifying fifth. This was due to picking up a puncture during a multi-car pile-up. She had been running in fourth place. Her funding dried up after this, and she looked towards stock cars again.

It was 2010 before Leilani got back in a car. She drove Mark Gibson’s Dodge in two ARCA races: Daytona and Kansas. She did not finish either and retired very early on both times. In the case of the Daytona race, after a crash.

She took a break from the track and concentrated on environmental campaigning for a while. In 2012, she intended to compete for the whole ARCA series, in a Dodge Charger. Unfortunately, she only managed the first round, and was 36th. The Tony Marks-owned car was promoting the anti-dolphin hunting film, The Cove.

In 2014, she made a limited return to ARCA, beginning with a 28th place, at Daytona. She was driving an alternative-fuel car, and survived a crash early on. Later in the season, she managed two twelfth places, at Talladega and Kansas, driving a car promoting another protest film, Blackfish. This is about killer whales.

In 2015, she did one race, the Daytona ARCA round. She qualified tenth, but crashed out on the 53rd lap of 80. This was her first time driving for Bill Venturini, who would give her rides for the next couple of seasons.

In 2017, she started racing under the "Veganpower" banner, and entered two ARCA races, at Daytona and Talladega. She was 19th at Daytona but did not finish at Talladega.

The Veganpower team came back in 2018 and Leilani finished eighth in the Daytona 500. Shortly afterwards, it was announced that she would contest eight rounds of the ARCA series. Bill Venturini would be running her car. She was 20th in the ARCA championship, with two top-ten finishes: eighth at Daytona and ninth at Michigan.

Leilani has announced that 2019 will be her last year of competition and Daytona probably her last race. She qualified third in a Venturini-run Toyota and finished in 15th place.

(Image from www.arcaracing.com)

Cheryl Glass

Cheryl Glass is most famous for being the only African-American woman ever to race sprintcars professionally, and to race in Indy Lights.

She was born in December 1961 in California, and moved to Seattle two years later with her parents. They were a high-achieving family; her mother was an aircraft engineer, and her father a vice-president of the Pacific Northwest Bell telecommunications company.

Encouraged by her father, she took up dirt-track racing at the age of nine, in a quarter-midget car. A younger sister, Cherry, also raced, although not to the same level as Cheryl.

She competed all over the country, winning some races and titles, and moving through the sprintcar ranks. She made it onto the professional circuit and won the Northwest Sprintcar Association’s Rookie of the Year award in 1981. Among her rivals was Al Unser Jr.

In tandem with her developing sprintcar career, Cheryl graduated from high school with honours at sixteen. Before that even, she had run her own business, creating and selling ceramic dolls, which she started when she was only nine. She enrolled at university to study Electrical Engineering, but did not graduate, preferring to concentrate on her racing career.

Between 1980 and 1983, she continued to race sprintcars. A series of spectacular accidents did not put her off, although she sustained damage to her knees that required surgery. The worst of these happened at Manzanita, Phoenix. In 1982, she took part in the USAC National Sprint Silver Crown at Indiana.

By 1984, she felt that she needed to try a different discipline within motorsport. She set her sights on road circuits, and entered the Dallas round of the Can-Am single-seater challenge, driving a VW-powered Van Diemen. She had to retire after six laps, from eighth place.

Although she hoped to have the funding to contest the rest of the Can-Am calendar, she did not. The Dallas race appears to have been run in a second-choice car, as she was originally scheduled to drive an Ausca Racing Toleman.

In 1985, she tried truck racing, in a Toyota pickup, but she crashed during testing at the Los Angeles Coliseum, and did not actually race.

It was about this time that her father acquired a Penske PC-6 Indycar, which Cheryl tested at Seattle International Raceway. This car was built in 1978, and would never be competitive against the current generation of Indycars. Talking to the Los Angeles Times, she stated that her aim was the 1987 Indianapolis 500, after at least a part-season in CART in 1986.  

There is some talk of Cheryl taking the Indianapolis Rookie Test, but I cannot find any concrete information to confirm or deny this. Her 1985 accident seems to have been a considerable setback to her career, as she disappears from the scene for a while after that. She remained hard at work on her business interests, which by now included a high-end bridal and eveningwear design studio. She was a vocal advocate for young black people wanting to get into business and engineering. This, coupled with her photogenic looks and bold career path, meant that she remained a popular media figure.

She reappeared in 1990, and entered the penultimate round of the CART American Racing Series (Indy Lights), finishing seventh at Nazareth. Among her rivals were Robbie Buhl and Paul Tracy, the latter of whom finished below her. Although she was listed for the final Laguna Seca event, she did not start.

The following year, she entered the first two races of the season, but did not finish either, driving for her own Glass Racing team, sponsored by Elegente Eye eyewear. The car’s electrics gave up after fourteen laps of Laguna Seca, and she crashed out at Phoenix.

After that, things started to go very wrong for Cheryl. She appears to have become the target of criminal activity, motivated by racism. Her house was broken into and daubed with swastikas, and she was sexually assaulted by intruders. The police were called, but the incident ended with Cheryl herself being arrested for assaulting a police officer. Her family and friends protested her innocence.

She committed suicide in 1997, at the age of 35, although some mystery surrounded her death. She is still remembered as a pioneer in the sport.

(Image copyright Paul Jackson)

Kat Teasdale

Kat with the Bakeracing Corvette

Kathryn Teasdale, known as Kat, was a Canadian driver, born in 1964.

She started out in Formula 2000 in 1988, after having to give up competitive skiing due to a knee  injury. Twenty-four was quite late to begin a racing career, but she quickly made up for lost time. Between her ski injury in 1984 and her Formula Ford debut in 1988, she competed in slalom and autosolo events, sometimes in a Corvette.

Her original aim was to move into the “A” Class of F2000, but instead, she got herself a seat in the televised Player’s GM Motorsport Series, driving a Chevrolet Camaro. She raced in the championship’s East division in 1988 and 1989. She was able to use the Camaro in the IROC-2 series and Trans-Am. Her skill with the Camaro led to her being picked up by the Bakeracing team, for their Corvette programme.

She raced the car in 1991, and one of her best results was in the Escort World Challenge 24 Hour race at Mosport Park. As part of a five-driver team including Boris Said, she was second. Other highlights included a fourth place at Saltillo in Mexico. She was sixth in the Escort World Challenge.

1992 saw her combine sportscar racing with a return to single-seaters. Brian Stewart, an old friend of Kat’s, offered her a test at Vancouver in his Toyota Atlantic car, followed by one race. This never led to a full-time race seat, but she did compete in two Indy Lights races in 1992, driving for the Leading Edge team. At Toronto, her race was halted on the first lap by an electrical problem. She got to the end at Vancouver, in fourteenth place, six laps down. At the time, she knew she was unable to go for wins, but she gave it a shot anyway.

Ever-keen to try new forms of racing and put herself out there, Kat entered the CASCAR stock car series in Canada in 1993. Her car was a Chevrolet. She won the Rookie of the Year prize.

She has raced in Toyota Atlantics, the NASCAR Busch Series, Grand-Am and other championships, in the US and Canada.

1994 was probably her best year for sportscars. She was part of the O’Brien team for the IMSA GT championship, driving a Camaro. Her first race was the Daytona 24 Hours; this was her first attempt at a major US classic. Leigh O’Brien had assembled an all-female team of herself, Kat, Tami Rai Busby, Linda Pobst and Margy Eatwell. They finished the race in 47th. Kat was also a member of Leigh Miller’s team, driving a Porsche 968 with Miller and John Graham. They were seventeenth.

Kat, Leigh O’Brien and Linda Pobst made up the O’Brien team for the Sebring 12 Hours. They were 42nd in their Camaro. Driving solo, Kat was twelfth at Road Atlanta, in the O’Brien Camaro.

Her performance in 1994 led to an offer from the Pontiac factory team for 1995. Kat drove a Firebird with Doug Goad, and they were third and fourth in the IMSA Endurance championship, behind their team-mates, Andy Pilgrim and Joe Varde. This helped Pontiac to the manufacturer’s title. Kat and Andy Pilgrim teamed up for the 1996 season. Results for the IMSA Endurance series are proving hard to find, and they may not have raced together all year, as Andy Pilgrim was on duty in the IMSA GT championship as well.

1997 saw a new challenge for Kat: another try at stock cars. This time, she was driving for her own team, Katco Racing. The car was a Chevrolet. She entered two NASCAR K&N Busch Series East races, and began well, qualifying sixth at Watkins Glen. Unfortunately, she did not finish due to problems with the car’s transmission. She did manage to finish the race at Lime Rock, and was awarded 29th place, although she was several laps down.

During her last season in 1998, she drove a limited programme in the NASCAR Busch Series. She was the first woman to do so, although others had raced in other NASCAR sanctioned events. She did not qualify for the Watkins Glen race, but she just made it on to the Milwaukee grid, in 40th place. She finished in 31st place. This particular Busch Series race was no schedule-filler; Dale Earnhardt Jr won, and Tony Stewart and Matt Kenseth were among the other finishers.

Kat intended to pursue NASCAR further after her first Busch event, but it was not to be. She retired from motorsport after the 1998 season, due to ill-health. For some years, she carried on working in investment and event planning, as she had done to help fund her racing. She bred Wirehaired Pointing Griffon dogs and was involved in charity fundraising.

She died in June 2016, aged 51, after a “long struggle with physical and mental health issues”, caused by Lyme Disease.

(Image copyright Sports Illustrated)

Suzane Carvalho

Suzane Carvalho is a former winner of the South American Formula Three Championship (B class), in 1992.

She got quite a late start in motorsport, only taking it up in 1989 when she was 26. Previously, she had been an actress and model, starting out as a child model, and had achieved some fame and notoriety in her home country of Brazil.

Despite its unorthodox timescale, her racing career progressed in the normal way, beginning with karting, then junior single-seaters in the form of Formula 1600 in 1990. She did some of her race training in Canada, and also competed in Formula 2000 there.

She took her first steps in Formula 3 in 1991, with a part-season in the SudAm championship. In 1992, she contested the full SudAm F3 series for the first time, and won the B class on her first attempt.

As a result, she was invited to test a Larrousse Formula One car, but she did not have the funding to do so. This would have made her one of a very small and select group of women who have driven current F1 machinery.

She carried on in F3, although results are proving hard to find. Photos exist of her and Maria Cristina Rosito posing next to a Formula Chevrolet car in 1993, which suggests that they raced each other at some point that year. She did at least some of the SudAm championship in 1994, and one or more races in 1997. Throughout her single-seater career, she was usually short of money and 1992 was the only full F3 season she completed.

As well as F3, she took advantage of any opportunity to race. Between 1993 and 1997, she did four Mil Milhas races at Interlagos, with a best finish of third in 1993. She was driving a Stock Car-spec Opala. Her second attempt, in 1994, she was ninth, driving a Japamovel with a Brazilian-Japanese team. She sat the race out in 1995, but returned in 1996, driving an Aldee TTE prototype as part of an all-female team, with Delfina Frers and Marisa Panagopulo. They did not finish. In 1997, she drove the Aldee to eighth place, with Delfina Frers.

In 1995, she began racing touring cars seriously. She raced in the Copa de Damas women’s championship in Argentina, winning three times. However, her achievements were not fully recognised as she was not eligible for the championship, for some reason.

The following season, she tackled mixed competition, in the Carioca Touring Car Championship. Her first year in the series consisted of four races, three of which she won. Her first full season, in 1997, was not such an immediate success. She earned one pole position and was often near the front, but she had to contend with some very “physical” driving from her male rivals, and incurred some DNFs. Her car for this part of her career was usually a Nissan Sentra.

In 1998, she came to the UK to take part in Formula Palmer Audi and the Vauxhall Vectra Challenge. Her FPA season consisted of four races, and she managed to pick up a few points. She was 25^th in the championship. That year’s winner was Justin Wilson.

Suzane’s own career highlight happened in 1999. She was invited to the USA to race in the Indy Lights Panamericana series, and was able to put together a budget for five races, mostly in Mexico. For the next year, she picked up sponsorship from UOL, and had a best finish of second.

Sadly, she did not get her big break in American oval racing, and returned to Brazil for the 2001 season. That year, she was a racewinner in the Campeonato Brasileiro Ford Fiesta Femenino, a women-only one-make series for the Ford Fiesta. She battled with Maria Cristina Rosito throughout the season, but Maria emerged as the victor.

Her last major competitive activity was four rounds of the Brazilian Clio Cup in 2002, although she did come out of retirement for a guest appearance in one round of the 2011 Sud-Am F3 championship. She did two races at Jacaperaguá, earning a class win and third, and a seventh and sixth place overall.

Since then, Suzane has worked on establishing her own driving school, for both driving and motorcycle riding. She also works as an automotive journalist and broadcaster, often testing new cars, on screen and in print.

(Image source unknown)

Christina Orr-West

Christina in 2015

Christina Orr, of New Zealand, is mostly known as a single-seater specialist. A precocious talent, she raced karts from an early age, and Formula First at twelve. This made her the youngest person to race a single-seater in competition. Not only that, but she was on the podium too. She was fourteenth in the championship.

The next year, in 2002, she was second in the New Zealand Formula First championship. During that year’s winter season, she moved up to Formula Ford, and won a “Rookie of the Series” award.

Her first full season of Formula Ford began in late 2002, and she was ninth overall, after a part-season. The following year, she was sixth, racing against the likes of Brendon Hartley and Charlie Kimball. She finished on the podium once. 

Her 2003 season was marred by tragedy, as she was involved in an accident in which a fellow Formula Ford racer, Michael McHugh, was killed. A lengthy inquest followed, but Christina was later absolved from blame, despite the protestations of McHugh’s family.

Putting 2003 behind her, 2004 saw her first international events – two races in the Australian Drivers’ Championship. Later, it was back to the NZ Formula Ford championship. Christina kept improving gradually, and was fifth at the end of the season. She scored two podium places, and two fastest laps.

In 2006, she moved up to Formula Toyota, New Zealand’s top-level domestic single-seater series. She was seventh in the winter series, before the main 2006-07 season started. Although she was not able to get another podium place, she did well in the championship, and was fifth overall.

2007 was a quiet year. She travelled to Australia, for the Bathurst 12 Hours, as part of an all-girl driving squad with Samantha Reid, Lauren Gray and Leanne Tander. They drove a Holden Astra, but did not finish.

Her next Formula Toyota season was 2008. This was something of a mixed year, with her best finishes being two fifth places at Manfeild. For the most part, she finished in the top ten, and was eighth overall.

The same year, she also entered four Indy Lights races in the USA. Her long-term goal was now a race seat in one of the American oval series. Out of her four races, she finished three times, and  had a best result of 16th, at Chicagoland. She hoped this would lead to more Stateside opportunities, but sponsorship was not forthcoming.

Most of 2009 was rather quiet for Christina. She did make one major appearance in Australia, in the Bathurst 12 Hours. She was part of a second all-female team, with Molly Taylor and Heather Spurle. They drove a Subaru Impreza, and were 27^th overall, second in class.

After almost a year's lay-off, she returned to motorsport for the 2009-10 southern hemisphere season, driving a Holden Commodore saloon in New Zealand. She entered the BNTV8 and NZV8 series, in a self-entered car. Her best finish in BTV8s was eleventh, at Teretonga, and she was 22^nd overall. She was 14^th in the NZV8 Hamilton 400 Trophy.

A second season in the BNTV8 series in 2010-2011 panned out in a similar fashion. She drove a Commodore, and had a best finish of twelfth, at Taupo, and she was 20^th in the championship.

A break from motorsport followed, during which Christina became a mother.

She returned to New Zealand in 2014, to race Utes. She signed up for the SsangYong Actyon Ute Racing Championship, one of five female drivers to do so. Despite her long lay-off, she was quickly on the pace, and became one of the series’ leading drivers. She won two races, and finished on the podium in four more. Her final championship position was third.

Christina raced Utes again for the 2015-2016 season, but was not quite as quick, and did not make it to the series podium at the end of the year.

However, her third Ssangyong Utes season got off to a fast start, with one win at Taupo at the second meeting of the year. She won again in the last meeting at Pukehohe. In addition, she picked up nine podium positions, three poles and two fastest laps. She was third overall.

She was third again in the 2017-18 Utes championship and signed up again for the 2019-20 season. In addition to the Ute, Christina also started racing an Audi R8 in the NZ Endurance Series, sharing the car with Ben Byers. The pair have scored one third and one fourth place.

She won one race in the Ute during the 2019-20 season.

After a break due to the coronavirus crisis, she returned to the circuits in 2021, racing a Toyota GT86 in the Toyota 86 New Zealand one-mae series. She was a reliable top-ten finisher, as expected, and had a best finish of third at Manfeild. Her final championship position was seventh and she signed up for another season in 2022. Unfortunately, this year was not as successful and she only really got into her stride late on, recording a sixth place at Hampton Downs in the final race of the season as her best finish. She was twelfth in the championship.

She raced in both Australia and New Zealand in 2023. Guest spots in the Mount Panorama rounds of the Australian 86 series gave her a disappointing 27th, 25th and 29th place, but she began the 2024 New Zealand series more strongly, with two top-tens at Taupo. She had been ninth in the championship in 2023. In between, she did a couple of three-hour races in a Mercedes AMG GT4 with Breanna Morris, as part of the South Island Endurance series.

She carried on with the GT86 one-make series in 2024, staying in New Zealand this time. She was twelfth in the championship, after finishing in the top ten fairly regularly. Her best finish was sixth, at Highlands, where she was also tenth.

(Image from http://nzmotorracing.co.nz/)

Michele Bumgarner

Michele Bumgarner is a Filipino driver, although her father is American. She started racing at ten, in karts, having learnt to drive at seven. Her father owned a kart track at Subic, so she had plenty of opportunity. To begin with, she combined karting with competitive junior tennis, but karting, and senior motorsport, interested her more. Soon, she was competing all over southeast Asia, and also in Europe. Almost unbelievably, when she was fourteen, she did her first car races, in Formula Toyota in the Philippines. Even more unbelievably, she was third in the championship.

A return to karting beckoned in 2005, but she was still looking for her big chance in full-size motorsport. She travelled to the Bahrain for the Formula BMW Scholarship, which she won, although it did not translate into an actual drive.

In 2006, she moved more fully into circuit racing, at the age of 17. Instead of taking her first steps in Formula Toyota or Formula Renault, she jumped straight into Formula Three. She drove for Team Goddard in Formula 3 Asia, in the Promotion class. The series was run from the Philippines. Her first three rounds were somewhat of an ordeal, with stalling, spins and a crash, but she learnt quickly, and by the end of the season, had climbed to third in the Promotion class, for older cars. She was 12th overall.

Her next big step was a move to America in 2007, in order to further her single-seater ambitions. She enrolled at the Jim Russell Racing School, and even competed in two of its Formula Russell races, scoring a podium finish in one.

She put together a deal for Formula Mazda for 2008. Her season consisted of the first five rounds, and she had a best finish of 15th, at Portland. She was one of four women racing in the series that year, and was the third fastest of them. At the same time, her younger brother, Mark Bumgarner, was also competed in the States, in the Skip Barber Series. He has since left motorsport. In September, she tested an Indy Lights car at Putnam Raceway.

Later in  the 2008 season, her Indy Lights testing appeared to have paid off; she was selected for the NexGen team’s driver development scheme and was set to compete in Indy Lights in 2009, with Walker Racing, as part of a five-year development deal. However, the deal fell through, and she returned to karting.

During this time, she was also in talks with the Newman Watts team about a Formula Atlantic drive, but this too came to nothing, as the team’s backer, actor Paul Newman, died.

In 2008 and 2009, she won the Rock Island Grand Prix, a major street kart race. Although she had to take a lengthy hiatus from circuit racing, not competing at all between 2010 and 2012, she used it as constructively as she could, and was very competitive in a kart.

She made a small return to Formula Mazda in 2013, entering two races and finishing one, in ninth. This performance, at Houston, earned her an award for the most places made up during a race. This was a more positive end to the year than its start, which had involved Michele travelling to Charlotte Raceway for a “NASCAR RaceEX World Circuit” event for Filipino drivers, which turned out to be a scam.

2014 saw her full-time return to motorsport, in Formula Mazda, after a long series of false starts. She was racing for World Speed Motorsports. Her main sponsor was Mazda Philippines, and she was now part of the Mazda Road to Indy development programme. Her schedule took in eleven of the fifteen races, and her best result was eleventh, at Houston. Usually, she finished just outside the top ten. Her finishing record was good, with only one retirement all year, and she was fifteenth in the championship.

Michele planned to progress up the Indycar ladder, with the aim of competing in the Indy Racing League in 2016, but she does not seem to have raced in 2015.

(Image from www.leblogauto.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.

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)

Carmen Jordá

Carmen Jordá is a single-seater racer from Spain. She began karting at the age of eleven, in her native Valencia. Her first taste of full-sized circuit racing was in Master Junior Formula in 2005. This is a single-seater racing series for drivers under the age of eighteen. Carmen was sixteen when she started, and was seventh in the championship in her first year.

She did her first Formula 3 races the following year, as well as carrying on in Master Junior Formula. The junior series gave her a ninth place overall. The Formula 3 Copa España guest spots she took gave her a pair of eighteenth places at Valencia.

In 2007, she was fourth in the F3 Copa España, with three podium finishes: third places at Albacete, Magny-Cours and Jerez. Her other races resulted in fourths and fifths. In the main F3 championship, she did not fare as well, with her best result being a twelfth, at Jerez, late in the season. Her other races resulted in finishes ranging from thirteenth to 21st, and she was twentieth in the final standings.

This arrangement continued throughout 2008, although Carmen was now driving for Campos Racing, rather than Meycom Sport. Again, her best results came in the Copa, with fourth places at Albacete and Jerez. As well as these, she earned eight further top-ten finishes, and was eighth overall in the championship. In the main F3 draw, she once more found it more challenging, but her results were an improvement on those of 2007. She broke into the top ten twice, at Jerez and Magny-Cours, and was 21st overall, despite scoring her first points, which she failed to do in 2007.

  

Her single-seater schedule remained the same in 2009, although Spanish F3 was now the Euro F3 Open, and she was mainly under the care of GTA Racing with Campos. On the track, a string of DNFs mid-season dropped her down the rankings. Her best Open finish was ninth at Magny-Cours, while in the Copa, it was second, also at Magny-Cours. In the main championship, she did not visit the top ten again, although she managed several further top ten finishes, with one more podium at Catalunya, in the Copa. She was 21st in the Euro F3 Open, and sixth in the Copa España.

As well as her F3 activities, Carmen also did some sportscar racing in the Le Mans Series, driving a Judd-engined Lucchini LMP2 for the Hache Q8 Oils team. One of her two team-mates was the MotoGP rider Fonsi Nieto, who was her boyfriend at the time. The other was Maximo Cortes. The trio were entered into the Algarve, Nürburgring and Silverstone rounds, but did not finish any of them.

In 2010, she moved to the USA to compete in Firestone Indy Lights. The deal she had with Andersen Racing was initially for the full season, but this was curtailed to five events. She started brightly enough at St. Petersburgh, coming eleventh on her debut, but did not finish at Barber Motorsports Park with gearbox trouble. She bounced back at Long Beach, scoring her best finish: tenth. A temporary absence from the championship followed, but she was back for round seven, in Toronto. Sadly, she did not finish there, or at Edmonton shortly afterwards. Her season ended there. She struggled particularly with ovals and did not pass her oval driving test. This concluded her attempts to crack the US scene.

After sitting out 2011, Carmen returned in 2012, back in Europe. She raced in the GP3 F1 support series for Ocean Technology, with an eye on progressing up the European single-seater ladder again. It was rather a difficult season for her, with her fair share of DNFs, and a non-start at Silverstone due to illness. Her best finish was thirteenth, at Valencia. She was unofficially 28th in the championship. After the main season, she travelled to India for the MRF Challenge, where she finished four races, with a best result of ninth. 


She moved to the Bamboo Engineering team for 2013, still in GP3. Her team-mate for much of the season was Alice Powell. Carmen showed more reliability, finishing thirteen of her sixteen races. Her best finish was 18th, achieved in the second race of the season, at Catalunya. She was not among the front-runners, but was usually able to keep going to the finish. She was unplaced in the championship.

After that, she took part in some MRF Challenge races again, this time in Bahrain. Her results were a ninth, and two thirteenth places. 

She returned to GP3 in 2014, now driving for the Koiranen GP team. She was still not really on the pace, managing to equal her best 2013 finish on two occasions, but not more. Her 17th places were at Spa and Silverstone, and she got into the top twenty twice more during the season, at the Red Bull Ring and Monza. 

In a surprise move, Carmen was signed by the Lotus Formula One team in February 2015, as a development driver. This role would be similar to Susie Wolff's first year with Williams; mostly simulator work, with a chance of some race weekend testing later in the year. Her appointment did not go down well with many in the motorsport world. As well as legitimate questions about her suitability, a lot of tired sexism was thrown around. Carmen did not comment personally.

Lotus became Renault in 2016. Carmen continued in her development role, but for Renault Sport this time, rather than the F1 team. She also did some racing, for the first time in a while, taking part in the Renault Sport Trophy in a NISMO-engined Renault Sport RS01. She scored a string of ninths and eighths in the AM Trophy, and was fifth overall. She began the season in the Pro class, but moved down. Although she was stronger in the more competitive Endurance trophy, the bigger field meant that she was only sixteenth, despite a sixth place at Spa, and two sevenths at Aragon Motorland and the Red Bull Ring.

In 2017, she remained in the Renault development team, although her role there became more vague. Mid-season, she did some competitive karting, describing it as "the purest form of motorsport" (and paraphrasing Ayrton Senna). Her future plans are unclear. 

She caused a social media backlash when she spoke on Twitter and elsewhere about how she wanted there to be a women's Formula One championship, particularly as she claimed that women were unable to compete fairly against men.

The backlash against her continued when she announced that she had been elected to the FIA's Women in Motorsport Commission. It is unclear what role she will be performing within it.

She did very little racing in 2018, apart from a run at the Goodwood Members' Meeting in an MG Metro. She did test some cars, however. In the autumn, she was one of the drivers selected for an assessment day by the Women in Motorsport Commission, testing a Formula Renault and a Porsche. In December, she took part in the Formula E in-season test at ad-Diriyah. The Saudi motorsport authority was keen to have female drivers testing and Carmen drove for Nissan with Oliver Rowland. There was some confusion as to whether she or Oliver had set the second-fastest time, but it was later stated that Carmen only did an in and out lap in the car.

Carmen did not race in 2019, but she was planning a return to the tracks in 2019, racing in the Euroformula Open Formula 3 series with Fox Racing. This did not come to fruition, and she had to wait until the second half of 2021 to get back in a car. She raced in the Ultimate Cup with Nicolas Prost, using a Formula 3 Regional car. Her first race was at Magny-Cours. 

Earlier in the year, she appeared in promotional material for De Tomaso's "Isabelle" P72 prototype, paying homage to Isabelle Haskell de Tomaso. She was described as the Scuderia De Tomaso's development driver and future racer.

Away from the track, Carmen has done quite a lot of fashion modelling, which has helped her profile in Spain. She also dated Moto GP rider, Fonsi Nieto, for quite some time.

(Image from www.carmenjorda.com)