Janet Guthrie

Last updated
Janet Guthrie
JanetGuthrie1.jpg
Guthrie at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 2011
BornJanet Guthrie
(1938-03-07) March 7, 1938 (age 86)
Iowa City, Iowa, U.S.
Champ Car career
11 races run over 5 years
Best finish15th (1979 (USAC))
First race 1976 Trenton 200 (Trenton)
Last race 1979 Tony Bettenhausen 200
(Milwaukee)
WinsPodiums Poles
000
NASCAR Cup Series career
33 races run over 4 years
Best finish23rd (1977)
First race 1976 World 600 (Charlotte)
Last race 1980 Coca-Cola 500 (Pocono)
WinsTop tens Poles
050

Janet Guthrie (born March 7, 1938) is an American former racing driver. She is the first female to qualify and race in either the Indianapolis 500, or the Daytona 500, both of which she competed in during 1977. She had first attempted to enter the Indianapolis 500 in 1976 but failed to qualify. She raced in three Indianapolis 500s: 1977 through 1979. She is also the first woman to lead a lap in NASCAR Cup Series competition.

Contents

Guthrie was originally an aerospace engineer, and after graduating from the University of Michigan with a physics degree in 1960, she worked with Republic Aviation. [1] She got the 2024 NASCAR Landmark award on January 19, 2024.

Racing career

Guthrie began racing in 1963 on the SCCA circuit in a Jaguar XK140 [2] and by 1972, she was racing on a full-time basis. Her sportscar racing career included two class wins in the famed 12 Hours of Sebring endurance race. [3]

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

Janet Guthrie's Wildcat 3-DGS, which she drove to ninth place in the 1978 Indianapolis 500 GuthrieWildcat.jpg
Janet Guthrie's Wildcat 3-DGS, which she drove to ninth place in the 1978 Indianapolis 500

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

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

Battling sexism in motorsports

In a groundbreaking interview with Tracy Dodds for the Los Angeles Times in 1987, Guthrie lamented the lack of corporate sponsorships for female drivers: [7]

Men are getting sponsorship and women can’t. That sounds unfair. But who cares about unfair? What counts is the bottom line. Sponsors want the publicity that racing brings. But a successful woman driver will get ten times the attention that a man will get. So, now, what really is important? It keeps coming back to the good ol’ boy network. A lot of corporations are spending a lot of tax deductible dollars to sponsor male racing drivers.

The struggle for female drivers to secure corporate sponsorships continued. When Pippa Mann lacked the funding to enter the Indianapolis 500 in 2020 despite driving the previous year, the 2020 race was left with no women drivers. Guthrie said she was unlikely to watch the 2020 race due to her disappointment. [11] Guthrie herself initially said she was hesitant to address sexism in motorsports, but her mindset changed after she qualified for her first Indianapolis 500 in 1977 and was part of the downtown parade. As Guthrie described, “There were these guys who had little girls on their shoulders and were sort of waving these little girls as if I represented hope for the future." [11]

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

Qualified, an episode of ESPN 30 for 30 covering her racing career, aired on May 28, 2019 (Volume III, Episode 29). In it, she says, "You can go back to antiquity to find women doing extraordinary things, but their history is forgotten. Or denied to have ever existed. So women keep reinventing the wheel. Women have always done these things, and they always will." [3]

In 2019, Guthrie was inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame. [14] for her achievements in motorsports. She is the 5th woman to be inducted.

Personal life

Guthrie was born in Iowa City, Iowa to Jean Ruth Guthrie (née Midkiff) and William Lain Guthrie, both pilots. [1] She is the oldest of five children. Her family moved to Miami, Florida when Janet was three years old after her father accepted a job with Eastern Air Lines. Janet herself earned her pilot's license at 17 years old. [15]

Guthrie married Warren Levine, a charter airline pilot, in 1989. [16] He died on December 30, 2006, of a sudden heart attack. [1]

A biopic about Guthrie, Speed Girl, is due out in 2025. [17]

Awards and honors

Guthrie has been inducted into the following halls of fame:

Motorsports career results

NASCAR

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

Winston Cup Series

NASCAR Winston Cup Series results
YearTeamNo.Make12345678910111213141516171819202122232425262728293031NWCCPts
1976 Lynda Ferreri68 Chevy RSD DAY CAR RCH BRI ATL NWS DAR MAR TAL NSV DOV CLT
15		 RSD MCH DAY
15		 NSV POC TAL MCH BRI DAR RCH DOV
33		 MAR NWS CLT
22		 CAR ATL ONT
20		N/A-
1977 RSD DAY
12		 RCH
12		 CAR ATL
30		 NWS DAR BRI
11		 MAR TAL
32		 NSV DOV CLT RSD MCH
26		 DAY
40		 NSV
32		 POC
11		 TAL
34		 MCH
10		 BRI
6		 DAR
16		 RCH
12		 DOV
11		 MAR NWS CLT
9		 CAR
9		 ATL
16		 ONT
24		23rd2037
1978 RSD DAY
DNQ		 RCH CAR ATL
10		 BRI DAR NWS MAR TAL DOV CLT NSV RSD MCH DAY
11		 NSV 41st592
Buick POC
31		 TAL
29		 MCH
27		 BRI DAR RCH DOV MAR NWS CLT
35		 CAR ATL ONT
13
1980 Osterlund Racing 82 Chevy RSD DAY
11		 RCH CAR ATL BRI DAR NWS MAR TAL NSV DOV CLT TWS RSD MCH DAY NSV 69th209
McClure Motors57 Buick POC
28		 TAL MCH BRI DAR RCH DOV NWS MAR CLT CAR ATL ONT

American open–wheel racing results

Indianapolis 500

YearChassisEngineStartFinish
1976 Coyote Foyt No qualifying attempt
1977 Lightning Offy 26th29th
1978 WildcatDGS15th9th
1979 Lola Cosworth 14th34th
1980 Lightning Cosworth Did not qualify

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References

  1. 1 2 3 Litman, Laken (May 26, 2017). "From sleeping in her car to the Indy 500: How Janet Guthrie changed racing for women". The Indianapolis Star . Retrieved August 7, 2017.
  2. ↑ "Once a physicist: Janet Guthrie". Institute of Physics. n.d. Archived from the original on May 25, 2019. Retrieved August 7, 2017.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Fabrizio, Tony (May 27, 2019). "Janet Guthrie: Racing's reluctant trailblazer is 'Qualified'". espnW . ESPN . Retrieved June 1, 2019.
  4. 1 2 McGee, Ryan (February 20, 2013). "Janet Guthrie outraced insults to make history". espnW . ESPN. Archived from the original on February 24, 2013. Retrieved February 24, 2013.
  5. ↑ Martin, Bruce (May 26, 2011). "From Guthrie to Patrick, women have made progress at Indy 500". Sports Illustrated . Retrieved August 7, 2017.
  6. ↑ Guthrie, Janet (March 9, 2005). Janet Guthrie: A Life at Full Throttle. Sport Media Pub. p. 382. ISBN   978-1894963312.
  7. 1 2 Dodds, Tracy (May 24, 1987). "THE INDIANAPOLIS 500 : Why Aren't Women Racing at Indy? Ask Guthrie". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved August 7, 2017.
  8. ↑ Wulf, Steve (March 23, 2015). "Supersisters: Original Roster". ESPN . Retrieved June 4, 2015.
  9. ↑ Zoski, Steve (Winter 2019–20). "Firmly in the Driver's Seat". University of Michigan Alumni Association. Retrieved August 23, 2020.
  10. ↑ "Janet Guthrie Bio". International Motorsports Hall of Fame. 2017. Archived from the original on February 14, 2019. Retrieved August 7, 2017.
  11. 1 2 Andrejev, Alex (August 22, 2020). "There are no women in this year's Indy 500. The troubling reasons why center on sexism". The Charlotte Observer . Retrieved August 23, 2020.
  12. 1 2 Keyes, David (June 17, 2011). "Saudi Arabian Women Plan Day of Protest by Driving on June 17". The Daily Beast . Retrieved July 4, 2019.
  13. ↑ Werman, Marco (January 17, 2011). "Women drivers and the king". Public Radio International . Retrieved July 4, 2019.
  14. ↑ "Janet Guthrie". Automotive Hall of Fame. Archived from the original on July 24, 2019. Retrieved July 24, 2019.
  15. ↑ "Janet Guthrie". Encyclopedia.com . Retrieved August 23, 2020.
  16. ↑ "Warren Levine". The Aspen Times . January 5, 2007.
  17. ↑ "Hilary Swank To Play Racing Pioneer Janet Guthrie In 'Speed Girl' Feature Adaptation, Will Produce With Balcony 9 Productions" . Retrieved 5 May 2021.
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