Celebrating Women in Automotive | JANET GUTHRIE - THE FIRST WOMAN TO COMPETE IN THE INDY 500

Written by Ian Cooper-Smith

When 1950s gender barriers restricted Janet Guthrie from becoming a commercial airline pilot she forced her way into racing and became one of the most important figures in motorsports history. Prior to her racing career Guthrie had earned a degree in physics from the University of Michigan eventually starting a career as an aerospace engineer. It wasn’t until the early 60s that Guthrie discovered racing. Guthrie began her racing career in 1963 driving a Jaguar XK140. By 1972 she had been racing on a full-time basis, earning two class wins in the “12 hours of Sebring” endurance race. She would go on to further hold her own in the 1976 World 600 in which she finished 15th, becoming the first woman to compete in a NASCAR Winston Cup superspeedway race. Leading up to the 1976 Indy 500 Guthrie failed to qualify, leading many of the drivers in the male-dominated sport to argue that the reason was mainly due to her gender. Undeterred, in 1977 set the record for the best finish by a woman in a top-tier NASCAR race, a sixth-place finish at Bristol in 1977. That year Guthrie became the first woman to qualify and compete in both the Daytona 500 and Indy 500 finishing 12th and 29th both due to engine trouble. It is difficult to grasp the weight of her feat without understanding the gendered context of the era. The 1970s was a watershed decade for women’s rights: “the battle of the sex’s” between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs aired on television, title IX and Roe v. Wade was adjudicated by the US Supreme Court, and women’s labor participation rose to 43.3 percent in the workforce. Backhanded comments made by male drivers like Richard Petty, who finished the Daytona 500 pole two spots behind Guthrie, reflected the hostility many men felt towards women entering predominantly male-dominated spaces: "The doll out-qualified me, didn’t she? I guess she out-drove me, too. …”

Upon entering the 1977 Indy 500 Guthrie received notable pushback and hostility from fans, this was nothing new for Janet who had experienced similar harassment throughout her NASCAR career. A particularly crude sign, however, stood out from the others reading: “JANET GRAB THAT POLE”, a reference to the 200 mph barrier and the No. 1 starting spot for the Indy 500, but also a malicious and misogynist innuendo. She would compete in 11 additional Indy races with a best of fifth. In the 1978 Indy 500 Guthrie finished ninth with a fractured wrist that she concealed from racing officials. Eventually, after five years of racing across 45 states in NASCAR and Indy circuits, Guthrie became viewed as “one of the guys.” A decade later, following her retirement, Guthrie was interviewed for many years following her monumental entry in the Indy 500. When discussing the hurdles she was forced to overcome, Guthrie often displayed a remarkable sense of grace and optimism: “for every person who was ready to hurl an insult, there was also someone to shout support. When a competitor might do something to make things more difficult, there was almost always another that was ready to offer up help.” In an interview with the Los Angeles Times she additionally addressed and denounced the lack of sponsorships offered to women drivers paving the way for many behind her. Guthrie later admitted that she was hesitant to address sexism in motorsports until she saw little girls on their fathers shoulders during the 1977 Indy 500 downtown parade, it was then that she realized that she represented the hopes and dreams for millions of women And little girls across the country.