Lady and Gentlemen, Start Your Engines!
Janet Guthrie made history at the Indianapolis 500 - and in racing
“Slow down, AJ.”
That’s what my driver’s ed teacher used to say to me.
My initials are not AJ, but I knew what he meant.
I grew up in Indiana – so I was familiar with all the famous race car drivers, like Mario Andretti, Bobby and Al Unser and… AJ Foyt.
Despite living in Indiana the first 25 years of my life, I have only been to the Indianapolis 500 once (!), but I do remember in 2000, history was made when not one but TWO women were competing.
And I also remember when those drivers – Lyn St James and Sarah Fisher – collided on lap 74 – and ESPN referred to it as a “catfight.”
But who was the first woman to race at the Indy 500?
I was curious…
The first woman to qualify at the Indianapolis 500 was Janet Guthrie.
Born in 1938, Janet’s first love was flying.
Her father was a pilot, and he taught Janet to fly when she was just a teenager growing up in Miami, Florida.
But at the time, there was no career for a woman who wanted to be a pilot. Women could not become commercial pilots for an airline or fly for the military, so Janet sought a career in aeronautical engineering.
After enrolling at the University of Michigan, she was told by the dean that women were only at the university “to catch a husband.”
But Janet didn’t follow that advice, and in 1960 she graduated from Michigan with a degree in physics and started a job at Republic Aviation.
Not long after, she bought a Jaguar XK-120 coupe, “still considered one of the most beautiful cars ever designed,” she noted.
Driving it to work, Janet noticed other sports cars gathered in the big empty parking lots, and watched as they raced through an intricate course one at a time.
“And I thought to myself, ‘I think I can do that,” Janet said.
Before long, Janet advanced to actual races and competitions that were both faster and more dangerous.
“I liked it,” she said.
“And I was pretty good at it.
“The bug hit me hard, and racing took over my life.”
She quit working as an aerospace engineer, and dedicated herself to racing.
Thirteen years later, she had earned a national reputation for her skills racing sports cars, but was “barely making a living.”
Then she got a phone call from a man named Rolla Vollstedt.
“How would you like to take a crack at the Indianapolis 500?” he asked her.
Janet had never heard of Rolla Vollstedt, but of course she knew The Indianapolis 500.
The 500 is the greatest spectacle in racing, a competition that goes back to 1911, and one that attracts the greatest talents in racing from around the world.
Rolla Vollstedt was the last of the low-budget independent team owners, and had been going to the Indianapolis 500 Speedway since 1964 as a car builder and owner.
“[He was] Not rich, but he loved the sport with a passion,” Janet said.
Rolla may not have had as much money as many other team owners, but he did have an eye for talented racers.
And Rolla had a big idea – he wanted to enter Janet at the Indianapolis 500, the most important race of the year.
“A woman had never driven in the Indianapolis 500,” Janet said.
“I was excited…but also, cautious.”
Janet had never even driven an Indy car, the type that competed in the 500 – and no woman had ever attempted to qualify for the race.
“A number of women drivers had gotten egg on their face by announcing they were going to go race at Indianapolis, but then it never happened.
Janet knew that she would face extra scrutiny – so she agreed, but with a condition.
“No publicity until we have a private test session,’ she said.
“To see if I could make the car go fast enough.”
In February 1976, Janet reported to a California racetrack where she was introduced to “the blue car,” the first Indy car she would ever drive.
And on the day of the test, she had another challenge – a broken ankle.
When Rolla and the guys in the crew asked about it, she downplayed the injury saying she had merely “twisted” her ankle.
“There was no way I could postpone this test,” she said.
“That would be the end of my chance at the biggest race in the world.”
To hide her injury, she removed her cast before meeting the men at the race track.
“That’s easy. You get in the bathtub with it. It’ll soak right off.”
Rolla and others were impressed by what they saw Janet do on the track that day, and felt she was capable of competing in Indianapolis.
But not everyone welcomed her to the race.
“When we announced we were going to take a shot at Indianapolis, to my enormous astonishment the fact that I was a woman was going to be a really big deal.”
“Guthrie has Racers Fuming” read one headline, and driver Bobby Unser was quoted saying, “Where the hell did Janet Guthrie get her credentials?”
Drivers, journalists, and racing fans questioned if she had the physical strength to compete — and if she could handle the pressure.
“They expressed their skepticism – and I simply stood on my record,” she said.
“I had driven in the International Manufacturers Championship races at Daytona and Sebring on seven occasions.”
“I had built the engine from scratch to race in the 2.5 Challenge Series. I won the B-Sedan Championship, two firsts in class at the Sebring 12-hour runs, and the Daytona 24-hour, racing with drivers of world renown.”
But that didn’t seem to matter.
Janet was called unqualified, a joke, a bitch, a problem, and told she “ought to be home having babies…if she can.”
There was a hint that other racers would boycott if she – or any woman – competed.
“If I got this opportunity because I was a woman, there were many other opportunities I did not get because I was a woman,” she said.
The USAC (United States Auto Club) director of competition responded to the skepticism by requiring Janet drive at Trenton in April 1976.
Her performance on the track that day would determine if she could even attempt to qualify at Indianapolis.
Janet agreed, and showed what a skilled driver she was in Trenton.
Her performance changed a few minds, and she was approved to go to Indianapolis.
In May 1976, Janet went to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, along with dozens of other drivers hoping to qualify for the race.
She was subjected to verbal abuse from both fans and other racers, but she focused on her goal.
“I didn’t really have a thick skin, but whatever came with the territory, I would deal with.
“If that’s what it took to get a shot at the Indianapolis 500, I would deal with it.”
But competing at the Indianapolis 500 takes more than a skilled driver – it takes high-quality equipment.
It’s the car that qualifies at Indianapolis, not the driver.
There would be 50 cars attempting to qualify – but only 33 would make it to the race.
And Janet’s “blue car” couldn’t get up to speed – and many threw the blame at the driver rather than the car.
Mechanical problems made it clear that Janet might be up to the race, but the blue car wasn’t.
That’s when Rolla did something that was “completely unprecedented.”
Recognizing that he had a talented driver in Janet, he approached other drivers and asked them to give Janet a shot with their car to show what she could do on the track.
And they found an unlikely supporter in… four-time winner AJ Foyt.
“She was a very nice lady,” Foyt said.
“She didn’t bug nobody. She’s just doing her own thing, and that’s one thing I liked about her.
“Her equipment wasn’t as good as my equipment.”
He allowed Janet to take out his back-up car around the track – and show the others if she really had what it took to qualify.
“That car was worth probably 100 times more than everything I owned of any value in the entire world,” Janet said.
“Talk about pressure.
“In three laps, I had already gone faster than I had ever gone in the blue car.”
She did five more laps and hit 181 mph – a fast enough time to qualify.
After her performance, there was speculation that AJ Foyt might let her drive his back-up car to qualify.
But that did not happen – and though Janet had the ability to qualify for the Indianapolis 500 that year, she did not have the car she needed.
But her racing skills had been noticed by NASCAR, who invited her to drive in the Charlotte 600-Mile Race – even though she had never competed in a NASCAR race.
“I’d never even seen a NASCAR race,” she said.
But Janet headed to Charlotte, where she’d now have to learn how to race an entirely different kind of car.
Again she faced skepticism about whether she could qualify for the race – or endure 600 miles in a stock car.
But, after just two days of practice, she qualified for the 27th slot.
And she would go on to complete the 600-mile race and finish 15th.
She was also voted the most outstanding driver in the race (not bad for her first NASCAR race!).
She continued racing in the NASCAR circuit, and finished 9th in the Daytona 500 in February 1977, where she was also named the top rookie (an honor she also received at Richmond).
“I just had the best time,” she said with a smile.
By this point, Janet had shown what kind of driver she was, and even some of her loudest critics changed their minds about her presence on the track.
She now had a number of races under her belt, but she needed a better car to advance – something only the top teams (who were better-funded) could offer.
She was approached by racing team owner Pat Patrick, who had the money, along with the top drivers and equipment.
He was interested in having Janet drive for him – but with one condition.
“He said, ‘Rolla Vollstedt is a loser. You need to dump him and drive for me,’” Janet recalled.
“I said, ‘Rolla Vollstedt gave me my chance. He sacrificed a great deal in order to do it. Is there some way you and he could cooperate?’”
“He stood up from the table and said, ‘You’re making the biggest mistake of your life,’ and stomped off.”
Though she hadn’t secured the sponsorship she needed, Rolla Vollstedt had gotten her a new car, and she arrived at Indianapolis in May “determined to qualify.”
On Opening Day, Janet set the fastest time, topping 185 mph.
And on the final day of qualifying, despite engine troubles, Janet Guthrie clocked in over 188 mph, and became the first woman to qualify for the Indianapolis 500.
Sadly, engine problems took her out of the race – but her qualification on top of her record showed that she deserved to be there.
“I think she has done a hell of a job. She’s got a good head on her shoulders. I’ve seen many guys who had much more trouble with Indy than she has had, from the standpoint of belonging on the course. Anyone who says she doesn’t belong just feels threatened.”
–Mario Andretti
The following year – despite everything she had demonstrated on the race track – Janet was still struggling to find sponsorship.
It seemed all hope was lost, but at the last minute, Texaco stepped up to sponsor her.
Janet had just 30 days to put together a team, and get a car and an engine ready for the Indianapolis Speedway.
Miraculously, she and her team managed to get a car ready, and this time she hit faster speeds than ever.
“190 miles per hour,” she said. “That’ll do.”
Janet qualified for the race.
But nothing seemed to be easy for Janet, and a few days before the race, she tripped during a charity tennis tournament – and broke her wrist.
She knew if USAC discovered her injury, they would ban her from the race.
She could still turn the steering wheel, but her broken wrist wouldn’t flick the way she needed to switch the gears.
But Janet was determined.
Despite the pain and challenge, on May 28, 1978, Janet drove 200 laps at the 62nd Indianapolis 500, reaching her left hand across her body every time she needed to flick the gears.
She finished the race — and made history.
Of 92 entrants and 33 starters, Janet Guthrie came in an impressive ninth place (just two spots behind AJ Foyt and three spots ahead of racing legend Mario Andretti).
“It’s done,” she said. “We did it.”
“It was the most wonderful feeling to put a car in the top 10 for the Indianapolis 500.”
In a post-race interview, Sam Posey said to Janet: “A lot of people said a woman could never drive 500 miles, and here you are. Did you have any problems at all?”
“Sam, I was driving with one hand,” she replied. “I actually have a broken wrist.
What is this nonsense that women can’t do it?”
Despite this achievement, Janet still struggled to get sponsorship and financial support, and was forced to end her racing career in 1983.
“It’s just the world out there of sponsorships and corporations weren’t quite ready,” said Indy veteran Dick Simon.
“She had everything it took to make it.”
It would be 13 years before another woman qualified at the Indianapolis 500.
Only 10 women have competed in the Indianapolis 500.
Sarah Fisher has the most career starts with nine, and Danica Patrick had the best result, finishing in third place in 2009.
No woman entered the race in 2022.
Janet was inducted into the Women’s Sports Hall of Fame in 1980, the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 2006, and the Automotive Hall of Fame in 2019.
When an interviewer asked Janet how she’d like to be remembered, she replied:
“I’d like to be remembered as a damn good racing driver, and a lady, I hope.”
And if she had to choose?
“Damn good racing driver.”
One more thing…
“Gentlemen, Start Your Engines!”
The Indianapolis 500 is rich in tradition. Spectators expect to hear the chorus of “Back Home Again in Indiana” and watch the winner chug milk at the end of the race.
And they also expect to hear the command: “Gentlemen, start your engines” to signify the start of the race.
But what do you say when you have a woman in the race?
Track owner Tony Hulman kept mum about how he would start the race in 1977 when Janet qualified, but in the end said:
“In company with the first lady ever to qualify at Indianapolis, gentlemen start your engines!”
Tony passed away later that year, and his widow Mary Hulman started the race in 1978 with the simplified command:
“Lady and Gentlemen, start your engines!”
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Until next time, Stay Curious!
-Beth
Love this. What a legend.