MOTOR SPORTS: Spanked by a chick

A great race car driver once said, “Racing is a matter of spirit, not strength.”

That same driver was also a pilot, an aerospace engineer and a flight instructor. The driver’s helmet and racing suit have been immortalized in the Smithsonian Institute.

The race car driver was Janet Guthrie.

Stop. Rewind. We’re talkin’ about some chick here? Yeah, and in addition to all that, Janet Guthrie spanked all the new boys of racing in 1977 as the Top Rookie of the Year.

Guthrie was the first prominent woman on the racing scene but not the last, proving that girls can drive against boys... and beat them.

In 1992, the Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year was Lyn St. James. She went on to compete in fifteen Indy races, scoring a top ten finish and setting world records on closed course for women, reaching 225.722mph.

Legend has it that when Lyn was 17 years old, she went to the drag races with some friends in Kentucky. After teasing a friend who’d lost his heat, the friend challenged Lyn to get in the car herself and do better. Lyn accepted the challenge and won the race.

Boy got spanked.

Lyn St. James also had great success off the racetrack. Working as a consumer advisor for Ford Motor Company and fostering business associations with companies like Ford, JCPenny, Lifetime Television and Merrill Lynch. She founded the Lyn St. James Foundation and the Women Driver Program that develops young, talented female drivers.

By taking second place last weekend at the inaugural Infiniti Grand Prix in Homestead, Fla., 20 year old Sarah Fisher has solidified herself as a contender every weekend on the Northern Light IRL Series.

Picked by Derrick Walker to drive his IRL car, Sarah Fisher is youthful talent combined with excellent fan and sponsor appeal. Not everyone would agree. See exhibit A:

Racing in last year’s Vegas 300, Fisher had moved up to second place at around 120 laps when she spun out of the fourth turn. Eliseo Salazar, running behind Fisher, ran into her and both cars slid into the wall. Lamenting her age and probably her gender, Salazar blasted Fisher by saying, “This is serious stuff. This is not for her”. Okay. With all due respect, Mr. Salazar, Fisher’s been racing since she was five and probably knows quite well that this is serious stuff.

Guthrie, St. James and Fisher represent an overview of the past, present and future of women’s motorsports. There’s others like Bush Series driver Shawna Robinson or drag-racer Shirley Muldowney. Street luge racer Pam Zoolalian.

This isn’t some battle of the sexes thing. It’s just time to respect and recognize what’s happening in the competitive landscape. And for the male competitors who don’t, well... they just might find themselves getting spanked by a chick.