It's been 31 years since the first woman driver started the most famous of all car races, the Indianapolis 500.
It was an historic and also poetic moment. I remember it well. Memorial
Day weekend, 1977. The starter's usual "Gentlemen, start your engines"
was changed for Janet Guthrie,
who sat behind her wheel in the line-up in the grid. "In the company of
the first lady to race the Indianapolis 500, gentlemen, start your
engines!" Guthrie had three Indy starts, in the end, and wound up with
a ninth-place as her best finish at the Brickyard. You would think with
the 31 years of women's progress since then that women would be old
news at Indy. Women are wrestling and boxing and playing professional
football. But in the pits of Indy racing, women are still earning their
stripes...
