The First "500" Woman Driver

By Sigur Whitaker
 
Janet Guthrie was the first woman to drive in both the Indianapolis 500 and the Daytona 500. The year was 1977.
 
Her vocation was as an engineer but her passion was automobile racing. She developed her driving skills participating in road races with the Sports Car Club of America. On May 18, 1976, she became the first woman in IMS history to pass the rookie’s driving test. The rookie test began after Johnny Hannon, a successful dirt-track driver, was fatally injured after crashing on his first lap in 1935. Although the format has changed over the years, rookies must show skill in driving the track at various speeds with speeds increasing over the phases of the test. Guthrie’s final phase was 20 laps at a speed greater than 165 mph. Her fastest lap was 171.429 mph on the 11th lap. Sam Hanks, the winner of the 1957 Indianapolis 500, was the first driver to congratulate her and Tony Hulman welcomed her as an Indy car driver, not as a woman rookie.
 
Her ride was the underpowered Bryant Heating & Cooling Vollstedt. The car didn’t have the power to make the field. She was still hoping that she would get a ride and A. J. Foyt let her drive his backup Coyote. She drove a 180.796 mph lap but the offer of a ride from Foyt never materialized. Foyt never promised a ride and ultimately his decision was to have one car in the 500.
 
Instead of driving in the Indianapolis 500, Guthrie participated in NASCAR’s World 600 race at Charlotte. Her qualifying speed of 152.797 mph put her in the 27th starting position in the field of 40. She finished 15th
 
Guthrie was at Daytona in February 1977. She started the Daytona 500 in 39th place in a field of 42. She was in ninth place with six laps to go when her car developed a piston problem. She ended up in 12th position. Disappointed in the outcome, Guthrie told the Associated Press, “The first woman to ever do something doesn’t mean anything to me, I’m just a driver and what I do as a driver does mean something.”
 
Three months later, she was back at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway with Bryant Heating & Cooling but this year’s car was the one in which Roger McCluskey set a track record of 198.?7 during tire tests in October. During practice on May 10, she hit 191.083 mph on the track. On the very next lap, she lost control of the car going into the second turn. She slid 400 feet, did a 360-degree spin, hit the fence with the right front of her car, before sliding an additional 40 feet and tagging the wall again. Rolla Vollstedt’s crew went to work to fix the car and hoped to get parts so that she could get back out on the track the next day.
 
On May 29, she was in the middle of the ninth row, having qualified at 188.403 mph. The question became how IMS owner Tony Hulman would give his famous command, “Gentlemen, start your engines.” Even though she was the first woman in the field of thirty-three, at the Monroe Rookie Recognition Dinner, it was suggested that Hulman should use the traditional start to the race. The justification was “because the mechanics start the engines, not the drivers.”
 
Believing her participation in the race should be recognized, Guthrie stood up and offered alternatives. At the end of the dinner, Kay Bignotti stood up and impulsively volunteered to start Guthrie’s car. Bignotti was uniquely qualified—not only was she the wife of George Bignotti, the most winning chief mechanic in Indy car racing, she was also the daughter of Louis Meyer, the first three time winner of the Indianapolis 500. When she was in high school, she explained to her high school science class how an internal combustion engine worked. And she could tear down engines. Janet Guthrie quickly agreed with Kay Bignotti starting her engine.
 
Guthrie almost didn’t make the race. At 9:30 a.m. on race day, Clarence Cagle was walking down pit row when he spotted fuel leaking from a hose near the coupling on the fuel storage tank behind the pit wall. He told the Bryant Heating crew that if it wasn’t fixed, she wouldn’t start. Frank DelRoy, the chair of USAC’s technical committee backed up Cagle’s mandate and suggested that a plastic bag be secured around the hose to contain the dripping fuel. This accomplished, she started the race.
 
Tony Hulman started the race saying, “In company with the first lady ever to qualify at Indianapolis, gentlemen, start your engines.” When Guthrie later heard what he said, she commented “good for Tony. He acknowledged I was there and that was the point.”
 
For a woman who was competitive, the race was a disappointment. On lap 15, she pitted for 69 seconds while the crew fidgeted with the engine. She returned to the track but on the next lap, she pitted again. This time the spark plugs were pulled to try to figure out the root of the problem. She would pit five more times for a total of 96 minutes. When she called it quits on her 27th lap, the leaders on lap 149. She finished 29th.
 
 
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