Women Stalled In Indy Equality Twenty Years After First Female Qualifier, Race Remains Dominated By Males

On the 20th anniversary of Janet Guthrie breaking the Brickyard gender barrier, a woman will start from the last row Sunday in the Indianapolis 500.

That’s only appropriate. Women have hardly been front-runners since Guthrie’s historic run in 1977.

Unlike the many blacks who followed Jackie Robinson across the color line in baseball, only Lyn St. James was there after Guthrie.

“That has been a disappointment to me,” Guthrie said this week by telephone from her home in Aspen, Colo. “I thought by now there would have been many more.”

Only one woman besides Guthrie and St. James, who will be appearing in her sixth consecutive 500 on Sunday, has even attempted to qualify at Indy. Desire Wilson passed the rookie test in 1982 but didn’t make the field.

From Guthrie’s point of view, few female drivers have the financial wherewithal to sustain a racing operation, and male-dominated sponsors practice a subtle form of sexism in their reluctance to open their wallets to promising women racers.

“What we really need is a woman with all the stuff that it takes to be a great driver, and be someone with her own fortune as well,” she said. “Then we’ll see a woman in victory lane.”

St. James blames a combination of factors for the dearth of female drivers. Sure, money is a problem, but so is the lack of women willing to pay their dues at all levels of racing.

“It’s not like the gates are being flooded with women who have experience,” she said. “Frankly, some of the young gals and women who are racing have to prove they are serious.”

For that reason, St. James has started a driver program to bring more young females to the sport. Tony George, president of Indianapolis Motor Speedway, said he hasn’t given much thought to the lack of women who followed Guthrie’s lead into Indy-car racing.

“I’m not sure you can just go out and develop women drivers,” he said. “Certainly, there’s enough opportunities out there now that women can … advance through the ranks to the top level if they have the same drive and commitment as Lyn and Janet have.”

At least women no longer face the open hostility that Guthrie encountered when she arrived at Indianapolis for the first time in 1976, intent on removing once and for all the “Men Only” label that hung over Gasoline Alley. She failed to qualify in her first attempt, but returned in ‘77 and made the 33-car field.

For perspective, consider that it wasn’t until 1971 women were allowed in the pits and garage area. Before that, not even Mary Hulman George, daughter of then-track owner Tony Hulman and Tony George’s mother, could get inside during the month of May - and she owned a race car at that time.

“I don’t think a woman coming into racing now will find the kind of unrealistic objections to her presence that I encountered,” said Guthrie, who’s best finish at Indy was ninth in 1978. “At least in the case of the drivers, once I had gone down into the turns with them or passed them or given them some good competition, almost universally the attitude changed. That was a great pleasure for me.”

But Guthrie’s Indy experience is still tinged with bitterness and the feeling that an opportunity was lost. She followed her ninth-place finish by qualifying 14th in ‘79, but her engine blew up on the first lap in the “only competitive car I ever had.”

“I was dead-flat certain that I would be in the hunt all day,” she said. “It’s still something of a mystery what happened.”

Guthrie would never again race at Indy, a fact that still rankles her despite the passage of 20 years. She has never been back to the speedway for the 500 and even has difficulty watching the race on television.

“I’d like to think that some day I’ll come to grips with it,” she said, without much conviction. “If I watch, I find that I tend to drink too much.”

St. James is more upbeat as she strolls through the garage, signing autographs, greeting fans and visiting with old friends.

At age 50, she is the old man, er, woman of Indy - and the formation of the George’s fledgling Indy Racing League has made her one of the most experienced drivers at the 2.5-mile oval this year. Even though she will be starting from the 34th position, she feels confident she can get to the front of the pack.

“I actually believe anybody in this race has a chance to win,” said St. James, whose best Indy finish was 11th in her rookie year.

She hasn’t pondered the social ramifications of a St. James victory. Would it have the sort of effect for women that Tiger Woods had for minority golfers when he won the Masters?

“I know what it would mean to me personally and mean to the team,” St. James said. “The impact it would have on society? Beats me.”