JANET GUTHRIE: A LIFE AT FULL THROTTLE

By Gerald Hodges/the Racing Reporter

   Old-time NASCAR fans will remember 1977 as the year when Janet Guthrie became the first woman to qualify for the Daytona 500.

   But there are many other aspects of her career—unknown to most racing fans—that brings her to the forefront of the automobile racing. Remarkably, she was only following her heart, or passion, as she calls it.

   “It was very clear that in 1972, I was having a big midlife crisis,” said Guthrie.

   Guthrie had been racing for nine years, but in 1972, she quit a well-paying and secure job with an Aerospace company to go racing. To support herself, she relied on a series of odd jobs.

   What made her do this?

   “Passion is what life is about,” she continues. “I wanted to be where my passion was, and racing is where I found it.”

   To understand why a woman would act as Guthrie did, you must first look into her early life..

   Before becoming the first woman ever to compete in the Indianapolis 500 and the Daytona 500, Guthrie had a diversified background. By the time she was 16, she had her pilot’s license and was an accomplished parachute jumper.

   “I was born adventuresome,” she said.

   She was born in Iowa City, Iowa, on March 7, 1938. Her family moved to Miami, Florida when she was three. She attended Miss Harris' Florida School for Girls for all but one of her elementary through high-school years, and then graduated from the University of Michigan in 1960 with a B.S. in physics

   She went on to become a pilot and flight instructor, an aerospace engineer, a technical editor, and a public representative for some of the country's major corporations.

    She joined Republic Aviation in Farmingdale, New York, as a research and development engineer, working on programs that were precursors to Project Apollo. In 1964, she applied for the first Scientist-Astronaut program, and got through the first round of eliminations. She treasures a letter from astronaut Deke Slayton, a memento of that attempt.

   Her first racing experience came in a Jaguar XK 120 coupe in Sports Car Club of America races. Her career in physics slowly yielded to the allure of sports car racing, and by 1972 she was involved in racing on a full-time basis. Along the way, she posted two class victories in the 12 Hours of Sebring.

   She had 13 years of experience on sports car road-racing circuits, building and maintaining her own race cars, before being invited to test a car for Indianapolis.

   “I tested and qualified one of A.J. Foyt’s cars for the 1976 Indianapolis 500, and I made the field,” she said. “But come race day, A.J. decided to put a man in the car, and I no longer had a ride.”

   Even though she didn’t get to race at Indy that year, the fact that she made the field was headline news coverage throughout the county. Her name was even overshadowing what was happening with NASCAR at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

   “Humpy” (Wheeler) was agitated that I was taking away press coverage from the World 600,” continued Guthrie. “A friend of mine worked at the speedway and she told a lady named, Linda Ferreri, who in turn bought a car for me to drive.”

   In 1977, she became the first woman to qualify for and compete in the Indianapolis 500; she was also the first woman and top rookie at the Daytona 500 in the same year. She finished ninth in the Indianapolis 500 in 1978.

   “She was right up there with the best of the men,” said Bobby Allison.

   She continued to race until 1983.

   “I was very disappointed that I was unable to race more,” she said. “I wasn’t able to get sponsors and it was either quit or jump out a window, that’s how much passion I felt for the sport.”

   Janet Guthrie's helmet and driver's suit are in the Smithsonian Institution, and she was one of the first athletes named to the Women's Sports Hall of Fame.

   Her book, “Janet Guthrie: A Life at Full Throttle is due out in April, 2005.

   “I’ve been working on it for 20 years,’ said Guthrie. “I never realized it would take so long. But I have put passion into it, and I want to portray to the public, what the passion of this sport is all about.”

Janet Guthrie