Latest / BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show / Indy Firsts: Anita Millican and Caitlin Brown Break Barriers at the Brickyard

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Indy Firsts: Anita Millican and Caitlin Brown Break Barriers at the Brickyard · BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show

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  Break fix podcast is all about capturing the living history of people from
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  all over the auto sphere, from wrench turners and racers to artists, authors,
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  designers, and everything in between.
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  Our goal is to inspire a new generation of petrol heads that wonder.
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  How did they get that job or become that person?
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  The road to success is paved by all of us because everyone has a story.
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  Tonight, we're diving into another inspiring journey into the heart
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  of motorsport history as we shine a spotlight on Indy first.
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  And we have the honor of having not one, but two guests with us tonight.
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  First up is Anita Milliken, a trailblazer whose indomitable spirit and
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  mechanical prowess shattered barriers in a male dominated world of racing.
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  As the first female mechanic to grace the pits of the iconic Indianapolis 500.
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  Anita's story is a testament to resilience, determination, and the
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  relentless pursuit of excellence.
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  Joining Anita is Caitlin Brown.
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  who made history as the first female over the wall pit crew member for Team Pinsky.
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  And with unparalleled skill, determination, and a passion for racing
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  fueling her every move, Kaitlin has shattered barriers and redefined what it
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  means to be a pit crew member and one of the most prestigious teams in motorsport.
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  And this brings Anita's efforts full circle, not only being part of the
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  team, but an Indy 500 winning team.
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  With that, let's welcome Anita and Kaitlin to Break Fix!
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  And joining us tonight is co host Lauren Goodman, Supervising Producer of Media
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  and Exhibitions from the REVS Institute.
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  So welcome back to the show, Lauren.
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  Well, it's good to be here.
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  Well, as you know, like all good break fix stories, there's
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  a super heroine origin story.
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  So tonight we're going to kind of flip flop back and forth and share each other's
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  origin stories in the world of motorsport.
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  So, Anita.
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  Walk us through your journey into motorsports.
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  What sparked your interest?
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  How did you get involved?
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  Did you come from a racing family?
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  No, I fell in love with the racer.
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  I used to go to Ascot, California sprint car race.
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  And when Howard was in that end of the country, he had a sprint car
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  reserved for him and he would drive.
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  The owner of the series, Walt James, you might have heard his name, had
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  a going away party for one of the really superb young racers, Jimmy
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  Miller, Jim Bob, they called him, who was drafted at age 18 for Vietnam.
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  Not a social butterfly, never was, but his wife asked me to
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  come and help at the party.
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  And my car got trapped and I couldn't escape and this guy was watching videos
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  on the screen, the old fashioned drop screen and this guy came up beside me and
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  I had said to myself, I wish I could see.
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  And this guy let out a blood curdling scream, everybody went away and he said,
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  now you have the screen to yourself.
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  And that's how we met.
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  More than two years later, we were married.
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  He wanted us to be together and all he ever did was work.
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  So we worked together.
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  And at a time when chauvinism was pretty rampant, really in the racing
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  industry, I think He cut trail in his generosity to back me up, to allow
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  me to work, to show me how to work.
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  He was a superb mechanic.
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  He was extremely well respected.
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  He was also a bit crazy wild, like all the racers were in those days.
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  All the racers respected him.
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  And I think that's what helped allow me to be able to be involved is because.
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  Howard had my back.
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  So you say Howard was a mechanic, but you're known as a machinist.
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  So did he bring you into that world or was that an interest of yours too?
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  He was a mechanic, a machinist, a fabricator, a racer.
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  And what Howard said to me, your work has to be better than
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  everybody else's to be accepted.
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  And so he led me, he helped me, he guided me, and we worked
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  shoulder to shoulder, hand in hand.
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  For 30 years.
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  So nobody starts at Indy.
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  What was the road to Indy like?
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  Where did you begin your journey in motorsports and what did it
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  take to get to Indianapolis?
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  My life, couldn't even dream it or imagine it.
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  It was so incredible and so exciting.
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  People used to ask me, don't you get tired?
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  I was always tired.
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  It was in the days when IndyCar was on an open trailer and you took a station
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  wagon and I can still hear the tools in the toolbox jingling in the station
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  wagon as we would go across country.
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  In those days, you unloaded Saturday, qualified race Sunday and went home.
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  And what we would do is go through the car Monday and then tour from, say, Phoenix
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  back to Indy or Indy up to Pennsylvania.
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  We would go to forts and museums, old houses, and battlefields
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  all across the country.
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  So it was a wonderful, awesome, incredible, unimaginably exciting
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  life with a man that was so good.
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  He was strong, and honest, and extremely talented, and generous, and kind.
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  Not often are people kind and strong both, and he was.
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  Wow.
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  It sounds like a real ally too.
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  Oh boy.
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  Yeah.
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  Yeah.
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  Wanda, Devon, the marvelous Wanda, saw us one year, many years after we'd been
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  married and we always walked hand in hand.
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  She had gone to high school with Howard.
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  We happened to be going and she was coming and she told Howard, she said, you act
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  like you're On your honeymoon we were walking hand in hand and Howard said when
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  the honeymoon's over so is the marriage.
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  Wow.
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  Was it through Howard's efforts or was it his goal to get to Indianapolis?
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  He was working at Indy.
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  He worked with Vita Fresh Orange Juice.
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  He worked with Bobby Unser.
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  Kent Chuck.
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  I can't think of his last name.
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  Well, he worked as a mechanic for many people.
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  So not just being part of the pit crew, being a machinist, being the
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  first woman over the wall at the Indy 500, what did they have you doing?
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  From some of the pictures I saw, were you doing fueling?
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  What were you responsible for?
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  Van toes and jack.
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  And what was that like?
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  That first time at Indy being over the wall, what were those feelings?
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  What were you thinking?
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  You know, I'd like to say all the things that people say, but I was a
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  hundred percent focused on the car because in those days they came in at
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  speed with a hundred percent focus on the car getting in, getting stopped,
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  getting plugged in correctly, staying with it until the tire crews and wing
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  adjusters were done and unplugging.
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  I saw nothing, heard nothing, felt nothing, just do what
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  I had to do with the hoses.
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  And this was in the early 80s, right?
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  Uh, yeah.
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  At the height of some of the best IndyCar racing we've seen.
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  I mean, it's only gotten better.
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  There was no better racing than in those days.
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  Phoenix, Milwaukee, Indy 500.
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  Michigan, we went to St.
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  Joliet.
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  That was just awesome.
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  And the drivers, they were just so incredible.
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  So awesome.
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  You had some legendary names back then, right?
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  You had the Sullivans and the Andrettis and the Unsers and the Mears and the list
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  goes on and on and on during those days.
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  Yeah.
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  And they were all spectacular and competitive.
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  And the crowds at Indy, I mean, there were 450, 000 people and 300 acres.
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  It was just, We would go in although it wasn't allowed because
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  we lived in Danville close to the track when we were in town.
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  We'd go home and shower, get a bite to eat, sneak back into the track
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  before the closing and sleep in the garage because at four o'clock in the
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  morning you plug the oil heaters in.
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  And at six o'clock in the morning we would climb up to the grandstand
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  when the bombs went off to open.
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  The tunnel to watch the crowd come roaring in for those of our listeners that are
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  just getting familiarized with your story.
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  It might be Google searching you right about now.
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  This is the early 80s.
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  So which team and which driver were you crewing for?
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  Larry Dixon, the Sprint car winner, not the drag racer.
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  It was the machinist union.
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  With Andy Kenapenski, the head of the racing machinist union.
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  Well, let's put a pin in your story there, Anita.
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  And we'll come back to that as we continue the conversation here,
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  but let's flip over to Caitlin.
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  So same question to you.
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  Tell us about how you got into motor sports and your road to the Indy 500.
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  Yeah, for me, I've grown up around racing.
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  My family is big into it.
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  We did a lot of dirt racing back home and still do.
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  And so it was always a passion of mine and I raced myself, but I kind
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  of got to a point where I knew that I wasn't cut out to be behind the wheel,
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  but I enjoy turning wrenches on them.
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  When I graduated high school, I moved down to North Carolina, attended a tech
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  school and just through connections and getting to know people and trying
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  to immerse myself in the world.
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  In the motor sports world as much as possible down here, I was
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  able to get a job at Team Penske.
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  Originally, I was on the NASCAR side, and that was at first kind of what I thought
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  my dream was to do the NASCAR racing.
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  But when you get hired at Team Penske and you, you know, the history of the
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  team and what Rogers done, you know that the IndyCar team is there as well.
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  And that was something that.
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  Was an interest of mine.
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  Once I got there, eventually in 2021, I was given the opportunity to
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  dip my toes in the IndyCar racing.
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  And once I did, I didn't want to leave it.
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  Because I'm a fan of a lot of different series and Penske
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  competes in all different series.
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  What's so special about IndyCar and specifically the Indy 500 as an event?
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  I don't know.
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  It's hard to explain.
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  It's one of those things that you really have to experience, but.
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  Yeah.
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  Experience is the answer.
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  Yeah.
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  I mean, Indy 500 race day is incredible.
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  I can't imagine what it was like in the eighties, but you know, even today it's
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  still, you know, 350, 000 plus people and you know, the traditions and the
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  pageantry and all of it together on Memorial Day weekend, it's really cool.
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  Still gives me goosebumps to think about it.
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  Can you remember that?
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  What was it like your first time at the Indy 500?
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  What were you thinking?
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  What were you feeling?
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  So the first time for me at Indy 500 was with Beth Perretta's team
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  and her alliance the team Penske.
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  It was kind of like, this is a one shot opportunity, so it was trying to soak it
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  in as much as possible because we didn't know if we'd get the chance to come back.
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  It was wild to think that we were there and we were doing what
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  we were doing, and just to be a part of it in some sort of way.
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  That first time there opened my eyes to know I want to come back here.
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  And I want to be successful here.
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  And I want to be a part of this race and what it means.
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  So what do they have you working on right now?
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  So currently I am the engine mechanic on the two cars.
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  So, you know, I maintain that during the week.
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  So, you know, like Chevy does all the internal pieces and so we'll get
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  the engines from them and we'll dress them and do everything around it,
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  maintain the fuel cell, all of that.
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  So I'm kind of like the middle portion of the car.
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  Per se, and then obviously do the inside front tire as well.
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  So fast forward a couple of years and you find yourself on
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  a winning team at the Indy 500.
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  What was that like?
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  It was crazy.
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  I still can't believe it happened, but just being able to be a part of
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  a winning team there in any fashion and especially for Roger and.
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  You know, that he's done in the history of this team, to be a part of that is
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  super incredible and super humbling.
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  Congratulations, you go girl.
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  Thank you.
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  Wow.
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  I'm so proud for you.
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  It's such an incredible deal.
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  Thank you.
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  That first Indy, becoming part of the Penske Indy team, did
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  you know about Anita's story?
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  Did you know about the history and the shoes that you were stepping into?
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  Not so much the first year I knew Anita and I knew a little bit about her story
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  and the more I got involved in the IndyCar side, the more I learned of all the
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  amazing women that have come before me and all the current women in the paddock now.
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  You know, last year when we won, it was kind of like that full circle moment
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  of, you know, You know, finally, there's been a female to win over the wall.
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  It was kind of crazy to think that in all of the history of the Indy 500,
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  that it's the first time it's happened.
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  But then, you know, you look back at the history of it and, you know, everything
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  Anita went through to even break the barrier of getting females in the garage.
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  It kind of, in a way, makes sense that it is now like the
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  first time that it's happening.
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  But it also just goes to show just how hard it is to win that race, even
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  as a mechanic, as any team member.
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  Right.
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  It's very difficult and to be able to do that and be able to be the first female to
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  do that is something you don't think would happen or that you would be a part of.
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  So it's been really cool.
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  On the flip side of that, Anita, had you heard about Caitlin coming
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  on the scene a couple of years ago?
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  Have you been keeping track of racing since you got out?
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  I've been down in Costa Rica in the jungle playing with hummingbirds
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  and orchids and my dogs.
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  A lot of times my TV would speak Spanish and wasn't involved in racing,
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  so I didn't receive any information until Lauren Sullivan let me know
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  that, Oh my God, you have one with.
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  I mean, so incredible that you did it.
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  I mean, I'm so proud for you.
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  I'm so thrilled for you.
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  It's such a really big deal.
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  Thank you.
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  We're talking a little bit about the history here and making history.
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  And Anita, you were very familiar with the era BW, before women.
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  I coined that.
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  And this was a rule.
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  No women in Gasoline Alley.
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  And it wasn't allowed?
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  It just wasn't permitted.
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  In fact, when the European drivers first came over, their wives
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  weren't allowed to be timekeepers.
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  No, and treated very badly.
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  Very, very badly.
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  Arrogant, abusive.
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  Even for years afterwards.
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  Even in uniform.
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  Credentialed.
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  It was difficult to get through the gate into the pits.
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  Security would stop you like, what are you doing here?
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  Oh, they'd slam me against the fence.
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  They called me all kinds of names.
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  Wow.
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  And it was just my wonderful husband, Howard, just to say, head down, mouth
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  shut, elbows out and move forward.
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  So how did you finally get credentials?
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  There was an Indy Star reporter that sued the Speedway for the
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  right to enter the garage area.
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  So the Speedway allowed.
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  Reporters in but no other women and the following year other
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  women started complaining yelling.
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  It was years before there was a bathroom in the garage area.
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  Can you imagine going to 450, 000 people to go to the bathroom?
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  Just all kinds of little things.
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  But I don't have a single complaint.
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  It's incredible to hear, yes, the privilege of being at the Speedway,
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  participating, but also what you had to endure just to do your job.
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  You wanted to be a professional and focus on your job and be excellent at it.
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  And all this other, you know, BS they put you through just to do your job.
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  I kind of want to ask Caitlin, what are things like today on team?
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  I want to ask that too.
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  Thank you for asking.
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  I think they've definitely gotten better.
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  You know, there's still little things here and there, but personally,
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  like everyone's been so great to me, you know, even like guys from other
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  teams say, hi, how are you doing?
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  You know, they keep in touch and, you know, they ask, what are
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  you doing on the car these days?
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  So I definitely think that it's changed.
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  There's here and there that can get better and are getting better.
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  But I mean, there's so many females now in the garage that it's hard for them
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  to try and not let us be a part of it because, you know, we're a part of it
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  now and we're here and it's only growing.
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  I was at the opener in St.
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  Pete for the season and just walking up and down the pit lane because I had
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  pit lane passes, the number of women who were engineers, who were running
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  things, who were Every single position, because that's important too, right,
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  is having a woman in every single area to help establish that as a norm.
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  There's engineers, there's mechanics, there's quite a few of us over the wall
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  in different positions, spotters, like there's females in every position pretty
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  much now and it's really cool to see.
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  It's amazing because when I was there, there was one woman for years and years.
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  There were no women.
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  That's amazing.
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  It is.
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  And I'm so pleased that Caitlin has done that.
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  I mean, I could just blow up with pleasure at what she's accomplished.
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  It's a huge deal.
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  You know, for you, was there a point when you did start to see other females
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  in the garage and realize that you kind of got the ball rolling for us all?
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  I quit going to the racetracks per se in the early 90s.
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  We pretty much stayed doing the R& D in the shop and the women that were coming
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  in in this period were pretty much the wives scoring and that's there were a few
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  there was one I can't think of her name but extremely awesome with Valvoline.
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  She was a big deal at Valvoline.
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  I've heard Caitlyn that it's better now.
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  I don't know that men will ever consider a woman fully equal.
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  I don't know if I'll see it in my lifetime.
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  I hope you do.
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  It's a challenge.
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  Yeah.
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  It's not something that's overt, but the attitude is covert.
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  Yeah, I definitely think, like, even if I don't necessarily have to.
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  It's like constantly feel like, okay, I got to do this, but I got to do this
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  10 percent better than the guy next to me because absolutely, you know,
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  they might still question question you even if I don't feel like the
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  guys I work with do, but you want to be better and you want to be that
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  much better just to prove yourself.
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  Yeah, and what I ran into also was pit lane interviews, how many reporters.
• 18:31
  Asked a male mechanic what they weighed, you know, it's just, it's changing.
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  Now, you do have to be better than the guys, but one of Roger Pencey's
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  great sayings is, there are no individual stars on a race team.
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  There's only the team as a unit.
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  I had some We could say discussions with the machinist union because they wanted
• 18:57
  to promote women in the unions and they kept singling me out and I kept telling
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  them you cannot do that because it compromises the cohesion of the race team.
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  And on the team Penske, there is no better racer in the world than Roger Penske.
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  It's really incredible to be a part of Team Penske.
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  Howard and I worked on Penske cars, the Dan Gurney Eagles in the 60s.
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  Yeah.
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  And the Penske cars.
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  were the finest cars ever built.
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  They were mechanically excellent.
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  They were aerodynamically excellent.
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  They were wonderful cars.
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  And we got to work on a number of Penske's on various teams.
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  Eventually, Jeff Ryan asked me to come to Penske Shocks in Redding some years
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  after my husband died, and I spent six years up there working on shocks.
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  Anita, did you work on any of the Eagles at Indy that ran in the 70s?
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  Oh, no.
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  It was BW.
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  There's a lot of other indie firsts on this list, especially Anita, you sort of
• 20:08
  alluded to working in shock absorbers.
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  And one of the things I found in, you know, looking over your profile
• 20:15
  and digging into your history, you and your husband helped introduce
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  something called shock dinos.
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  Where did that come from?
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  And what is that all about?
• 20:22
  Well, that was an interesting story too.
• 20:25
  We were working at Gallus Research and Development for Rick Gallus in Albuquerque
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  with Valvoline and Alan Sir Jr.
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  Jeff Ryan was in California with Bob Fox.
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  Rick got Jeff to come to Albuquerque as a shock man.
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  And Jeff is, I'm going to say the best shock man in the world.
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  There's a Yon Ruckus somewhere in that was Coney, but Jeff is the best.
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  He would dream about shocks in color.
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  He came to Howard and I at the research end of Gallus cause he's shy.
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  And he said, I just don't know what to do.
• 21:05
  And Howard said, what do you want to see a shock do?
• 21:08
  And Jeff would tell him what he wanted it to do and how he wanted it to, and
• 21:13
  we developed a shock dyno that did everything that Jeff wanted it to do.
• 21:18
  Eventually, a bunch of NASCAR crew came through, one of them saw the
• 21:25
  shock dyno, and he said, well, that's no good unless it has a spring on it.
• 21:30
  Unloaded the shock, put the coil over on, and it was one of
• 21:35
  the most amazing things to see.
• 21:37
  If you think of a person who doesn't know how to ride a horse, their bottom
• 21:42
  hits the saddle every other time.
• 21:44
  That's what was happening with the shock spring combination.
• 21:49
  And it upset the chassis and at the time no one knew what it don't feel
• 21:54
  good with some of the driver's comments.
• 21:56
  And people think you take a shock off and you hand them another shock.
• 22:00
  Well, that's what they did in the 60s and 70s.
• 22:04
  A shock absorber, as I'm sure Caitlin knows, is as complicated as an engine.
• 22:10
  There's valves, pistons, o rings, forces, The way the shock functions, puts the
• 22:16
  car on the ground, makes it smooth.
• 22:19
  The main purpose of a shock is to keep the tire on the ground.
• 22:22
  The ways to achieve that are, I don't know, several million.
• 22:27
  And you do that by little shims, saw shims, zig shims, on different
• 22:33
  shapes and forms of pistons with bleed holes, just like in an engine.
• 22:38
  What we did was this.
• 22:40
  Dialing the shock, it was amazing to see and it made a huge difference on the cars.
• 22:47
  So not only that, you and your husband were the first to put
• 22:51
  an IndyCar on a flow bench.
• 22:53
  What gave you guys the idea to do that, to get into aerodynamics?
• 22:56
  He cut a full size IndyCar in half lengthwise.
• 23:00
  And put it on a plate, put a big curved throat at the front and an airplane motor
• 23:07
  at the back and we sucked air through it.
• 23:10
  And some of the things we learned were from some of the mistakes we
• 23:14
  made in setting up the wind tunnel.
• 23:17
  One of the things we did, we worked a whole day.
• 23:20
  On the space between the tire and the cowling and we were
• 23:26
  making games making games.
• 23:28
  We realized at the end of the day that the model was moving.
• 23:32
  And so what that led to was changing the shape of the body
• 23:38
  work inside entering the tunnel.
• 23:41
  One of the things we saw, knackaducks were just coming in to fashion.
• 23:47
  We would put either little drops of oil across the leading edge or
• 23:53
  a bit of short piece of yarn taped.
• 23:56
  The knackaduck is supposed to draw air in.
• 23:59
  This one was not.
• 24:00
  Sucking air out for its shape, you know, we just learned so many things.
• 24:08
  We put a kid in the Spelegrum at Indy.
• 24:12
  They're racing bicycles.
• 24:14
  We put a kid on a bicycle and developed a helmet.
• 24:18
  That was aerodynamically cleaner.
• 24:21
  He sat in the wind tunnel, pedaling his bike, moving his head and his arms and
• 24:27
  his back to be aerodynamically clean.
• 24:30
  And he went quite a lot faster.
• 24:32
  We did radiators.
• 24:34
  We learned that, and Caitlin, I'm sure knows, a nine fin radiator is
• 24:40
  less drag, equates to more horsepower, but it cannot cool for long periods.
• 24:46
  An 11 fin, cool, better, but more drag.
• 24:49
  Put the 9 fin on to qualify, and the 11 fin for the race.
• 24:54
  So somewhere in all this R& D, supposedly you guys also had a hand in the
• 24:58
  introduction of the more modern style front wings on the IndyCars, is that true?
• 25:02
  Mm hmm.
• 25:03
  An airplane wing in shape is to lift.
• 25:06
  On an IndyCars F1, it's to suck, you want to get it to hold onto the ground.
• 25:14
  One of the things that we were seeing, I forget the year, but they were crashing,
• 25:19
  coming off at speed on the fourth turn.
• 25:21
  And what was happening, the right front corner, as it came around,
• 25:27
  was lifting just millimeters.
• 25:30
  Tiny bit.
• 25:31
  It was losing downforce on the car and it couldn't control it.
• 25:35
  And we saw that Caitlin, all these things you're hearing about Anita that
• 25:39
  she was involved in with her husband, Howard, in doing the research and
• 25:42
  development, inventing these different solutions and modifications to the cars.
• 25:46
  How much of this stuff are you still seeing today and maybe
• 25:49
  taking for granted at Penske?
• 25:51
  There's still quite a bit of it.
• 25:52
  Like one of the big things we do is we go aero testing and we still
• 25:56
  check all these little things.
• 25:58
  And is this adding drag or is this taking away or what is this
• 26:01
  little guy doing here on the car?
• 26:03
  And what's this dot doing there and how is it affecting everything?
• 26:06
  And no, Indy's our biggest focus.
• 26:08
  So it's the one thing that we're constantly still testing, you
• 26:12
  know, ways to get better there.
• 26:13
  But I think Anita has done way more incredible things in the testing
• 26:18
  world and R and D to figure out what works best, it's incredible
• 26:22
  hearing her talk about that.
• 26:23
  It's really cool.
• 26:24
  But you know full well that in two months, three races, six months,
• 26:30
  your development now is obsolete.
• 26:33
  Then that's why you keep developing, developing, developing, testing, changing.
• 26:39
  I want to transition and talk a little bit about the future.
• 26:43
  And I sort of want to pick up Anita, where your story left off.
• 26:45
  And you alluded to this earlier, you said you got out
• 26:48
  of racing in the early nineties.
• 26:49
  So I'm wondering, were you there in the advent of Lynn St.
• 26:53
  James coming on the scene and becoming, you know, rookie of the year and
• 26:56
  all that in the early nineties?
• 26:58
  Were you there to see that?
• 26:59
  Yeah.
• 26:59
  And she and I had, shall we say, numerous discussions.
• 27:03
  Lynn is focused on women drivers.
• 27:07
  She's not focused on hands on over, I told her that there's an age
• 27:14
  limit, men or women, for drivers.
• 27:16
  A mechanic can retire when they're 90 years old.
• 27:20
  I did not get out of racing in the 90s.
• 27:24
  I just stayed in the shop, and we eventually work pretty much
• 27:29
  exclusively on shock absorbers.
• 27:31
  If I remember my history correctly, Lynn and her husband
• 27:34
  also were in the shock business.
• 27:36
  So did you compete against her in business as well?
• 27:38
  Well, I was at Penske.
• 27:41
  Lynn St.
• 27:41
  James was working with Panos.
• 27:44
  To develop the car and for some reason, he also contacted Penske shocks, and
• 27:52
  I got the deal for the panels cars for Penske, and I thought that Lynn
• 27:57
  would be very excited about that, but she was pretty upset because
• 28:02
  she wanted john to do the shocks.
• 28:05
  But there were Penske's on them.
• 28:08
  So in Lynn's case, you know, she wasn't the first woman
• 28:10
  behind the wheel of an Indy car.
• 28:12
  You know, we can go back and talk about Janet Guthrie and things like that.
• 28:14
  But as you were transitioning to becoming more involved in the shop
• 28:17
  and she's getting ready for her debut at Indy, what was that like for you?
• 28:21
  What were you thinking about to see a woman behind the wheel of an Indy
• 28:24
  car, having you yourself transitioned into going over the wall and being
• 28:29
  more accepted at the Indy 500?
• 28:30
  I felt there should be more women.
• 28:32
  Period.
• 28:33
  And that's completely fair.
• 28:35
  So when did you officially retire from motorsport, getting out of
• 28:39
  the shock business altogether?
• 28:41
  How long ago was that?
• 28:42
  I was working on gasolineality at Indy Motorsports on Saturday, got
• 28:48
  on an airplane with a backpack and two dogs and landed in Costa
• 28:52
  Rica on November 26th in 2012.
• 28:55
  That's a long career in motorsports.
• 28:57
  Congratulations.
• 28:59
  Thank you.
• 28:59
  So, Caitlin, you're still in it.
• 29:01
  You're in the throes.
• 29:02
  You're at the front end of this climb.
• 29:04
  What's next for you?
• 29:06
  Yeah, what's next?
• 29:07
  What are your hopes, your dreams?
• 29:09
  You know, right now, just keep building as a mechanic and just learning
• 29:12
  everything I can to further my career.
• 29:15
  Next step for me, you know, next goal of mine would to one day be a car chief.
• 29:19
  That's, you know, working with the engineer and driver and relaying
• 29:23
  the information the engineer gives to set the car up and not even
• 29:27
  just set the car up, but, you know, taking responsibility of the crew
• 29:30
  on the car and help and run the car.
• 29:32
  Caitlin, I've seen you speak before at the last Women With Drives Summit.
• 29:36
  I think you're going to do the next one at the Speedway this coming year.
• 29:39
  So I hope I see you again there and you have more incredible
• 29:42
  stories about going over the wall.
• 29:44
  If you had any questions, Any advice to give to somebody, a young woman looking to
• 29:48
  get a foothold in motorsport, what would be your top three tidbits to give them?
• 29:54
  Like Anita said earlier, like just put your head down and work.
• 29:57
  Like that's something I still do every day, just head down and work.
• 30:00
  You know, I have a great attitude, and that's not something anyone
• 30:03
  could change but yourself.
• 30:04
  You know, something I say all the time is, the car doesn't
• 30:07
  know who you are or what you are.
• 30:08
  It doesn't know if a guy's working on it or a female's working on it, so you
• 30:11
  just gotta do the best job you can.
• 30:13
  And be helpful and generous and considerate to all the team.
• 30:18
  Well, don't try and take the credit or, as Roger Penske said, don't
• 30:23
  point the finger, fix the problem.
• 30:26
  Yeah, be humble.
• 30:27
  That's what I tried to do was be generous with the teammates, encourage
• 30:31
  them, help them, congratulate them.
• 30:33
  It makes it easier for you to be around them.
• 30:36
  You're never going to know everything there is to know.
• 30:39
  So you got to humble yourself and, you know, be willing to ask
• 30:42
  questions, even if it's hard ones, and just always stay learning.
• 30:46
  And I think that's something I try and do.
• 30:48
  Absolutely.
• 30:48
  Also to show people that you don't think you're better than them in any
• 30:52
  sort of way because You know, it's a privilege for us to all be a part of it.
• 30:55
  Perfect.
• 30:56
  I plagiarized Little Al when he won the Speedway against his daddy and saying
• 31:02
  his dad taught him everything he knew.
• 31:05
  He wasn't able to teach him everything his dad knew, and I can say that with Howard.
• 31:11
  Howard taught me everything I know.
• 31:13
  He didn't have the years in his life to teach me everything he knew.
• 31:17
  I think looking forward, the really big question is, How do we
• 31:21
  keep things on the right track?
• 31:23
  In other words, how do we keep this progress going in the paddock, that it's
• 31:26
  becoming easier and easier for women?
• 31:29
  And I know, Anita, you're saying maybe not during your lifetime,
• 31:33
  but maybe during Caitlin's.
• 31:35
  Is there really just like one silver bullet solution, or do
• 31:37
  you think it's a lot of things?
• 31:39
  I think it's Women need to support women.
• 31:43
  Linda Conti said the other day, little girls now are being
• 31:47
  allowed, I wasn't, to play sports.
• 31:50
  In playing sports, the objective for a little kid is not to win, it's to
• 31:55
  learn teamship and communication.
• 31:58
  And little girls now are learning that.
• 32:01
  In my time, I had a lot of pushback from women.
• 32:05
  And so I think it's important, and I'm sure Caitlin knows and
• 32:09
  does, is support the women.
• 32:11
  Not to the exclusion of guys, but to support, encourage, back up the women.
• 32:16
  One thing that I'm seeing a lot more of is just like bringing
• 32:20
  in kids to the racetrack.
• 32:22
  Just showing them that.
• 32:23
  There is females in these positions and they can do it.
• 32:26
  There's a lot of programs now that they bring kids from schools into the track
• 32:30
  on a Friday or Saturday and show them around and all these different diversity
• 32:34
  programs that are helping to showcase and get them to have like the eyes on it to
• 32:40
  see, you know, what is possible for them.
• 32:42
  I used to go into schools, high schools, grammar schools, to encourage kids that
• 32:48
  yes you can, and we'd bring a shock absorber or a turbo, and we'd show them
• 32:55
  you can touch this, you can manipulate it, you can work it, but you have
• 33:00
  to pay attention in grammar school.
• 33:02
  You have to learn your math, be careful what you do, and because it
• 33:06
  was a real race car part that they could touch, I think it sparked.
• 33:12
  I guess the term these days is girl dad, which is what I am.
• 33:15
  I got two little girls.
• 33:16
  And let's say they walked up to either one of you and said, Anita, why should
• 33:20
  I pursue a career in motorsports?
• 33:22
  Or Caitlin, same question to you.
• 33:23
  Go, Caitlin.
• 33:24
  I've had this question asked and, you know, if it's something you're passionate
• 33:28
  for, then, you know, there's no reason you shouldn't try and go for it.
• 33:32
  Especially to young girls.
• 33:34
  I was lucky in my life to have people tell me that.
• 33:37
  So to just be able to continue to carry that message forward.
• 33:41
  Tell any kid, girl or boy, you can, but you have to work hard.
• 33:47
  You have to want to.
• 33:48
  It's wonderful, exciting.
• 33:51
  But it's not easy.
• 33:52
  It makes for tremendous passion.
• 33:55
  Caitlin, you know, racing is addictive.
• 33:59
  highs and lows.
• 34:01
  Tell your little girls to go for it.
• 34:03
  Alright ladies, well, we've reached that part of the episode where I'd
• 34:06
  like to invite our guests to share any shout outs, promotions, or anything
• 34:09
  else that we haven't covered thus far.
• 34:11
  So, Anita, anything you'd like to say?
• 34:13
  Anybody you'd like to thank?
• 34:14
  I'm so impressed with Caitlin.
• 34:16
  I'm so thrilled for her.
• 34:18
  It's awesome.
• 34:19
  Thank you.
• 34:20
  I'd like to thank my wonderful husband, but the list is 45 years long.
• 34:26
  Jeff Ryan, Roger Penske, Mark Meikle.
• 34:29
  I'd like to thank the people who supported me and I'd also like to thank
• 34:34
  the people who Made it difficult for me because it made me stronger and better.
• 34:42
  Caitlin, how about you?
• 34:43
  Yeah, just, you know, my family and everyone that supports
• 34:45
  me and, uh, all my teammates.
• 34:47
  And no Roger for giving me the biggest opportunity there is.
• 34:51
  The best in the business.
• 34:52
  And I think we got to give a special shout out to Miss Lauren Sullivan for
• 34:55
  bringing us all together tonight to be able to share these stories with everyone.
• 34:59
  Thank you, Lauren.
• 35:00
  What an honor.
• 35:03
  She kept telling me, you got to talk to Anita.
• 35:04
  You got to talk to Anita.
• 35:07
  In this episode, we dove into Caitlin's journey from her early days as a
• 35:11
  racing enthusiast to a groundbreaking role with Team Penske, exploring the
• 35:14
  challenges she's overcome and the triumphs she's achieved along the way.
• 35:19
  Which is Anita's dream come true, unraveling the challenges she faced,
• 35:23
  the triumph she celebrated, and the lasting legacy she left on the sport.
• 35:27
  We invite you to celebrate both of these women by searching for them
• 35:31
  online and through social media, and be sure to share this story with others.
• 35:36
  Absolutely.
• 35:37
  And I can't thank both of you enough for coming on break fix and sharing
• 35:41
  your stories and getting together, giving us this exclusive opportunity
• 35:45
  to unite you both and to learn about the past and the future and celebrate
• 35:50
  what's happening in motor sports.
• 35:51
  This is.
• 35:52
  Absolutely amazing.
• 35:54
  And I can't believe what you both have done.
• 35:56
  So I have to say thank you.
• 35:57
  Thank you.
• 35:58
  Thank you.
• 35:58
  And congratulations to you both.
• 36:00
  Because if it wasn't for both of you, I don't know where
• 36:02
  Motorsport would be these days.
• 36:04
  Thank you.
• 36:04
  Thank you.
• 36:05
  Huge for me too.
• 36:06
  And both of you, if you're ever in Florida, you have a standing
• 36:09
  invitation to visit the museum and I'll give you personal tours.
• 36:12
  If you're ever in Costa Rica, mi casa es tu casa.
• 36:23
  We hope you enjoyed another awesome episode of Brake Fix Podcast brought
• 36:28
  to you by Grand Touring Motorsports.
• 36:30
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• 36:33
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• 36:37
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• 36:40
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