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Decades Make a Difference (Lyn St. James) · BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show

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Brake Fix's History of Motorsports series is brought to you in part
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by the International Motor Racing Research Center, as well as the
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Society of Automotive Historians, the Watkins Glen Area Chamber of
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Commerce, and the Argettsinger family.
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The Gene S. Argettsinger keynote address.
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Decades Make a Difference, by Lynn St. James.
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We're all on a path to somewhere, and then something comes along that
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brings clarity into our life, and often takes us in an unexpected direction.
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We ask, did we manifest that?
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Or did it just happen?
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Lynn believes it's likely a combination of things, but she also
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believes things don't just happen.
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The more difficult the challenge, the more difficult the climb, and the more
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important we need to pay attention to the things that influence our choices.
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It's often upon reflection where we can see and learn how those influences
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impacted our lives, and depending on what decade we're living in, and what
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decade of our life we're reflecting on those choices, it can help shape our
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lives and the lives of those around us.
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An important piece of advice, pay attention to your influences and how
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they impact your decisions and always think about the bigger picture because
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everything we invite to enter our sphere of awareness impacts what we do and
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what we do has an impact on others.
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This presentation is a recap of how Lynn's five decades in motor sports
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has taken her down the path of racing around the world and provided her
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with an incredible opportunity to be someone she never dreamed she could be.
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Lynn St. James is the co founder and president of Women
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in Motorsports North America.
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She's a legendary race car driver, author, mentor, and motivational speaker.
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Named one of the top 100 female athletes of the 20th century by
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Sports Illustrated, Lynn St. James has set 21 national and international
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speed records and was a seven time competitor in the world's largest
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sporting event, the Indianapolis 500.
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earning Rookie of the Year honors in 1992.
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She has competed all over the world, including twice at the 24 Hours of Le
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Mans in 1989 and 91, with victories at the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona,
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12 Hours of Sebring, Watkins Glen, Road America, and the Nurburgring.
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Most recently, Lynn was announced as an inductee into the National
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Motorsports Press Association Hall of Fame and has been inducted
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into the Automotive Hall of Fame.
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The Sebring Hall of Fame, the Florida Sports Hall of Fame.
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She was also the 2022 Amelia Island Concours honoree and is the recipient
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of the prestigious Spirit of Ford Award, the Guiding Women in Sports
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Award, the Office Depot Visionary Sportsman of the Year, and was named
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on the automotive news list of the top 100 women in the automotive industry.
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She is in demand as a speaker on women's issues, gender equality, and diversity.
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She serves on the board of ACUS, the Automobile Competition Committee
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of the United States, and on the Diversity and Inclusion Task Force.
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She has authored two books, Lynn St. James, An Incredible Journey, and Oh,
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By the Way, and is former president of the Women's Sports Foundation.
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Lynn is passionate about mentoring drivers in the sport of auto
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racing, as well as women in the automotive and motorsports fields.
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Lynn St. James racing career was as diverse and noteworthy
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as any driver, male or female.
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Two time winner, class winner at the Daytona 24 hour, class winner at Sebring,
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class winner at the Nürburgring 24 hours, two time competitor at Le Mans, first
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woman to run over 200 miles an hour, seven time qualifier for the Indy 500,
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including in 1994, she out qualified Nigel Mansell and Mario Andretti,
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pretty impressive, elected into the Automotive Hall of Fame, the SCCA Hall
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of Fame, the Western Stock Car Hall of Fame, and the Sebring Hall of Fame.
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She's a member of ACUS, member of the FIA Women in Racing Foundation.
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She started the Women's Winner's Circle Foundation in 1994, and
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she is a co founder of the Women in Motorsports North America.
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To come back to the Hall of Fame, I did this earlier in the week,
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so it's conceivable she's been elected into several other Hall of
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Fames since I, since I did this.
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If so, I'm very sorry, Lynn.
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My apologies.
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And to think it all started behind the wheel of a Ford Pinto.
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It is my sincere pleasure and we are honored to have Lynn St.
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James here as our keynote speaker.
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So please welcome.
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Thank you very much.
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Very much.
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No new halls of fame, please.
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But I have to share.
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I did just come from Daytona.
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John Saunders was there, but I was very honored to celebrate my
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50th year in motorsports and did so by inviting many of my friends
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that were positive contributions and part of that, those 50 years.
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So we had a number of people come into the Motorsports Hall of Fame,
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which I'm not in that Hall of Fame, but come into the Hall of Fame, and
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we had a lovely, lovely evening.
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John Doonan, president of IMSA, was the host, along with Frank Kelleher, who was
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the president of Daytona International Speedway, and they surprised me with
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a lot of things, being three cars.
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that were part of my winning history at IMSA.
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They had the car from Watkins Glen that I won here in 1985.
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They had the Ford Probe that I set records with in 1985 as well.
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And then they had my first IMSA win was at a 1985 Ford Mustang at Road America.
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So those were On display, which was unbelievable.
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And then, one of the things I wanted to do was turn my last laps in anger
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in a Ford GT that Kevin Doran had built from the 2007 chassis of the Ford GTs.
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And I had raced it in a number of vintage races, including here at Watkins Glen.
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And it is the sweetest race car that I'd ever driven, and
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the most current from that era.
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And so I got to turn some laps in anger during the HSR.
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So I'm still on a high from all of that.
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And woke up this morning at the Harbor Hotel.
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Thank you.
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Took pictures of the beautiful Lake Seneca.
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Told everybody, good morning from Watkins Glen, New York.
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So this is one of my favorite places in the entire country, if not the world.
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I came here in 1966.
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to the Formula One race from Ohio, drove over here with a boyfriend and
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never got out of the parking lot.
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We didn't have tickets, but it was a case of I've never seen
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so many exotic cars in my life.
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You know, and all I did was walk around the parking lot, having him
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take pictures of me in the parking lot would get some Maseratis and
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Lamborghinis and things I'd never seen.
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And of course, just the sounds alone, it was extraordinary.
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So it was cold and windy, but it was one of the little tastes
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that you get in motorsports.
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So James, where are you?
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I am so glad that I have never seen a presentation like that because
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I just thought about it because I encourage all of the drivers, male
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or female, understand a little bit more about the history of the sport.
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Most race car drivers show up, male or female, and they think they're
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God's gift to the world, right?
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That they are the best race car driver in the world.
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And when I heard that presentation just sitting there, I was like, Oh
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my God, that is the first time I felt Discriminated against because
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I'm not a sporting gentleman.
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It just hit me so weird, you know, and I never saw it that way when
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I went to the races, but this was an S. C. C. A. The decade a little
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bit decade later in the seventies.
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I mean, that's what I loved about it was the fact that it wasn't like when
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you go to a country club or you go someplace where there are the halves.
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And if you aren't a have that, that means you're a have not.
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And in racing, it's like whether you you're on a gas station or you work
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as a plumber, you have your race car and next to maybe somebody that
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has a motorhome and you know, but we're all the same at the racetrack.
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And that's something that just absolutely stuck with me.
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So I kind of never felt discriminated against or not welcomed or whatever.
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So the sport meant something different to me than it did, I guess, to others.
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Decades make a difference.
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I've, you know, I've thought about it.
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I'm actually really glad, again, that I kind of hit the
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sport in the decade of the 70s.
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Not the summer jam decade of the 70s.
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But I did go to the Indy 500 as a spectator.
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Didn't say, oh, I'm going to do this.
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These were superstars.
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These were superheroes.
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These were super people.
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They weren't real humans.
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And then I went to the 24 Hours of Daytona for the first time in 1972.
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I went, oh my God, real people drive race cars.
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You get to walk around the pits, you get to walk around the
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garages, you get to see people.
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They're human beings.
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Mark Donio, Joe Rodriguez, Mario Andretti, they were the super guys too.
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But at the same time, there were Corvettes and Camaros and Porsches.
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So it just sent me a different message.
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And I sat outside of Turn 1 for the whole 24 hours, while either in the
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pits walking around or outside Turn 1.
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Watching the glow of the brakes when they went down and break over into turn one.
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I mean, it was just an extraordinary experience.
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But at the same time, the decades make a difference, depending on your decade,
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when you're watching what's happening.
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I realized what a difference it was when I saw the Ruth Ginsburg film.
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And saw what the 70s was like from her standpoint going to college.
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I didn't go to college.
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Becoming a lawyer.
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I sat there and I'm like, I don't remember it that way.
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So my point of reference was different.
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So this whole decades make a difference has kind of become a theme that I think
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really makes a difference of how you reflect on the world and what's happening.
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And I'm really honored to be amongst Well educated people, this is a symposium.
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This isn't just where I get to inspire people, you know.
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Usually, I'm an inspirational speaker that most of the audience know
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nothing about racing, and so I have full command because whenever I tell
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them they got to believe, right?
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Well, you guys know a lot about racing.
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I'm hoping that I can still reflect on a few different things.
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But I'm also a real believer that timing is everything.
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Then things happen, and the timing, and this is what I'm experiencing,
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is a woman in racing who never felt that I should have been there.
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I'm the happiest when I'm at a racetrack.
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I have felt that way since 1974 when I started racing.
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At the same time, I said, I don't represent all women.
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I just, I'm me.
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There may be betters.
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Hopefully there are betters.
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I mean, but at the same time, I just kept focused.
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And then, of course, in the 90s, I did start to become a little more
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proactive, and I'll explain that.
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In the 2000s as well, but it didn't necessarily resonate,
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but today it's resonating.
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And so it's the same story, the same message, but it makes a difference
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when you are delivering that message.
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And leadership is key.
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It's great to be a doer.
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I always wanted to do it.
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But at the same time, how can you be a leader?
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And that's what, it also makes a big difference.
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Because the influences that we have also can make a difference.
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So for me in the seventies again, I wasn't paying attention to what Ruth
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Ginsburg was going through and others, but there was this thing called the
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Virginia Slims Tennis Tournament.
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And because in 1973 I, like some of you are old enough, probably
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remember watching Billie Jean King.
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beat Bobby Riggs on television and I was a tennis player, not a great tennis player.
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So I went out, I didn't smoke, but I bought two packs of cigarettes and
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took the tails off the bottom and put my 5 in and I still have that
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sweatshirt because I thought, you know, there's something going on here.
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It's relating to me.
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If she can do that on television in front of billions of people, I
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think I can try to get in a race car.
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So what if it's all guys racing out there?
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I think I can do that.
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So the things that influence us really make a difference.
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And that, again, when, with an influence issue, and it was after
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I'd seen the 24 Hours of Daytona, so I see real people do this.
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She did this on television.
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Get out of your way, Lynn, and go do this if you could figure it out.
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So, how I found out.
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SCCA started a new class called showroom stock.
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She went out and bought a car.
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There were about 2 or 3 cars eligible.
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The Pinto was the cheapest.
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I went out and ordered a Pinto at my local Ford dealer, put a roll
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bar in it, a 5 point seat belt, a 5 pound fire extinguisher, which
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was required for all Pintos, I mean all race cars, not just Pintos.
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Boy, I blew that one.
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All race cars, not just Pintos.
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And, that car is how I started.
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I say, this is how I found racing and racing found me.
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I mean, literally when I went to school, my first driver
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instructor wouldn't talk to me.
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It was like I was invisible.
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I wasn't there with this other three or four students and I was complaining
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and my husband said, well, why don't you just go to the chief instructor
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and ask for a different instructor?
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That's a good idea, so I did, and I got Joe Castellato, who
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was unbelievable, he's Italian.
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He rode with me, I rode with him, drawing the racetrack on the sand
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and, you know, giving me about apexes.
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I mean, it was unbelievable how much I learned in that.
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I was hooked.
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I was in.
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My very first race, the X's on the side of the car to let everybody
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know that this was a rookie.
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Stay away from them because they don't know what they're doing.
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They have past instructed doing really well.
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I thought for a while, and then as I'm going into turn two, they put
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a bunch of cars, different groups out at the same time, the overall
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leader came around to pass me.
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And I was not watching my mirrors, lost control of the car.
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I spun out and I ended in, I thought it was the pond because in South Florida,
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Palm beach, international raceway.
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If you've all been there, it's waters all over and the car hit the water.
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I opened the door and got out, hustled to the side, stood there, turned around,
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and watched my car go, blub, blub.
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It was like in quicksand and totally submerged.
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It was gone.
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And I remember standing there going, if I could just beam myself out like Scotty,
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you know, from the TV or the movie.
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The evidence was gone, and maybe this didn't really happen.
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So it was a really embarrassing way.
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I remember the entertainment of the evening was to go down and watch the
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divers pull the car out and Everybody's standing there with their shorts
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and t shirt on and I was as well drinking a beer and the guy standing
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me says, So who's driving that car?
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And I said, I don't know.
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Did not put my name on the car because this was my street car that I drove
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back and forth to work as well.
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But I also remember thinking, wow, my dream.
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I'm gonna become a race car driver.
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Oh, baby.
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I'm not meant to be.
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To be a race car driver.
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It was incredibly embarrassing.
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And I remember a telling my husband.
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I do not want to be that woman driver out there because that's
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what everybody would talk about.
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If a woman driver screws up, it's a woman driver.
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She doesn't belong on the track.
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If a guy screws up, he's a wanker.
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You know, I mean, it's like it's okay, just a wanker.
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And I just said, I'm not gonna do that.
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I'm not validating that terrible image of being the woman driver.
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And he said, Lynn, two things.
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How bad you want it and how are you willing to work?
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And that's been my mantra ever since.
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So the 70s for me was, I found my passion, and then I think when you're blessed to do
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that, I don't know if any of you actually race, I do know you know the sport of
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it, but when you get behind the wheel of a race car, I mean, it's a hybrid.
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It takes people.
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To help you to put a car on a racetrack, but then that point is you strap yourself
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in and now you're all by yourself.
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You can't, hey, ask a question.
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You know, we didn't have radios and things like that back then,
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particularly when you're learning.
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You're on your own, and so you have to really become this confidence
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and you have to believe in yourself.
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You have to know you can do this.
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And once you really believe that, you carry that with you
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when you get out of the car.
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I mean, it transformed me as a person as well.
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You know, the whole 70s was just this incredible learning process.
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Which, of course, I've now learned never stops.
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The 80s.
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Okay.
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I think I'm getting important.
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I think I'm really going to become a professional race car driver because
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I can't afford to be able to race the way I want to race and win races.
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And so, you know, reality starts to set in.
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And it's one thing to have a commitment, a goal, but I actually learned this
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from the motivational speaker who's on TV all the time, whose name I can't
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remember right now, it doesn't matter, was that you have to make a declaration.
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If you declare something, that's different than an intention, different
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than a goal, it's different than a wish, it's different than a dream.
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A declaration is you're going to do it.
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You are declaring it.
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And so I made this declaration I was going to be a professional race car driver.
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That's great.
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But that means how are you going to do that?
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And so in 1978, there was an article in Car and Driver magazine
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entitled Ford and Feminism.
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1978. They were a bit ahead of their time.
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And it was just a sidebar.
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And it talked about Ford wanting to provide equal employment opportunities
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for women in non traditional areas.
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Jim Olson was one of the people that quoted, I remember.
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I thought, hey, I win on Sunday.
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I'm going to demonstrate Ford's commitment.
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I need to be in a Ford.
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That way I'm telling, I'm telling everybody that Ford
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is really backing that.
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Well, I wrote him letters, and I wrote him a lot of letters, and I got a lot
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of, We're not into racing, very nice, but keep us informed of your progress.
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I bugged the heck out of him.
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I wrote him every time I raced anywhere, any article that was ever
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done, I just continued to pursue it.
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In 1981, I got Ford as a sponsor.
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It was not their idea.
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I'm convinced they said we have to do something and so we'll just
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hire her because she won't go away.
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Persistence helps.
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And then that's when I got Ford as a sponsor and I became a factory
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driver for Ford Motor Company.
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It gave me credibility with the media.
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It gave me credibility with anybody in the industry.
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And yes, it was to fulfill their commitment.
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I spent the whole decade of the 80s racing different cars for Ford,
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setting records, winning here.
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I mean, it was unbelievable.
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So then towards the end of the 80s, I was Also getting a little older.
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If you do the math, I was like, okay, I want to drive an IndyCar.
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I just want to drive an IndyCar.
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It is like, to me, the ultimate race car.
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I actually worked as a pit reporter for ESPN so that I
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could learn more about the cars.
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Because I could talk to the crew chiefs.
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I could talk to the team managers.
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I talked to people about, tell me about the car so that I
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could talk about it online.
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Well, I got a lot more information than I needed that I was going
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to be able to talk about online.
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I started to learn a lot about the cars because it gave me an inside track.
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And then I started talking to team owners.
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They were doing a test day.
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I'd love to drive an IndyCar.
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Long story short, I got a chance.
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Dick Simon finally, I think again, said this woman keeps coming at me talking
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about wanting to drive an IndyCar.
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And he called me on a Monday after the Tamiami race, the last race of the season.
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Hey kid, you want to drive an IndyCar?
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Be at Memphis tomorrow.
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That's the way Dick talks.
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I was on the plane, went to Memphis.
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Didn't even know there was a racetrack in Memphis, but that's
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where I used to do a lot of testing.
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He was doing a rookie test for another driver.
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He pulled out Raul Bozell's.
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Car, I got to turn laps in an Indy car, this track in Memphis, which is a
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drag strip with a little return route.
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And talk about things are supposed to happen when they're supposed to happen.
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This kid, they're all kids to me, this kid had to work on that car that day.
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If I hadn't shown up, he would have had the day off, because
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the car was on the trailer.
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Now, I figured he's probably really happy to see me.
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And he's trying to fit me in the car and we're literally putting
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jackets and anything because I wasn't able to pour a seat or anything.
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And then he looks at me at one point and he goes, Were you ever at Snedderton?
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Which is a racetrack in England.
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I said, Yeah, I was there one day.
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This was in 1988.
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So I was at Snedderton in 1984, four years prior to that, testing a Ford
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Argo GTP car that I ended up running.
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He said, I was there that day.
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He said, you ran good.
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I had a crew guy that day.
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I had somebody who wanted me to do well.
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You know what I mean?
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Who was glad that he was able to work that day.
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Changed the whole thing.
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I end up driving an IndyCar that day.
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At the end of the day, I did fairly well.
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Dick, he left actually, then he came back.
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And at the end of the day, he said to me, we can do this.
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He didn't say you can do this.
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He said we can do this.
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And that meant, ah, I have an IndyCar team owner who's willing to do this.
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So it only took us four years, 150 companies that said no in sponsorship
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searches, and JCPenney was the 151st company that I went after in
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sponsorship, which I got in 1992.
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So the 80s and the 90s were creating partnerships.
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Ford Motor Company, who brought in Motorcraft.
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That's good at Watkins Glen, that's what I want at Watkins Glen here in 1985.
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And then, J. C. Penney came along, and when they came along
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in 1992, they brought in Nike.
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One of the sweetest things was I found out that Phil Knight said, there will
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never be a Nike swoosh on a race car, because race car drivers are not athletes.
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Guess what?
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There was a swoosh out of my car at Nike because it was a JCPenney sponsorship
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and Nike came along with the package.
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You know, sometimes there's a little um that you get when you
19:27
get to do something besides what you're trying to get out of it.
19:30
But creating partnerships, relationships are everything.
19:34
But you have to get results.
19:35
It isn't about just being intentional, making declarations,
19:39
you have to get results.
19:40
So obviously the victories that I've had, and then being at Indy in 1992.
19:46
Winning Rookie of the Year.
19:47
They had eight rookies that year.
19:49
The last thing in the world I figured that I was going to be selected
19:51
or earn Rookie of the Year, but I was the highest finishing rookie.
19:55
Another record that I held, talking about results that
19:59
sometimes you inherit, I guess.
20:00
Is that I held the record until two years ago being the oldest rookie in
20:05
the history of the Indianapolis 500.
20:07
796 drivers had raced in the area at that time.
20:10
And the first time you race it into your rookie, no matter what your background
20:13
is, none of them had been 45 years old until Jimmy Johnson two years ago.
20:17
Not seven time NASCAR champion beats 76.
20:22
So results count.
20:24
Teamwork, the value of teamwork.
20:25
I told the story about the crew guy from, that had been at Snedderton.
20:30
So many of these people, you know, they're not just the team,
20:33
but they're there with you.
20:35
They want it for you.
20:36
They care about you.
20:38
You learn their names.
20:39
You learn what they eat for lunch.
20:40
You learn what they want for dinner, how much sleep they need.
20:43
Some of them do, some of them don't.
20:45
But you become, not just a family, but it's about teamwork.
20:48
And then the team expands beyond just having the people that work on your car.
20:52
And it never ends because, and that's why it's so much about relationships.
20:56
I was on this mission, very personal mission, of just wanting to win races,
21:01
beat Scott Pruitt, beat Tom Gloy.
21:03
Then I started realizing, this is bigger than me.
21:07
One of the people that helped me realize it was Billie Jean King.
21:10
I got to meet my shero.
21:12
I got to go to the Women's Sports Foundation that she founded, that she
21:15
puts dinner on every year, and I got to meet her and all of these other Olympic
21:20
athletes and accomplished athletes.
21:22
And if you've been in the room or in the presence of Billie Jean King
21:25
for, Five minutes, and you don't walk away knowing that it's your
21:28
responsibility to change the world.
21:30
This is the point, because she pounds on the table.
21:33
While you are competing, you are the most powerful.
21:36
It's not about you, it's about the future generation.
21:39
I'm like, what do you mean it's not about me?
21:40
If I don't win, nobody gives a shit.
21:41
You know, I mean, it's like, it's about me.
21:43
But no, I mean, she really just gets you to get it.
21:47
I kind of was processing that a lot in the 80s, that it wasn't
21:50
until I had the platform of Indie.
21:52
When I got all this fan mail and people wanting advice, and I'm like,
21:55
I just can't send them an autograph.
21:57
So that's when the common and when things happen to you, the decades of how old
22:01
you are, I'm now in my 40s, probably a little more of a mother mentality
22:06
than 20s and 30s kick ass take names.
22:08
And so, you know, I'm starting to care more than about me, and
22:11
I realize it's not just about me.
22:13
And that whole that, and you know, on top of that, it gave me a new sense of power.
22:17
It's tiring when all you do is care about yourself.
22:19
And, and you have to be self centered.
22:21
I had to learn, I created a new word with my coach called selfing.
22:25
How you help yourself, but help others.
22:27
So it's selfing.
22:29
It was a really powerful word for me.
22:30
So, values of teamwork were getting me where I was going to go.
22:35
Communication, obviously getting results, but then communicating
22:38
them, and they're hard.
22:39
They're easier today because they're everywhere, but they're harder because
22:42
you harder to manage, you know, you got to make sure you manage your communication.
22:46
So setting the records at Talladega, Ford talking about safety and using
22:50
motorsports as a message for safety.
22:52
And then to celebrate with your partners.
22:55
Told you I just came from Daytona.
22:57
All of these people that came that I invited, not everybody
23:00
that I, that I invited and John Doonan invited were able to come.
23:03
But I wanted to give them something.
23:06
I found out the importance of these little coins that you have made, the, the, uh,
23:09
and I had a coin made celebrating my 50th year, but then I put a note in there.
23:13
Because I realized without those people, without the people that
23:16
were in that room and got invited who will get theirs in the mail.
23:19
I wouldn't have made it.
23:20
I wouldn't have been able to do what I did.
23:22
You know, you've got to tell people what you're going to do.
23:24
You've got to go do it.
23:25
But you've got to tell them that you did it, because just because
23:28
you told them you were doesn't mean they're paying attention,
23:30
or that they really give a hoot.
23:31
So then you've got to tell them you did it, and then you've got to thank them.
23:34
I mean, I was known during the 80s when I had sponsors, I would always at the
23:38
end of the year send a thank you gift.
23:40
And then sometimes, I mean, I didn't know what they did with it, and I
23:43
didn't care, but I wanted them to know.
23:45
What this season represented and how they made a difference.
23:48
And so you've got to really sell it.
23:50
You're in a hall of fame, that isn't about you.
23:52
You're just being recognized for all the people that made you, enabled you
23:56
to be able to do what you're doing.
23:57
So one of my tips to, when I am mentoring, just always be authentic.
24:02
Don't try to be something that you're not.
24:03
Don't try to be what somebody else is.
24:05
Yes, I'm old.
24:08
I did try to pay the PR guy at Indy in 1992.
24:10
I actually had 500 in my pocket.
24:12
So will you quit putting my age next to my name?
24:15
Because I didn't want to draw attention to it, you know, and he
24:17
said it doesn't work that way, Lynn.
24:18
So my age is my age, you can look it up, but I'm a mother.
24:21
Yes, I took piano lessons for 13 years, taught piano for 6 weeks and got fired.
24:26
It's good to know, it's good to know what you're not good at.
24:29
I'm a race car driver, I try to be a speaker, I've tried to represent the
24:33
sport well, but just be authentic.
24:36
I don't feel dressed unless I wear fingernail polish, and I've
24:39
had some people literally fancy me when I'm not at the track.
24:42
You can't be a race car driver.
24:43
You've got fingernail polish on.
24:44
I'm like, get over it, you know?
24:46
So, you've just got to be who you are.
24:48
And then, the leadership comes in.
24:51
That Billie Jean King moment by Shiro, she was the honorary starter on qualifying
24:56
day at Indy, and the year we had four women going to qualify at the Indy 500.
25:00
So I was like, Billy, I did my work!
25:03
Here they are!
25:04
There's Danica, there's Sarah, and she was a hoot.
25:08
She was the honorary starter, so she waved the flag to start the day.
25:12
And you don't do that up in the starter stand, you do it literally on pit lane.
25:16
And so she's down there, and she's got the, she's got the flag.
25:20
And she thinks she's a deterbing servant, right?
25:22
I mean, she's got that crouch.
25:23
And she's waving the flag and the cars go by.
25:25
And she's waving the flag and the cars go by.
25:27
She's only supposed to wave the flag when the cars go by once, you know what I mean?
25:31
I said, Billy, they're done.
25:32
It's okay, because they want to go fast now.
25:34
You know, they were just warming it up.
25:35
She absolutely loved it.
25:36
They said most of the time, honorary starters jump back because they just
25:39
hear the cars and they see them go by and, you know, they couldn't get away.
25:42
So she was fabulous.
25:43
So I saw the quote, Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed
25:48
citizens Can change the world.
25:50
It's the only thing that ever has made me think.
25:53
Actually, as I read this, I'm Gene Arkansinger, who started the IMRRC.
25:56
It's not about you, but it's about getting a community together.
26:00
So that has led me to also look at the future.
26:04
But then I decided, Ooh, I need to look at the past.
26:08
I read a book called the Bugatti Queen, and there was so much in there, not
26:12
just about her, not about just about Holy Deeds, but about other women.
26:17
This was a time when there were a lot of gentlemen racers, but these
26:20
gals were out there kicking butt.
26:22
So I did end up talking to the Henry Ford Museum about this book.
26:26
And this was about, I don't know, 2000 something that I was chatting with them.
26:31
He said, oh, you ought to do a traveling exhibit.
26:33
I said, I don't know how to do that.
26:34
These are one of the partners because I was helping them design
26:37
their Driven to Win exhibit.
26:38
They said we'll help you.
26:39
So I ended up creating a traveling exhibit, which is now retired, but
26:43
on the history of women in racing.
26:46
This is just a big banner that was on display starting from
26:50
Camille de Gaeste that took us through the early 1900s up to 1933.
26:55
You mentioned Louis Chiron, the driver that was in the Bugatti.
26:59
It's because of him that Helene Nice ended up, this is just my summation
27:04
of the information, she ended up dying in destitute because he accused her.
27:10
of being a spy because she was having affairs with some generals,
27:14
giving trade secrets and stuff like that, and she was ostracized.
27:17
Ended up, you know, living actually, I think to like her 80s, but ended up,
27:21
you know, living on nothing, you know, and it was just because he basically
27:25
ruined her entire reputation and career, which was just Anyway, so the history
27:30
to me was like, I knew about Janet Guthrie, I knew about Shirley Mildowney,
27:34
you know, when I started racing.
27:35
That was about it, and I didn't learn all this until I was already
27:39
out of the seat professionally.
27:40
But it was so inspiring for me and so important for me to be able to share
27:45
the fact that there were very successful women that were going very, very fast
27:49
and doing these great things at a time when it just wasn't known and considered.
27:54
Another era from the 2000s to the 2010s of here we are.
27:58
So, I mean, again, it's not just Shirley Muldowney or just
28:01
Sarah Fisher or Danica Patrick.
28:03
I mean, it's kind of like There are decades here, this is just like, you
28:07
know, capturing moments, periods, the modern era from 1980 to the 2000s of
28:14
just capturing Desiree Wilson, who won an Aurora Series Formula One race, a
28:18
year old Formula One cars at Brands Hatch, Michelle Mouton, who won Pikes
28:23
Peak, and who went on to then show her leadership, and she was the founder and
28:27
the creator, the FIA, Women in Motorsports Commission, and led it for over 10 years.
28:32
But then Robin McCall, maybe they didn't hit the headlines, she didn't beat Richard
28:39
Petty or whatever, but it's just hard because we want to be known as winners and
28:44
competitors and get that at the same time.
28:46
If you're out there and you are competitive, if you were running in
28:49
the top five or the top ten, they were just lost, we call it left
28:52
behind, you know, that they weren't always given the recognition at the
28:55
time they were actually competing.
28:57
Kara Hendrick.
28:58
Who was a contemporary of Jeff Gordon, who ended up dying in a Sprint car
29:02
midget, setting a track record, leading the race, and was absolutely considered
29:07
an equal to Jeff Gordon at that time in beating him, and Jeff Gordon would
29:11
admit, has said that, I mean, he just She was tough and she was good.
29:14
And I used to talk all the time and I can say, I'll try to help you all
29:17
I can, but I'm still trying to figure mine out, you know, and I still would
29:20
do as much as I can to introduce her to people in this whole era.
29:24
There were just so many racers and then the future.
29:27
I really wanted to send the message that yes, we had a history, another Billie Jean
29:32
quote, if you don't know your history.
29:36
I really wanted the people that saw this exhibit to know that
29:40
there was a future out there.
29:41
When I first saw this, to share this with you, I thought, oh wow, that's cool.
29:46
I remember all those gals.
29:47
And then I went, oh dear, are any of them still racing?
29:50
And I got very sad.
29:52
There weren't many, but there were ten.
29:54
So 10 of those are continuing to race and still accomplishing something.
29:58
But at first, when I read it, I was like, Oh my God, that's not a very good story.
30:03
If you can't say that this exhibit launched at the Toronto International
30:06
Speedway in 2014 ran for five years.
30:10
And then eventually the panels got kind of beat up from up and
30:13
down, you know, and all that.
30:15
And then it went away.
30:16
So these were young drivers that were all over the country racing
30:20
in different forms of racing.
30:22
And the race car drivers, one of the things I try to explain to people, we're
30:26
the ambassadors, we're the messengers.
30:28
We're the people, we, meaning male, female, yeah, the stars, we're the people
30:32
that the media write about, that probably most of the research people refer to.
30:38
We are the messengers.
30:39
Well, there aren't enough women to be, as race car drivers, to show
30:43
the depth of what the talent pool that has been and is out there.
30:47
But what is really different now, which I'm loving, Is the fact that we now
30:51
have women engineers, we have women mechanics, you know, we have women that
30:54
are in all different, they've always been there, they've always been grid
30:58
marshals or marketing people, but it's a little bit more behind the scenes.
31:02
So we're now seeing more and more women in different areas, which led myself
31:07
and Beth Perretta, I don't know if you remember in 2000, when she had the female
31:13
forward team at the Indy 500, I read about it, knew about it, excited about it.
31:18
And at the Indy 500 that year, I walked down Pit Lane, which
31:21
is what I do every year to wish people that are still there that I
31:24
remember and all that the good luck.
31:26
And I walked down and I come upon her team and Simona, who I know is her
31:31
driver, Beth, who I do a little bit.
31:32
So, you know, okay, great.
31:33
We had a woman driver and a woman owner and I turned and here's
31:37
like eight gals all in their race suits ready to go over the wall.
31:42
The six of them are going to go over the wall.
31:44
I'm like that female presence, tears came to my eyes and I had a moment because I
31:50
said I never knew I never felt alone, but I never knew how alone I was because I
31:55
generally I was the only woman in a race suit ready to go to work essentially in
32:00
the race and I turned to Beth with those tears in my eyes and we hugged each other
32:05
and I said, I had no idea how alone I was.
32:07
I did.
32:07
I just never felt that way.
32:09
Now I realize I probably was.
32:11
She said, this is for all of us.
32:12
And I mean, that was all she could get out at that moment because she
32:15
was probably preoccupied getting ready to go lead the team for the N
32:18
500 when they did finish, actually.
32:20
With that, and it was right after, it was during COVID and, you know, COVID had hit.
32:24
And so we started having these Zoom calls with other people that we knew that we
32:28
thought were like minded, men and women.
32:31
We ended up having 40 people on our list combined.
32:34
We would meet every month and have a Zoom call and just talk about it.
32:38
What can we do?
32:39
What are you doing?
32:39
What do you see?
32:40
Just brainstorming.
32:42
And out of the result of that, you know, we got a lot going on here.
32:44
There's a lot of meat here.
32:46
We created women in motor sports, North America.
32:49
We now have a board.
32:50
We're two and a half years old.
32:51
This year will be fourth annual summit.
32:54
We actually had a summit before we existed, because we just got an
32:59
opportunity to pull some people together, and we had a great summit in Nashville at
33:02
a Honky Tonk bar before the IndyCar race.
33:05
And we had over 100 people there, and then we went on to Charlotte,
33:08
and we were at Phoenix last year, and we'll be in Indianapolis this year.
33:11
We'll have over 500 men and women gathered for two days to
33:15
talk about the opportunities, the challenges, the successes.
33:19
How do we get over the failures?
33:20
All of the discussions.
33:22
Crisis communication.
33:23
What do you do when the shit hits the fan?
33:25
All these different topics that are relevant to your career and to the sport.
33:30
See, we're a community to advance opportunities, to celebrate
33:33
the ones that are there.
33:35
And because it's a community doing it.
33:37
It's so cool, because it's not just Lynn trying to hammer everybody to, you
33:42
know, come on, you got to do something.
33:44
But because so many people are doing things, we've got Shift Up Now,
33:47
who's helping with the women drivers.
33:49
We've got Accelerate Her, that's helping in young NASCAR drivers.
33:53
We've got Jostens, who's supporting our, guess who came up with this name?
33:57
The SheRo Award.
33:59
We all have our heroes, but we need our SheRo's, and those are the
34:03
people that work above and beyond.
34:04
We want people to get a little trophy that says you've done a great job.
34:08
You know, we can't all get a promotion cause there's not as many layers.
34:11
Sometimes in motorsports, you have five different job titles, right?
34:14
Cause you work at motorsports and you can't always get a bonus.
34:17
But what about a nice trophy that says you've worked hard?
34:19
We really appreciate how hard you've worked.
34:21
So.
34:22
You know, we've just got different alliances with different racetracks.
34:25
If everybody does something that feels right for them, all ships rise.
34:29
We're only a little over two years old.
34:32
We've got a great executive director, Cindy Sisson, who's got
34:35
10 times more energy than I do.
34:36
And it's just been great ideas.
34:39
The community is working.
34:40
And so it's really this evolution.
34:43
This is our summit, our Women's Civic Drive.
34:45
Men and women, 20 percent at least of our attendees are men.
34:49
So this is not just us versus them.
34:51
It's not, we're living in that mantra, but there will always be that by the way.
34:56
I remember working with Raul Sanchez in the development of the
34:58
Miami Grand Prix downtown Miami.
35:00
I mean, when you're trying to do something different, there's those,
35:03
no way that's going to happen.
35:06
And there are those, come on, you know, come with us.
35:08
We'll replant that tree.
35:11
Sometimes it's that kind of stuff that gets in the way.
35:13
So this is our Women With Drive Summit.
35:15
And if you do all that, you create a new future with horsepower.
35:30
Lynn, that was really great.
35:32
Thank you so much.
35:33
I have a question.
35:33
I'd like to take you back to the 80s.
35:35
I'm just curious as to what it was like to drive for Jack Roush.
35:38
Oh, this is a story.
35:43
I met Jack before he got Ford as this big sponsor and I knew he was a
35:48
racer and I knew he loved his engines and I'm like, man, this is going to
35:52
be such a great team to work with.
35:54
And I was so excited.
35:55
It didn't work out that way.
35:57
I raced for Jack Roush, 83 off and on to 91.
36:00
I mean, I'm not going to go into one year I was somebody else and
36:03
all that, but most of those years.
36:04
Had most of my success, actually.
36:06
My wins.
36:07
But it was in spite of Jack.
36:09
So Jack, he was the toughest, meanest, treated drivers, but
36:14
me in particular, unfairly.
36:16
And so, I had to find a way to try to be successful.
36:20
I felt in spite of.
36:22
So, if you read my book, which is called An Incredible Journey,
36:25
I remember the publisher saying, Do you really want to say this?
36:28
I'm like, hey, it's the truth.
36:29
And so, I was not a fan of Jack Roush, even though I admired his passion, but
36:34
we just never could get on the same page.
36:36
I actually hired a basketball coach, the only coach I could find.
36:39
And I say this, and I honestly say this, that if I hadn't had that basketball
36:43
coach, you wouldn't be hearing from me, because I'd be in prison.
36:45
I would have killed the guy.
36:46
I was, I was that, I'm serious, I was that angry.
36:50
I mean, Leo Mill has the story where I actually, because Jack's a short
36:52
guy, I actually had him by the collar with his feet going like this, because
36:56
he wouldn't give me qualifying tires.
36:58
And so, you know, I just had a really, really tough time.
37:01
So, as I was preparing for my 50th, I really took a lot of time to reflect, and
37:08
I said, I can honestly say, and I will probably get the guts, maybe, because he's
37:13
still alive at some point, I might say this to his face, I have to thank Jack
37:16
Roush, because he made it so tough on me.
37:19
That it made me work harder, dig deeper, want it more.
37:23
That prepared me for the sustaining career and to stay in it long
37:27
enough that I got to do Indy.
37:28
And I got to go a whole frickin decade at Indy.
37:30
From 1992 to 2000.
37:32
And I mean even, and I got to work with a team owner who was a dream.
37:37
This guy believed in his drivers.
37:38
He gave every driver everything he could possibly have to make this so successful.
37:43
I had a completely It's a 180 degree experience.
37:47
I wouldn't have had that if I let Jack defeat me.
37:49
I mean, at one point, when Jack wouldn't let me in the car at 24
37:53
hours at Daytona, at 2 o'clock in the morning, I called my friend Don Courtney
37:56
in Miami and I said, I've had it.
37:58
I'm done.
37:59
I am calling a, I'm calling a press conference.
38:01
I'm going to, this is in 1987.
38:04
I'm going to retire from racing.
38:07
I'm going to retire from racing.
38:08
I am angry.
38:09
This man is, I just can't do it.
38:11
I can't deal with it.
38:12
And he goes, Lynn, are you going to let somebody.
38:14
Take and rob your passion.
38:16
Not only that, it's 2 o'clock in the morning.
38:18
And nobody cares.
38:19
Nobody's gonna show up.
38:20
Get some sleep.
38:22
Come in the first thing in the morning and get fixed.
38:24
And I did.
38:25
I ended up calling Lee Morris from Ford Motor Company.
38:27
And I said, I'll meet you at the track at 7.
38:29
If I don't get 4 hours in this car, I will not get credit for this race.
38:33
The 24 Hours of Daytona is the very first race of the season.
38:36
You're paying for the whole season?
38:37
You can't let this happen.
38:39
We had a meeting in Pitts.
38:41
I got four hours in.
38:43
Twelve hours from when I was going to retire from racing and call you a press
38:46
conference, I was on victory podium.
38:48
That was my first win at the 24 Hours of Daytona.
38:50
So, I mean, so Jack challenged every fiber of my body and brain
39:01
and I have to thank him now.
39:03
It took me literally until reflecting to get ready to realize how many people I
39:07
want to thank for being in this sport.
39:10
I have to thank him.
39:12
So, so was Dick Simon the best?
39:16
Oh my god, he was the best.
39:17
Okay.
39:18
Not just for me, but if you talk to Raul, you talk to, um, Ari Lyondon, you talk
39:22
to any driver that's ever raced for Dick.
39:24
He gave you everything, he, he didn't have everything to give you,
39:27
but everything he had he gave you.
39:29
You know, he didn't have the big money, the sponsors that a lot of the others had.
39:32
I mean, he's dope for putting two primary sponsors on the car.
39:35
He puts one of them on the outside of the car and the other on the inside.
39:38
Because at Indy He has all of his sponsors from that company
39:41
sitting outside the track, all the ones that are inside the track.
39:44
They all think they're the only sponsor.
39:45
I mean, the guy creates it all.
39:47
But he works with everything he can, yes.
39:49
Dick was the absolute best team.
39:52
That's great.
39:52
We have questions, I'm sure.
39:54
With the success of WNBA, Billie Jean King is like a hero of mine as well.
39:58
Oh my gosh.
39:59
Has there been discussion or a vision of just a women's only
40:04
NASCAR level race taking place where it's just women drivers?
40:07
I know that Chris is going to talk a little bit about it and probably know
40:10
about the W Series and now the F1 Academy.
40:12
But first of all, we have a blessing, wonderful story to tell an opportunity.
40:18
We, meaning motorsports, Not the only, but one of the very few.
40:21
Equestrian is the other, and sailing is the other.
40:24
Where women and men compete at an equal level.
40:27
And that, to me, represents society.
40:29
If we can actually get to the pinnacle, we don't have to just be the CEO of
40:33
Google, or the CEO of General Motors.
40:35
I mean, I know Mary Barra, and I respect her greatly.
40:38
But, if you're smart enough, and you hang in there long enough, you can become the
40:41
CEO of a company, right, if a female.
40:43
We have lots of demonstrations of that.
40:45
But if we could accomplish that in motorsports, we are going to send a
40:48
very powerful message about our sport.
40:50
And I am determined that that's going to happen.
40:52
But it isn't going to be happening by separating women.
40:55
Because then the whole story changes.
40:57
The whole opportunity changes.
40:59
It can't be a division and then conquer.
41:01
It's united and conquer.
41:02
But the sanctioning bodies, the racetracks, the OEMs, the tire companies,
41:07
the stakeholders in the sport need to Wake up and invest so that they
41:12
can support, have a proper ladder system, have a proper way of these
41:17
gals getting enough opportunities to be able to be as good as they could be
41:20
at 18 like the kids, you know, the guys and then putting them in the proper
41:24
team have teams who really wanted.
41:26
We've got a ways to go.
41:28
But that's where the effort needs to be made, not creating
41:30
a whole women's only thing.
41:32
Lynn, we've got one from the internet here.
41:34
It's actually a great clarifying question to what you were just talking about.
41:37
Terry Johnson writes, Your opinion on the former W Series that was
41:41
dominated by Jamie Chadwick, and should that be revived?
41:44
I happened to be there the year that they did the selection
41:47
process for the W Series.
41:48
So, you know, that was a bit of a hiccup for a lot of us women
41:52
drivers, because a lot of people want to know what we thought.
41:54
And, you know, there were days That I thought, oh, this is really terrible
41:57
because it's what I just answered, you know, it's going to separate it.
42:00
And then the other day, I was like, yeah, but it's an opportunity to put somebody
42:04
in a race car, in a really good race car.
42:06
So then when I went and actually got to, they had over 50
42:09
drivers try out for that series.
42:11
And I went to Austria and was part of the selection process.
42:14
And then when I saw how the series was launched and what they provided.
42:18
I mean, they provided physical trainers, they provided coaches,
42:21
they provided engineering support.
42:23
So it gave not only a chance to just race in a race car, but they were A, proper
42:28
race cars, and B, they learned all of the resources you really need to have
42:33
to be a professional race car driver.
42:34
So it was actually a very great experience that got out of hand
42:39
from a business standpoint.
42:41
It doesn't need to be resurrected because the F1 Academy is kind of replacing it.
42:45
And Susie, I know Susie, it used to be Susie Stoddard, now Susie Wolf, you
42:49
know, she's really going to run it as a business and try to make that work.
42:52
So I think it's serving a purpose.
42:54
Wouldn't be bad if we had something over here maybe, but I'm not sure
42:58
what category and I don't want, I haven't figured that out yet, so.
43:00
We don't need to replace it, or revive it.
43:02
It's got its own place.
43:04
One thing you did not have to deal with was the social media.
43:08
And the cruelty that can come the way of drivers and be a severe distraction.
43:14
So I'm just wondering, how would you advise young women now to put that out of
43:19
their heads when it's right in their face?
43:21
You're so right.
43:22
I'm so glad I didn't have to deal with it in my career.
43:25
It's part of the business now, so you have to understand it.
43:28
I go back to my being authentic.
43:30
Don't try to be to be something you're not.
43:32
Most of the top drivers have other people that manage their social media, which to a
43:37
certain degree is probably not a bad idea.
43:39
As long as you've got An authentic relationship with whoever's doing that.
43:43
And then I think the other fearful that I have is because so many of the drivers
43:47
are young, because our sport wants young.
43:50
I worry about the safety of them.
43:51
I mean, I had a stalker that ended up incarcerated.
43:54
I mean, it's frightening.
43:56
And that was before social media, you know.
43:58
So, when you have access like that, I advise them to have layers of protection,
44:03
whether it's parents or some other, but find layers of separation and protection.
44:07
And my bottom line is, ignore it.
44:10
Do not respond to the crap.
44:12
Don't let it affect you.
44:14
I didn't know like till I saw Willie T's movie, Uppity, that I
44:18
didn't know he had death threats.
44:19
Depending on how serious it can get, again, I had a sucker, but just ignore it.
44:23
Once you feed it.
44:25
By responding and or let it impact how you think about yourself.
44:28
If they're really a race car driver to me and they've got their butt in the
44:31
car and they believe in themselves as strongly as they need to, then they
44:35
shouldn't let anything penetrate that.
44:37
You know, and, and so I hope they have good family or good.
44:40
They all have coaches and trainers and managers.
44:42
I hope the people they surround them continues to instill the self-confidence
44:47
so that they can deflect all of that and not let it affect them.
44:51
Vicente from Spain asks, what has been the best racing car you have ever driven?
44:56
Oh, that's a toughie to say that I've ever driven.
44:59
Obviously this Ford GT was the best.
45:01
I mean, it had sequential power steering.
45:04
I could do 1, or 5 on the amount of power steering I wanted.
45:08
I never had power steering, you know.
45:09
It was like, it's the first race car I didn't have to
45:11
wrestle around the racetrack.
45:13
So, you know, I'd have to say that Ford GT was the sweetest
45:16
sports car that I've driven.
45:18
I also got to drive this.
45:20
1976 Chevron B39 Formula Atlantic car that I thought I'd died and gone to heaven.
45:25
I mean, it was the same car.
45:26
Fast little, you know, so I've had so many wonderful race cars.
45:29
I could not just pick one sports car.
45:31
There's the Indy cars There's the prototype cars.
45:34
I mean, there's just so many different categories that I can't just pick one
45:38
out of all of that That's like try to pick your favorite child or something.
45:41
You can't do that.
45:42
How about the most diabolical car you ever?
45:44
Oh, yeah, it was the Kelly American Challenge Mustang.
45:48
Oh, it was awful.
45:49
It was so funny I had to make a presentation in Sacramento at the auto
45:53
museum there, and they were so excited.
45:55
This owner has one of your old cars, and we brought it, it's on display.
45:58
It was like this big surprise.
45:59
They kept it under wraps.
46:00
And they opened it, and I'm like, oh my god, I hate that car.
46:05
And I couldn't react.
46:06
I mean, I had, oh, how nice, you know, inside.
46:08
I'm like, ugh.
46:10
And I went up, looked at it, and the guy was vintage racing it.
46:13
And I said, so how's it going?
46:15
You know.
46:16
Oh, it's pretty good.
46:16
And then he made a lot of changes and all that.
46:18
So that was.
46:19
It was my Kelly concert in 1982.
46:22
I was originally going to ask you about your thoughts on the women's series,
46:25
but obviously F1 Academy has kind of been the next step, I think, beyond
46:28
that for a lot of young female drivers.
46:31
Do you think that in the foreseeable future we may see a
46:34
woman seated back in an F1 car?
46:36
I hope so.
46:37
I can't predict that it will happen out of this.
46:40
I wish I could.
46:41
Because it's as much political as, and also my sense of my experience
46:45
and my sense of observing.
46:46
I'm a very good observer.
46:47
There's still a very strong anti.
46:49
Attitude over there.
46:50
There's anti american for one thing and then there's it's
46:52
just not as likely to happen.
46:54
I but I would hope so I mean the car Yeah, it is.
46:58
Well, it's it's just this elitist.
47:00
I'm gonna get myself in trouble here, but i'm authentic I am not a huge
47:03
formula one fan a race fan of formula one Because I love racing but i'm not
47:08
a fan of their elitist attitude about everything You know, everything is
47:11
more expensive ticket go into a race.
47:14
I remember when they came to indy And even though I had a frickin credential,
47:17
they have all these, they put all of these gates up and all of these fences
47:20
up, I'm like Hey, this is our turf here.
47:23
What are you doing?
47:24
Couldn't go in this garage.
47:25
You couldn't go here.
47:26
You have to go through these turnstiles.
47:28
When I talk to people from other cultures who say to me, you know,
47:32
there's fences around racetrack.
47:33
I never thought about this that they immediately feel excluded.
47:37
If they don't see a black person or a hispanic person or somebody even on the
47:41
other side of the fence, but the fact that there's a fence there, the message,
47:44
I mean, you have to have some, but in formula one, you add that with spades.
47:48
I mean, you just add it because it's 10 layers of and all the
47:51
different places you can't go.
47:52
And it's like, come on.
47:54
So I just have a, you know, an attitude about formula one.
47:57
And I don't know, I guess, yeah.
47:59
I just want a woman to win the Indy 500 and to win the NASCAR championship.
48:02
Sorry, you know, let the Formula One figure out their own issues,
48:05
but I'm more, that's doable.
48:07
And I think it's doable that we could have a woman, you know, literally win and be
48:11
in contention for the NASCAR championship.
48:13
We got to make a number of changes culturally, because we have to have teams
48:17
that really want to make that happen.
48:18
We don't yet.
48:19
The right teams, you know, like the existing strong, I'm working on Penske.
48:23
At the same time, and I definitely can see it happening in sports
48:26
cars, and I definitely can see it happening in Indy cars.
48:28
I just want to thank you for the important safety hint about fire
48:35
extinguishers in cars, for the one car.
48:37
Oh, yes, yes.
48:38
Well, that was required for all cars.
48:41
Those discouraging times when you went off track, what was it about
48:44
your personality that you didn't quit and that you got back on track?
48:49
Well, I mean, seriously, it was, the Pinto taught me this immediately, you know.
48:54
I mean, if anything was going to stop me in my tracks.
48:56
That would have been it.
48:57
I mean, it was so awful and laughable to everybody, as I said.
49:03
But my husband said, how bad do you want and how hard are you willing to work?
49:06
So, you know, the crash at Riverside probably caused.
49:10
the most concern for me because physically I walked away from it.
49:13
I mean, I had more injuries that I realized, but I thought that
49:16
was gonna end my career because I figured I hadn't seen the film yet.
49:19
You know, I mean, I just got hit out of nowhere and then I hit another car
49:22
and the next thing were three missiles.
49:24
I mean, it was like, what the shit happened?
49:25
I don't know what happened, you know, until I saw the footage and
49:27
men knew that it wasn't my fault.
49:29
But I thought, you know, I'm afraid, on the weak link, and maybe in the eyes of
49:33
others, that this could end my career.
49:35
And as it turned out, the exact opposite happened.
49:37
I was afraid Ford Motor Company would pull the sponsorship, because
49:40
there is a concern, and I get this, there is a concern for people who
49:45
make a decision to sponsor somebody.
49:47
That if somebody gets killed, or seriously injured, that they feel
49:50
a little sense of responsibility.
49:52
If it's a woman, there's, you know what, the world was built this way.
49:56
The world was built for you guys to protect us.
49:58
That's a cultural ingrained feeling that men have, and now
50:02
sometimes women have as mothers.
50:03
They have to get over that.
50:05
We know this.
50:05
We know we can die in a race car.
50:07
Otherwise you wouldn't let, balk at yourself in.
50:09
But there's that line of, how do we get over that?
50:12
And so when you've challenged that, then it's so easy for them to fall
50:17
back, the decision maker to fall back.
50:19
I don't want to go there again.
50:20
She walked away from that one, but maybe not the next.
50:23
And instead, the response from the executives I found out at
50:26
Ford Motor Company was she really does race just like the guys.
50:30
And that was like my fourth year racing for Ford, you know.
50:33
And yet, so it solidified their belief in me that because I'm tough enough.
50:37
And she didn't cry.
50:39
That was the other comment.
50:40
I'm like, you're kidding me.
50:42
But, you know, and then I came back for more, you know.
50:45
So, I mean, we have to dispel the myth, but not defy it because
50:49
it's ingrained in most of us.
50:50
But that's kind of.
50:51
Two years ago I oversaw a roundtable on women in motor sport and I floated
50:59
the idea of International Motor Racing Women's Hall of Fame at Whatcom Glen.
51:04
That's something I'd like to ask you to maybe bring back to Cindy
51:09
and see if that's maybe in the near future, but something that is
51:14
worthy of a discussion at some point because your traveling exhibit.
51:18
It's just a small piece of that very rich history and I think at some point
51:25
it's worth exploring the idea of a full hall of fame for women in racing,
51:30
both on the track and off the track.
51:32
Definitely worth considering.
51:33
I mean, I, I'm about inclusivity and, you know, and at the same
51:37
time, yeah, we'll talk about it.
51:40
Thank you for the idea though, for caring enough to bring it up.
51:42
First of all, I have to say thank you for allowing us to work with you so many
51:46
times over the last couple of years, and we're an ally of WMNA for sure.
51:49
But one of my favorite questions, every time we've gotten together, and I'm
51:52
not going to ask about Lamont, I'm not going to ask about this and that, it's a
51:54
one word question, and that is, Quatro.
51:59
Could you tell us a little bit about racing against Hurley and
52:01
Hans back in the days of Trans Am?
52:03
Oh, I was going to say, where are we going with that?
52:04
Um, Well, when you have
52:10
And you're racing against all wheel drive.
52:12
In other words, when you don't have all wheel drive, and you're
52:15
racing against all wheel drive.
52:16
And that's what we did for the season that Hanstuck and Hurley Haywood had
52:20
the Audi Quattros against us with our Big engines, lots of power, but we only
52:25
had two driving wheels rather than four.
52:28
It's just really frustrating because certain tracks we were okay, because we
52:32
wore horse like gear and we were fine.
52:34
The one that was the worst was New Jersey, you know, when we raced
52:37
around the stadium there in, uh, Meadowlands, Meadowlands, thank you.
52:41
You know, I still have memories and visions of that, where that car would
52:44
would be going places where we couldn't do it, you know, and it was just like,
52:48
how do you, how do you beat that?
52:49
There's times when you just have to, you know, bite your
52:52
lip and you got to deal with it.
52:53
So, and then obviously the officials took care of that and that didn't
52:57
go forward the next season.
52:58
So, it's just really hard.
52:59
I mean, I would not want to be a technical inspection person or somebody
53:03
writing the rules for, for trying.
53:05
I mean, I, I just bless, I can't understand John Doonan and his
53:08
team of how you can have 18 OEMs.
53:11
With all of these different technologies, and now with all of the advanced
53:14
technologies you're trying to deal with, and somehow put them on a racetrack and
53:18
make them at least somewhat equal, and then actually keep them in the game.
53:22
You know, it is incredibly challenging.
53:24
We are in a challenging time with all this technology.
53:27
All I can say is that I'm glad I drove when I drove, because we still
53:30
have shifts here, we're not doing this, we've got power steering that
53:33
works, I mean, but there's, I'm just glad I did what I did when I did.
53:36
You know, there's some things you just have to accept.
53:38
Somebody's got advantage, and sometimes you just have to accept it.
53:40
Suffer through the season and hope they fix that for, you know, the
53:43
next season and you can go racing.
53:45
But, but thank you for, for having me.
53:47
Um, thank you for doing this.
53:49
I didn't quite understand it completely, to be honest, until I've
53:52
now been able to, you know, there's nothing like actually being in the
53:56
space of when something is happening.
53:57
It's hard to read about it and understand it.
53:59
But I think we need to do deeper dives of our sport.
54:02
This is one way to do that.
54:04
Maybe get a way of getting that out to the world a little more and communicating it.
54:08
But.
54:08
You know, our sport has a great history.
54:10
It's changing more rapidly now than it probably ever has.
54:13
And I just think keep doing what you're doing and figure
54:16
out how to maybe do it better.
54:17
So thank you very much.
54:25
This episode is brought to you in part.
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