I am reading a book that is one of the best written books on motor racing
I've read, and I've read a lot of them. It is the autobiography "Janet
Guthrie - A Life at Full Throttle". I'm not finished but I can hardly put
it down. As you no doubt know, Janet started as an SCCA racer, ran Sebring,
etc etc, and was the first woman to seriously drive an Indy car. I've just
finished reading the part devoted to getting the call from Rolla Volstedt,
getting started, and coping with overcoming the feelings against women in
the early 70's. It gives some revealing insight into what it was like at
Indy in the late 70's.
Janet is a superb writer (excellent education, MS in Physics from Michigan)
and is truly a class act. She built and maintained the cars she drove in
SCCA racing, including overhauling a Jaguar engine in the dead of winter
and building the roll cage in her Toyota -- which, by the way, still
exists, in show quality, and is raced in vintage events in the Midwest.
At 09:25 AM 5/26/2005, Larry Daniels wrote:
>Fellow sports car and race car fans,
>
>I'm really bummed today. One of my very best friends just moved away. He is a
>Professor of American Culture, an author and a lecturer. He accepted a job at
>Indiana University teaching and editing a journal for professional historians.
>
>While we were saying our good-byes yesterday afternoon, he was quizzing me
>about any books I know of about the culture of the Indy 500. Not the cars, the
>track, the teams, etc. -- all the stuff we are interested in -- but the
>culture of the people attending and the event itself.
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