My wife, Mary Anne Butters, earned her SCCA National license in 1970. She
was a newspaper reporter for the Indianapolis Star at the time, and got
sponsored by Pepsi-Cola after a fortuitous interview with Pepsi's late
chairman's widow, actress Joan Crawford. Each Spring, Mary Anne had the
Indianapolis Motor Speedway as her beat. One Thursday, in late April, I
think, we were due to leave for a race and she had not yet passed her
physical. She was at the Speedway and legendary medical director Doc Hanna
offered to give her the physical. As she was sitting on the examining table
in the Speedway medical center, AJ Foyt burst in, having just had a minor
ontrack testing incident. Foyt, knowing Hanna and the Speedway medical
center did not service civilians, and sensitive to the speculation about a
woman driver in the race, jumped to the conclusion that she was there for a
500 race physical, and the XXXX hit the fan. This was probably in 1970, when
a woman, even a reporter, was not yet allowed in the pits, much less on the
race track. When we raced as a husband-wife team I listened to an endless
litany of excuses from guys when Mary Anne finished ahead of them, because
being beaten by a woman was still considered an unmanly experience.
Tom Butters
The Greens Fork Group
Creative Communications Services
765.886.5098
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