Crisis in the Indianapolis 500, fewer and fewer women seek to participate

2023-05-26 21:08:01

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Katherine Legge recalls running for the second time in the Indianapolis 500 a decade ago and the sense of satisfaction she felt as she headed down Gasoline Alley knowing she wasn’t alone.

For the third time in four years there was a record four women on the 33-car grid.

“That was the Sarah Fisher era and then Danica Patrick came along and you know, Simona de Silvestro and I and I thought it would snowball and grow up,” Legge commented before taking a breather. “But it didn’t happen.”

Instead, Legge is the only female driver to start on Sunday.

The women’s movement that began with the rating of Janet Guthrie in 1977 gained traction with Lyn St. James in the 1980s and began to move forward with the arrival of Patrick in the 2000s, came to an abrupt halt. For 2020, not only were there no female drivers for the first time since 1999, but none even attempted to qualify for the first time since 1991.

De Silvestro kicked off the 2021 edition with an all-female team, Paretta Autosport. But last year there were no women and Legge struggled to qualify this year after crashing in practice. The 42-year-old Briton will start on the penultimate row in the 107th edition of the race and that she has had only nine women in more than a decade.

“It’s really bad, don’t you think,” Legge asked. “I thought there would be more. I mean, there are only nine of us who have ever done the Indy 500. I hope one day there will be nine on the grid.”

It doesn’t look like it will happen anytime soon.

But how did the momentum that began to emerge at Indianapolis Motor Speedway come to an abrupt halt?

At the lowest level, when the pilots are under the age of six, it is still fewer girls than boys who are subjected to intense harassment. Legge recalled that several times he was so bad that he thought of quitting.

At the highest level, drivers often must seek their own sponsorships to offset the funding required in the IndyCar program. This can be difficult in a male-dominated sport.

But give a woman a fast car and she can be just as good as the men.

“If you have good people, with good opportunities, it’s awesome,” Fisher said, “but you can’t force it because there are big risks in the sport.”