Savoy Automobile Museum, Cartersville (Georgia), USA
Until July 7, 2024
Women competed in motor racing events from the start, with the first note of female participation in the USA dating back to 1897 in a motorized tricycle race. This exhibition, organized in cooperation with the WIMNA (Women in Motorsports North America) association, highlights well-known or up-and-coming female drivers in the various categories of car racing in the United States. It runs from Shirley Muldowney, born in 1940 and pioneer in drag racing, 1st woman to obtain the license for the most powerful “top-fuel” machines in 1973), to Emily Arenas, 18 years old and the youngest of the show who races in Legend Cars.
Each of these drivers is represented by one of their racing cars. The exhibition features Shirley Muldowney’s “Last Pass” dragster, Erica Enders’ Junior Dragster with which she raced in her early days in the 1990s, Janet Guthrie’s Wildcat Texaco Star Indycar, the 1st woman to race in Indycar (and NASCAR), finishing 9th in the 1978 Indianapolis 500, Danica Patrick’s Panoz Indycar, 4th in the 2005 Indianapolis 500, the Sprint Car (a typical US category) with which Erin Crocker distinguished herself in the early 2000s, the Mazda MX-5 Cup of Sarah Montgomery’s debut which now races in GT on an Audi R8, Kristen Lingenfelter’s 2023 Corvette Z06 NCCC, and therefore for Emily Arenas, her Legend Cars. This racing category started in 1992 to allow more affordable access to motorsport, and has since spread to many countries.
WINMA and the Savoy Motor Museum have organised several events and talks around the exhibition, including the first screening of ‘Shirley’, the documentary about Shirley Muldowney and her outstanding career at the highest level of drag racing. Created in April 2022, WIMNA is a community of professionals, women and men, dedicated to supporting initiatives that allow women to access the different disciplines of motorsport.
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