`PAR@ ` ╕TEXT ` ¬Guthrie, Janet1938╨automobile racerBorn on March 7, 1938, in Iowa City, Iowa, Janet Guthrie grew up there and in Miami, Florida. She was an adventurous child and at seventeen earned a pilot╒s license. After graduating from the University of Michigan in 1960 she worked as a research and development engineer for Republic Aviation for six years. During that time she was one of four women to qualify for the scientist-astronaut program of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration; she was subsequently disqualified when the Ph.D. degree was made a requirement. From 1962 she was an avid sports car enthusiast, and in 1963 she began racing regularly in her Jaguar XK 140. Over the next several years she enjoyed increasing success on the Sports Car Club of America circuit, winning several major races and placing well in many others, and in 1966 she gave up her full-time job and became a freelance technical editor in order to devote more time to racing. From that year to 1971 she was a member of an all-woman racing team sponsored by the Macmillan Ring-Free Oil Company. Later, under other sponsorships, Guthrie won, among others, the 1973 ╥B sedan╙ class North American road racing championship and the 1975 Vanderbilt Cup. Early in 1976 she was offered an opportunity to try out for the Indianapolis 500, the premiere American event for Formula One cars. A 15th-place finish in her first Formula One race, the Trenton 200 in May 1976, demonstrated her ability to handle the big cars. She failed to qualify for Indianapolis, however, and for the rest of 1976 and early 1977 she gained speedway experience in a series of top stock car races. She qualified in speed trials for the 1977 Indianapolis 500 and on May 29 became the first woman to participate in that race. Mechanical troubles forced her to retire from the race after 27 laps. In 1978 she again qualified and for the first time finished, placing ninth in the field despite the handicap of a broken wrist. She qualified for the Indianapolis 500 again in 1979 but was forced out of the race early by mechanical problems. Having overcome both skepticism and on occasion outright hostility, Guthrie established herself as an outstanding professional race driver. She was inducted into the Women's Sports Hall of Fame in 1980. Translating her driving experience into the business world, she became a highway safety consultant for the Metropolitan Insurance Company from 1980 to 1987. åstyl ` ! ¬ 5¬ 5¬ ' !I F 5¬ G !I link `
