JANET GUTHRIE - TYPED LETTER SIGNED 02/23/1982 - HFSID 253787

JANET GUTHRIE
In this signed letter, the racecar driver recounts her thoughts when she was racing in one of her first major races
TLS: "Janet Guthrie", 1p, 5x8. No place, February 23, 1982. To Alan Hunter, Indianapolis. In part: "To answer your question as to what was going through my head during my first 500, while the race is on, one has no time to think of anything but what's going on on the track. How to pass the car in front, how the track is changing, how the car's handling is changing, and so on. But I can tell you that the first time I qualified, back in '77, after taking the checkered flag I had that lap around back to the pits and I've never known such a glorious feeling. However, it didn't have as much to do with being the race driver that I am." In 1977, Janet Guthrie (b. 1938) became the first woman to compete in the Indianapolis 500 and the Daytona 500, in a competition where women had been banned from even the repair and the refueling pits as recently as 1971. She competed in IndyCar and NASCAR races from 1976-1980, racing in 33 NASCAR races over four years (1976-1978, 1980). Guthrie finished 9th in the Indianapolis 500 in 1978. She finished 6th at the Bristol Motor Speedway in 1977, a record for a female driver in NASCAR's top tier of competition. Guthrie now shares that record with Danica Patrick, who placed 6th in the 2014 Oral-B USA 500. Two years later, Guthrie was elected to the International Women's Sports Hall of Fame. Her autobiography, Janet Guthrie: A Life at Full Throttle, was published in 2005. While some of her racing records have been surpassed by other female racers, most notably Danica Patrick, Guthrie will be remembered as the female racecar driver who paved the way for other women in the future. Fine condition.