'I'm Really Pleased,' Says Janet Guthrie

MONDAY MAY 29 1978

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Janet Guthrie was hoping to finish twice as high as she did in Sunday’s Indianapolis 500-mile race, but she hardly was complaining.

Her eighth-place finish in her second Indy start finally may have quieted the cynics who questioned whether Janet or any other woman should be in the cockpit during the world’s richest auto race.

She even got equal billing this year when the drivers were told to start their engines. Mary Hulman, widow of the late Indianapolis Motor Speedway owner Tony Hulman, departed from her husband’s tradition with the order, “Lady and gentlemen, start your engines.”

“I’m really pleased,” the 40-year-old Guthrie told a throng of jubilant crew members and well-wishers after climbing out of her sleek, four-cylinder Wildcat racer. “I was shooting for the top five, but got the top 10 — and I’ll take it.”

It was 21 places better than her rookie run last year, when she spent more time in the pits than on the track. And it came despite a fractured wrist, a car too short for her 5-foot-9 frame and less than two months’ preparation time because no one would sponsor her until Texaco stepped in at the last minute. 

With her car operating flawlessly, Guthrie patiently moved up from 15th starting position, finally edging into the top 10 about three-quarters of the way through the race.

With one mechanic holding up chalkboard instructions to “Rev, eng. KEEP COOL BABY,” Guthrie made her last of eight pit stops while eventual winner Al Unser was on his 184th lap. As with each of her previous stops, her car was pushed away from pit row to an increasing swell of cheers from fans and satisified, 'thumbs-up' signs from her crew.

Besides the elated crew, a swarm of photographers, reporters and racing fraternity well-wishers mobbed her car on the apron. Among them was master car designer and builder George Bisnotti, who bulled through the crowd, grasped her hand in congratulation and exchanged kisses with her.

Bignotti, who sold Guthrie the car that veteran Wally Dallenbach drove on the U.S. Auto Club circuit last year, received a big share of Guthrie’s thanks.

Guthrie said her right wrist, which was wrapped in tape because of an injury suffered in a charity tennis match Friday, posed little problem except to force her to drive and shift gears mainly with her left.

“Next year. I’m making sure I’m going to have a longer car.’’ she added with a laugh of the racer’s tiny cockpit. “After a while, my right foot felt like it was standing on a hot poker.”

'WELL DONE, DAUGHTER,’ says Lain Guthrie to his daughter Janet in Gasoline Alley at the conclusion of the Indianapolis 500. Certainly congratulations were in order for the alumna of Michigan and not only because she was the first woman to finish the race. - She finished eighth and that’s most commendable.