Name: IMRRC Closed: Juneteenth
Start: 2025-06-19T00:00:00-04:00
End: 2025-06-19T23:59:59-04:00
Location: International Motor Racing Research Center

Throughout its storied history, motorsports has been unwelcoming to women. Consequently, it has been necessary for female racers to develop unique strategies to enter what has long existed as an exclusive masculine enclave. While entry can be facilitated through a familial relationship with a male driver, women without such connections often get their start through participation in women-only racing events. Although these races have provided women with the opportunity to enter the track, they have not been without controversy. Detractors argue that women will not be considered legitimate racers unless they compete on the same track as men. Proponents view women-only racing not only as a way to attract more women into the sport, but also as an important source of skill development, support, and community building.

This paper investigates the evolution of women-only racing, from its early introduction as a media stunt, to its current incarnation as a proving ground for serious female open-wheel racers. Informed by archival resources and motorsport scholarship, it considers howwomen-only racing complicates, facilitates, and liberates women’s entry, participation, and recognition in the masculine world of motorsports.

This episode is sponsored in part by: The International Motor Racing Research Center (IMRRC), The Society of Automotive Historians (SAH), The Watkins Glen Area Chamber of Commerce, and the Argetsinger Family – and was recorded in front of a live studio audience. And has been Edited, Remastered and Produced in partnership with the Motoring Podcast Network.

Bio

A Motor City native, Chris Lezotte spent part of her past life writing car commercials. After exiting her advertising career, she pursued a master’s in Women’s and Gender Studies at Eastern Michigan University and was awarded a PhD in American Culture Studies from Bowling Green State University. Now working as an independent scholar, Chris continues her research focused on the relationship between women and cars in a variety of contexts, including women’s participation in traditionally masculine car cultures as well as representations of women and cars in popular culture. Her work has been included in popular culture, women’s studies, transportation history, media studies, masculinity studies, and automotive history journals. Chris’s first book, Power Under Her Foot: Women Enthusiasts of American Muscle Cars, was published in 2018.