Janet Guthrie on ESPN

Check out this ESPN interview with Janet Guthrie, who really walked through a wall of sh*t just to race in the Indy 500. Janet is 100% class.

Comments

[My Name Is IRL]

Great find, 'dog. Janet is clearly a person of great intelligence and composure, but I can't help but wonder if she doesn't get tired/annoyed/homicidal at being exclusively asked questions about "girl" drivers.

Also, I feel badly every time I see the footage of her making the race where some excited idiot is trying to put that freaking Gilligan-style hat on her. Sheesh, where's the dignity in that?

[pressdog]

Yeah, I never understood the hat.

[rj]

"Janet is 100% class."

So is this story told to me by a fan at the time false?

-Guthrie is having trouble getting in the race.
-A.J. Foyt tells his crew to "put an engine in her car".
-Guthrie qualifies and later badmouths A.J. for his treatment of women."
-A.J. Foyt tells his crew to "get my engine out of her car".

[Janet Guthrie]

The story posted by rj is fiction. A. J. didn't lend me an engine, he lent me a car. On the last day of qualifying at Indianapolis in 1976, A.J. let me take his backup car out in practice, and I easily posted a time fast enough to make the field. Over the course of the afternoon, he decided not to let me make a qualifying attempt with it. However, the speed I posted in his car made a difference in how I was perceived, and far from badmouthing him, I expressed my appreciation. Full account in my book, "A Life at Full Throttle."

[pressdog]

If you really are Janet Guthrie and you really did just posted a comment on my blog ... my life is pretty much complete. (Insert me breathing into a small paper bag here.)