Women-Led Team Paretta Autosport Follows in Janet Guthrie’s Footsteps at Indy 500
By Ken Reed
For the first time in in Indianapolis 500 history, a racing team made up of mostly women will participate in the race this year.
The Paretta Autosport team is comprised of about 70% women, including the driver, owner and crew. This new first in auto racing comes 44 years after Janet Guthrie became the first woman to race in the Indy 500.
Team owner Beth Paretta acknowledges and gives kudos to the women that came before her team.
“We stand on their shoulders,” says Paretta.
“There have been women that have been mechanics that had to hide the fact they were women, had to wear bandanas over their hair so that … people wouldn’t be heckling them.”
The Paretta Autosport team is part of Indy 500 track owner Roger Penske’s Race for Equality and Change initiative that launched last summer. It’s one of many efforts to make the speedway more diverse and inclusive.
It’s a terrific development for a sport that has long been one of the most sexist sectors in our society.
Guthrie knows that all too well.
“The general idea was women don’t have the strength, the endurance, the emotional stability, women are going to endanger our lives,” says Guthrie, reflecting on the atmosphere she experienced when she hit the starting line at the Indy 500 track in 1977. “And you could read that on the newspapers most every day.”
Guthrie recalls fans yelling “Get the (breasts) out of the pits!”
Paretta appreciates the hardships Guthrie and other women at the Indy 500 have had to endure but she’s focused on the present and future. She hopes her team inspires more women to get involved in motor sports.
“Racing is the only sport today that can be coed at the pro level and I think that’s a really amazing comment,” says Paretta. “Because if you look at everywhere else — business, industry, science sectors — life is coed.”
As Guthrie says about sports and life, “Doesn’t matter if you’re male or female. If you’re a pro, you’re a pro.”
Here’s a shout-out to Roger Penske for his equality initiative and another to Beth Paretta and her team for knocking down another barrier to equality.
— Ken Reed, Sports Policy Director, League of Fans

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"How We Can Save Sports" author Ken Reed appears on Fox & Friends to explain how there's "too much adult in youth sports."
Ken Reed appears on Mornings with Gail from KFKA Radio in Colorado to discuss bad parenting in youth athletics.
“Should College Athletes Be Paid?” Ken Reed on The Morning Show from Wisconsin Public Radio
Ken Reed appears on KGNU Community Radio in Colorado (at 02:30) to discuss equality in sports and Title IX.
Ken Reed appears on the Ralph Nader Radio Hour (at 38:35) to discuss his book The Sports Reformers: Working to Make the World of Sports a Better Place, and to talk about some current sports issues.
- Reed Appears on Ralph Nader Radio Hour League of Fans’ sports policy director, Ken Reed, Ralph Nader and the New York Times’ Tyler Kepner discussed a variety of sports issues on Nader’s radio show as well as Reed’s updated book, How We Can Save Sports: A Game Plan. Reed's book was released in paperback in February, and has a new introduction and several updated sections.
League of Fans is a sports reform project founded by Ralph Nader to fight for the higher principles of justice, fair play, equal opportunity and civil rights in sports; and to encourage safety and civic responsibility in sports industry and culture.
Vanderbilt Sport & Society - On The Ball with Andrew Maraniss with guest Ken Reed, Sports Policy Director for League of Fans and author of How We Can Save Sports: A Game Plan
Sports & Torts – Ken Reed, Sports Policy Director, League of Fans – at the American Museum of Tort Law
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