Lyn St. James Featured of the So Cal Car Scene Podcast
January 16, 2021Racer.com – ST. JAMES: Why National Girls and Women in Sport Day matters
February 4, 2021Racer.com featured columnist Lyn St. James detailed an exciting week in terms of women in various forms of motorsports.
The entire article can be found HERE, but is excerpted, in part, below:
On Tuesday, a press conference was held at Indianapolis Motor Speedway announcing the introduction of Paretta Autosport, a female-led IndyCar team set to debut at the 105th running of the Indianapolis 500 with veteran racer Simona de Silvestro in the cockpit powered by Chevrolet, and technical support provided by Team Penske.
The team is an extension of IndyCar and Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s Race for Equality & Change initiative announced last July. Paretta Autosport will integrate women into the team to ensure that it provides opportunities in all areas of the racing organization. While not able to announce further races, the intention is to develop the team to be able to run a full season in the future.
Beth Paretta (pictured above) has a long history as an automotive and motorsports executive, holding leadership roles at FCA’s (Fiat Chrysler Automobiles) SRT (Street and Racing Technology) where she was the first female executive to lead a performance brand and an OEM in motorsports. While she led FCA/SRT they earned three national championships: in 2012 the NASCAR Cup Series championships for Dodge with Team Penske, in 2014 the IMSA GTLM championships with the factory Viper GTS-R program and the Trans Am championship with the Dodge Challenger TA2. Prior to that she was Aston Martin’s East Coast operations manager, often calling on Penske Automotive.
In 2016 Beth announced the launch of Grace Autosport with the intention of campaigning an all-female team in the 2016 Indianapolis 500 with Katherine Legge as the driver. Although that program was never realized, she has had a long passion for education and focused Grace Autosport on STEM educational programs.
One thing I found noteworthy is how building positive, long-term relationships is critical to success. Having formed a relationship with Roger Penske enabled her to approach him after the announcement of the Race for Equality & Change initiative. This is a ground-breaking opportunity for tremendous growth in IndyCar racing as well as opening doors and creating opportunities for women to pursue a career in various areas of motorsports. This program checks all the boxes for success: experienced leadership, commitment to opportunities, and support from the top.
IMSA
Another important program was the announcement that IMSA championship-winning driver Christina Nielsen and multiple race-winning sports car and open wheel racer Katherine Legge will be joining forces with former Le Mans 24 Hour-winning Kiwi Earl Bamber and former Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge USA driver Rob Ferriol behind the wheel of Team Hardpoint EBM’s GTD class Porsche 911 GT3R for the IMSA 2021 Rolex 24 at Daytona.