No pictures, but a girl who was a year ahead of me in high school in the early seventies had a boy friend name Jimmie and he had the baddest 68 Chevelle on the street. 427 big block,4 speed and 430 or 456 gears. Anyway June who was the daughter of my church minister and she was 5 foot tall and barely weighed a 100 pound's. Weather it was at Great Lakes dragaway or on the street , she could out drive and out shift just about anyone. To the best of my knowledge if she lost it was because the car broke. Even when she got pregnant they put blocks on the pedals so she could reach then! She was the Ronnie Sox of Burlington Wi! lol Larry
Veda Orr. Don't know how modern this list can be but Shirley Muldowney (pic above), Kim LaHaie, Mendy Fry.
Here in Oregon we had Mid Barbour, who drove and raced this 35 Phaeton, built by Harry Eyerly. She raced Crosley powered Hydroplanes that Harry built as well.
Milwaukee Wisconsin, 1964, had neighbors that had a 62 Impala SS, 409 2x4s, 4 speed, street slicks, Red car, named "Night Train". This car was the king of street racing for a few years, they bought the car new and told me they paid for it from street race money. I participated in street racing (not at their level) and never saw that car loose and in 65 I moved, noticed they and car gone, was told they moved, sold car, decided to have a kid. She always drove the money races, he could not row the gears, Her name was Carol, all of #100, blonde, pretty cute and they were nice people. I did not know of any girl car clubs, see any girl hot rodders, did see some powder puff races at circle track racing. We had a girl in our HS, her Dad a hot rodder, owned a used car lot and she drove his modified Corvette 4 speed car, I had the fastest car in our HS, she did clean my clock one night street racing, she drove. shifted car perfect, drove by me like I was tied to a post. There have been several good women racers, today many up and coming young ladies in racing.
BARBARA HAMILTON, The first lady to be licensed by NHRA to drive a supercharged race car. Shirley Muldowney was #5.
I just finished reading Barb's book a couple of weeks ago. I watched her race back in the 60's at Quaker city Dragway. I was a big fan. Bill
Sadly, I found that women were never very interested in my hot rod...or any other part of me for that matter
I had a good friend who back in the mid 60's had a hot 65 catalina 2+2 421 4 speed car that he street raced and his wife raced it too. She would make him check it out on Friday afternoons so she could street race it that night. She didnt have any mechanic experience so he told her to keep the tach needle under the red line pointer. So this goes on for a year. She hits the streets 1 night while he is working after he had spent the day tuning and cleaning the car. He comes home and she is all upset. Seems she has been getting her butt beat and shes hot. Tells him he needs to do something because the cars running like crap. Saturday he checks it all out, runs the dual carbs, the timing, the valves and nothing. Cant find anything wrong. Takes it out and no problems running it. After 20 minutes af thrashing it he notices the tach redline needle is sitting at 2500 rpm. He goes home and asks her if thats where she was shifting? She replies hell yes cause he told her never go past the red pointer! He laughs readjusts the pointer and off she goes. He goes to work, comes home that night and she is all happy, she is winning again and gives him stern notice, next time he cleans the inside the car to make damn sure the red line needle is in the right place when he's done!!
Seems like Marcia Campbell would fit into this line-up. https://www.customcarchronicle.com/...collection/marcia-campbell-not-a-bettie-page/
This is a post my wife made a while back, I copied and pasted the text as not to add or delete anything. HRP
My dad used to tell a story about running into a hot rod lady at a rest stop (may have been a roadside diner) on his way to Florida back a few years (decades) ago....She had a drag car on a trailer with her name on it....Shirley---sumthin'?
The Jalopy Journal
