There was Peggy Hart, Carol Cox and Shirley Shahan outrunning the boys out here in California. IIRC Cox and Shahan were NHRA National event winners. Not sure how much mechanical work they did but they showed that women could drive.
Rocky Stoner. Absolutely a stunner with deep red hair seen in vintage color 8mm home movies. She had a very unique, mischievous smile .
I’ve a related story. My folks friends Bobby and Gracie, Bobby had bought Gracie a warmed up car, I forget what it was. I don’t know if Gracie was a racer, but apparently had a lead foot. After some speeding tickets Bobby put something on the bottom of the gas pedal to limit the speed. Seems Gracie took the car to several shops in town, ran up a bunch of bills and none figured it out. I guess Bobby hit the ceiling when payments came due. He also said he took out what was under the pedal, said the tickets were cheaper than the shop bills. Your story reminded me of when Bobby told it to me a good 45-50 years ago.
when i first got into the hobby i thought a hotrod would be a chick magnet.... found out most wished i had a motorcycle... also found no one brings extra girls to a hotrod run...
You have to marry one if you find one! They are a very rare breed! I met my wife in auto body class as a junior in high school. She can weld, paint, tune, and drive just as good as I can if not better. I am blessed to be able to find her.
We'd be remiss if we didn't include Betty Skelton. Besides holding land speed records she also holds several aviation records. Betty Skelton - Wikipedia
THE OFFICIAL H.A.M.B. CAROL "BUNNY" BURKETT THREAD History - The Official H.A.M.B. Carol "Bunny" Burkett thread | The H.A.M.B. (jalopyjournal.com) Warning... Pictures of Mustangs in this thread.
She don't love me she loves my automobile...She will do anything just to slide behind the wheel. ZZ TOP
Good call mentioning Betty! She had all those opportunities to set records in Chevrolets because she was an employee of Campbell-Ewald, Chevy's ad agency at the time. Regardless, if she hadn't had the ability and nerve she could not have achieved all that she did.
Jeeeesh, has every body forgot about our very own gal, Denise Sheldon, the owner of "Big Olds?" She probably had as many miles on her Olds convert as our dearly missed Bob Klesig.
first on my list is sister Sharon, in little Durango CO, 1961. 3:00 AM phone call, its the police, my sis and 13 guys hauled into the station for drag racing on St Hwy 60, she made the papers! was a good running 55, shown in background of photo behind my 32 3W, me on left, cousin on right. Two other names are Karlina Robinson and Mikki Ross in the mid sixties ran oval tracks in SoCal, both excellent.
If this is a serious thread, I don't think some chick standing next to a car posing or holding a rag counts. It's kind of a slight to the women who actually did work on the cars and/or competed. It's as bad as photos of politicians in factories, there for the photo op.
Here's another hot rod lady. How about Rochester, NY's own Rosemary Gennuso who raced the heck out of her Corvette, then went to California, met Tom McMullen, raced his deuce roadster at Bonneville and was an all-around hot rod gal. Don't know what happened to her after she and Tom went their separate ways.
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