Written by Poppy Evans, Edited by Vyas Ponnuri
Women have played an influential role throughout the history of motor racing. Many have taken to the wheels of motorsport machines, while numerous figures have worked tirelessly on the sidelines in various roles, shaping the motor racing world to the present day. Women Spotlight Wednesday aims to take a look at the tales of these superwomen, who have surpassed various hurdles to reach where they are today.
‘The fastest woman in racing’ was what they called record breaker Vicki Wood.
Wood and her husband Clarence, better known as Skeeter, went to a typical of those days, women's only, ‘powder puff’ race in 1953 Detroit. "The women in that race were so bad” she stated, until the following week when Skeeter announced, "Let's go to the races.”
To her surprise, Wood ended up jumping into a car, and immediately began her first race in which she qualified towards the bottom end of the group, stating that she “was terrible!”
The following evening the couple flew to Mount Clemens where Wood won the ‘powder puff’ race and a week later Vicki Wood won once again at Flat Rock. “It just kept on going well,” she explained.
Continuing to win races constantly, Vicki Wood was invited to race with the men — a first for the time in the mid-1900s. Wood aced this division proving she “was a better driver than half the men they had” and progressed to driving a Chrysler 300 at the Daytona Beach Speed Trials where she placed second out of over a hundred other cars.
The NASCAR time trials also witnessed history as Wood finished third out of thirty-four competitors making her known as “Lady Speedster.”
Racing for ten years until 1963, Vicki Wood set record after record! In a 1959 Pontiac, she set the female speed record of over 130mph. Wood also became the first woman to ever set a timed lap at the Daytona International Speedway, among more achievements she held.
Wood lived on until she was an astonishing one-hundred and one years old and decided to stop racing as too many of the male drivers hated to be beaten by a woman with one stating “If you’re going to keep on racing with us men, we’ll go on strike.”
Vicki Wood certainly proved to the world that racing was not just for men and that women can be just as good, if not better.
When asked what her favourite car to race was, Wood replied “The fastest one.”
Commentaires