Indy & Icons: Amelia Earhart; Mann Continues Female Firsts in 2011

Lady Lindy, for a day, was Lady Indy.

Long before the first woman competed (Janet Gunthrie) and the first woman led laps (Danica Patrick) at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, there was another female first.

In 1935, just two years before her premature death, aviatrix pioneer Amelia Earhart became the first woman to receive an official position in the Indianapolis 500 when she served as the first female honorary referee.

Held on a Thursday that year, Earhart was escorted onto the track on May 30 by IMS President Eddie Rickenbacker (whom himself had served as honorary referee in 1919--almost a decade before he became the Speedway's president).

From 1911 until 1966 when the position was discontinued, Amelia Earhart was the only woman to be given an officiating position in The Greatest Spectacle in Racing.

It's hard to imagine that Rickenbacker had difficulty in enticing and convincing Earhart to participate in the Indianapolis 500. Not only were the two friends, both having attended Cleveland's National Air Race of 1929, but Rickenbacker was a well-respected and distinguished fighter pilot in World War I. Moreover, Earhart herself had an insatiable and well-documented appetite for adventure and attempting to shatter world speed records; surely she would have related to the all-American 33 entry field.

A lifelong aficionado of fast cars, Earhart would certainly have been able to sympathize with and relate to the off-track pressures facing today's IZOD IndyCar drivers. With guidance and assistance from her husband, wealthy publishing magnate George P. Putnam, Earhart became promotion and media savvy lining up speaking engagements, magazine columns, endorsements and sponsorship--all aimed at generating and financing her flying opportunities--and in the process, making her one of America's first cultural icons.

Such was the magnitude of her celebrity and exposure, that for those who would contest her aviation credentials (and such a case could be made), she easily could have been considered the Anna Kournikova or Danica Patrick of her time.

Sadly, Amelia Earhart would preside over one of the deadliest Indianapolis 500s. Despite the introduction of crash helmets and yellow/green lights as safety improvements, four men would perish (three drivers and one mechanic), before Kelly Petillo made his way to 1st from 22nd with a top speed of 115.095 mph. Two deaths occurred during qualifications when, on different stints, both cars jumped the retaining wall. The fourth fatality occurred on race day during the ninth lap.

The following year, IMS would institute its Rookie Orientation Program ("ROP") which continues to present day. Beginning on May 12, 2011, seven rookies representing six teams will participate in the 2011 ROP: JR Hildebrand (USA), Ho-Ping Tung (CHIN), James Jake (ENG), Scott Speed (USA), Pippa Mann (ENG), Charlie Kimball (USA) and James Hinchcliffe (CAN).

The Rickenbacker era began in 1927 when he purchased the 2.5 mile track from one its first co-owners, Carl Fisher. Hindered by the Great Depression in being able to make track improvements, it was also during Rickenbacker's reign that the Speedway's gates were locked and the Indianapolis 500 was not held from 1942-1945 because of World War II. Unlike in World War I, automobile racing was significantly and negatively impacted, in part, due to gas rationing. Aside from occasionally being used as unofficial military base during this time, the track was left abandoned and a state of great disrepair ensued.

In 1945 Rickenbacker sold the then-desolate track to Anton Hulman, Jr., whose family continues to control the most famous track in American motorsports.

Mann Continues Female Firsts in 2011

On May 29, 2011 there will be another first for women and The Brickyard when Pippa Mann, driving the No. 36 entry for Conquest racing, becomes the first British woman to race in the Indianapolis 500.

In May 2010, the London-born Mann became the first woman polesitter at IMS as a driver in the Firestone Indy Light Series.

Robyn Lynne Schechter