In honor of this year’s Indy 500, the first to feature three female drivers, Onion Sports looks at some other great moments for women in motorsports history:
1920–1940: Women get their start in racing by souping up their stock cars to run bootleg Cosmopolitans, Sex-on-the-Beaches, and Malibu and Diet Cokes across state lines
1977: Lella Lombardi becomes the first female driver in history to compete in both NASCAR and Formula 1, and also the first to have her tires slashed by both Dale Earnhardt and Gilles Villeneuve
1978: Janet Guthrie finishes ninth in the Indy 500, finally proving to the world that women can do anything Steve Krisiloff can do
1982: Robin McCall finishes a race a Michigan Speedway in a completely professional manner, without succumbing to any female stereotypes whatsoever, then gracefully retires from the sport without incident
1984: Motorcycle road-racing champion and Tourist Trophy winner Mike Duff undergoes a sex change and becomes Michelle Ann Duff, giving motorcycle racing its first-ever female star
1992: Kelly Sutton, who suffers from multiple sclerosis, becomes the only driver in the Craftsman Truck series to race with the handicap of being a woman
1997: Sharon Reiss finally beats Leslie Halfhill in their daily race to see who can get their kids to school first
1999: Millions of male fans fall instantly and deeply in love with Sarah Fisher the first time she steps out of her car, removes her helmet, and shakes out her gorgeously long honey-blonde hair in slow motion
2000: Lyn St. James starts the Indy 500 in next-to-last place and eventually finishes in next-to-last place in what motorsports aficionados agree is the most appropriate performance ever by a woman driver
2005: Danica Patrick becomes the first woman ever to lead the Indy 500; afterwards, Patrick is praised throughout the racing community for not embarrassing everybody by getting lost, causing an accident, or winning
