AFTER TWO YEARS, WGGT IS NO MORE

By Al Mattei

Founder, TopOfTheCircle.com

As has been the case since 1999, a support race was held for the 2001 12 Hours of Sebring at the historic road course in Florida.

Predominantly white, identically prepared Panoz Esperantes streaked around the course, trying to be the first to the checkered flag once the clock wound down to zero.

But when the helmet came off the winner of this 2001 race, the countenance of the winner was not what fans of women in motor racing hoped it might have been.

You see, this was no longer the Women's Global GT Series; the support race was the opening event of the 2001 Panoz GT Series, and the winner was Brian Angen.

The WGGT, which had been run under the same rules as the Panoz series in 1999 and 2000, had been the highest level all-women's racing series in the world, bringing together stock, spec, road, and even watercraft racers together to compete.

But the WGGT wasn't even given a decent burial. Of the 20 drivers starting the race, four were female. Sure, that's more than just about all of the major racing circuits combined, but it is a setback nonetheless for women in racing.

The demise of the WGGT comes against the backdrop of little-known female race drivers, more of whom are succeeding in the major racing series.

Few know the story of Louise Smith, a Greenville, S.C., native, who won 38 races in modifieds, sportsman and late model cars in the 1940s and 50s.

Some may know about the likes of Janet Guthrie, who ran two Indianapolis 500s and entered a few stock car races in the late 1970s.

And even the most casual racing fan knows the legendary story of Shirley "Cha Cha" Muldowney, whose pink Top Fuel dragster was able to win three NHRA points championships in the 70s and 80s. Her story was told in the movie "Heart Like A Wheel."

In the 1980s and 1990s, however, the ranks of women in motorsport have swelled, especially in the quarter mile. Angelle Savoie (nee Seeling) has won the points championship in NHRA Pro Stock Bike. Cristen Powell won the prestigious NHRA Summernationals in 1997, and other women like Shelley Anderson, Rhonda Hartman-Smith, and Melanie Troxel have made a living in the nitro eliminator ranks.

Lyn St. James entered several Indy 500s in the 1990s after a successful stint racing prototype IMSA cars. Patty Moise and Tammy Jo Kirk had rides in NASCAR's Busch Grand National and Craftsman Truck Series, respectively.

More recently, Sarah Fisher has been attaining podium finishes for a well-funded team in the Indy Racing League, with rumors about sprint-car hotshoe Sarah Senske joining her.

In 2000, Shawna Robinson, the part-time Busch Grand National driver, ran a full ARCA schedule and planned to run the full BGN schedule in 2001. However, the plug was pulled on that effort to allow her to run a limited Winston Cup schedule in major markets.

The WGGT's failure, according to Panoz at the announcement, was that it was a racing series that could have been ahead of its time.

Perhaps, too, was the economics of racing. With no title sponsor for the series, limited sponsorship for each of the runners, and the complete domination of the smaller closed-circuit racing series by NASCAR, CART, and the IRL, it was clear that an all-female racing series would consistently be seen as something second-rate.

That is unfortunate, not only for the four women who decided to stay with the Panoz series, but for all the rest who found themselves without rides in 2001.

It is unfortunate for women like Divina Galica, who broke through the all-male barrier in European formula racing, even getting a look from two Formula I teams in the 1970s.

It is also unfortunate for women in amateur motorsports who may be looking for a way to get exposure in a league of their own. Perhaps it will come back in a form which will give the racers not only exposure, but credibility.

Big-time motorsports impresarios like Humpy Wheeler understand that female racers put fans in the seats. And, in a scenario in which NASCAR finds itself perhaps a little too extended when it comes to geographical reach, perhaps the opportunity will come soon.