Janet Guthrie 1977 Lightning-Finished

[1961redlegs]

Here is my latest completion, Janet Guthrie's 1977 Lightning.

Janet Guthrie was an accomplished SCCA driver who was at the nadir of her career in 1976 driving a Toyota Celica when Rolla Vollstedt called. He wanted to enter a woman driver in the Indianapolis 500 and was told that Guthrie was the best driver to do that.

Guthrie ram some USAC races in 1976 and also ran some NASCAR races too. She entered the 500 but was unable to qualify, this was not an indictment on her skill but was in indictment on the car and her lack of experience at the speedway. She was a very talented driver but the car she was driving was on equal to her skill.

After failing to qualify she still ran NASCAR as well as some USAC races the rest of the year while preparing for 1977 when she would try for the 500 again. She came back to the Speedway in 1977 with the Lightning that I've built a replica of. She qualified on the second weekend on that Sunday posting the fastest time of the weekend, securely getting into the field spite and ominous rattling noise in the back of the car in the engine compartment. That rattling noise would have would have an ominous portent on race day.

On the day of the race the rattling she heard turned out to be a break at the stem the base of the intake valve, that put her out of the race after completing 24 laps where she was classified as finishing 31st in the final rundown. It was disappointing to be sure, but she'd achieved a great milestone. She was the first woman driver to qualify for and start the Indianapolis 500.

She continued to run USAC and NASCAR where she scored several top tens in NASCAR and finished ninth in the 1978 Indianapolis 500. She was one of the more important drivers ever at the speedway and if you ever have a chance I highly recommend her autobiography it is one of the best books I've ever read, certainly the best sporting memoir.

The kit was built from Kevin's latest release, which I also highly recommend. The kit was immaculate. The decals are Indycals and I painted the car Tamiya Pure White and Testor's Sublime Green. I believe this car turned out rather well if I do say so, thank you for looking.

[indycals]

Wow, that looks great!

[billj]

Nice one! I like the Lightning, very nice work on the car.

[sandysixtysfan]

Wow, great build of a great kit.

Sandy

[Patrick]

Very nice job! She was my daughter's hero when she was growing up and got to meet her at a SF Import Car show one year!

Patrick

[racerbrown]

well done!
a great tribute to a great racer.
duane

[clm1545]

It looks great, Jerry. Nice work.

[indy]

Very nice build and as always, excellently researched. I do enjoy the bit of history that you impart with the builds. It is nice to see Kevin back and that guys are building his very nice offerings.

Jordan

[kuzlynn]

Oct 13, 2014 21:01:09 GMT -5 clm1545 said:

It looks great, Jerry. Nice work.

NICE BUILD ,GREAT JOB JERRY! KEVIN.K

[Calvin]

Outstanding! Its always nice to see a resin kit that someone from our on group of friends produced, built right away....in this case Kevin's, I'm sure it makes him feel good to see such a nice build up!

[oldphotos]

When Janet started the Race her motor was fine as she had run on Carb day with no problems.
During the start or on the 1st lap she either missed a shift or over rev the engine and bent the valves and the rest is history.
I knew the 2 Gentleman that built the motors for the Vollstatdt Team and when she pitted on the 1st or 2nd lap
they knew what was wrong and said the motor was junk, But the sponsors Bryant Heating who had quite a few people in the stands behind the pit told these 2 gentleman to change something and fix it, so after numerous pit stops in which they had change the plugs, turbo, mag, and some other parts. they retired the car. They got a lot of TV time and exposer, so the sponsors were happy.
Thus end the day of the first woman to race in the 500 ended,
On a side note while working in the media back then Janet was very easy to talk during the month of May with all the pressure she was under.

Oldphotos
Walt

[billgtp]

Great work nice model.The history is good but you left out what A.J. said about her.

[INDY22IAM]

Very nice build. Very clean and sharp.
Got to sort of meet her once and got her autograph. I was ten or eleven years old at the time. We (my family Uncles and cousins) were trying to leave the track on one of the days of qualifying and the car battery was dead. The car was parked directly behind the tower back in those days and my father stepped out and waved to the first car coming by and lo and behold she stops and gets out and ask what the problem was and of course was graciously glad to help us. There was about 5 or 6 of us cousins in the car and when we saw who it was immediately jumped out of the car with autograph books in hand, attacked her like a pack of mad wolves. She signed away while also jumping our car with a very nice smile. She was all dressed up looking like she was going out to dinner. It was odd for us to see a driver out of uniform and all dressed up, she almost looked alien to us. I remember thinking she was not that nice looking on the other side of pit wall but boy she changed dramatically. It was almost like seeing Superman and knowing it was Clark Kent also. It was and always is a good story to talk and tell to this day.

[IndyCarModels]

Nice Work!

[1961redlegs]

Thanks for all the kind words as well as the stories and information in regard to the Janet Guthrie build!

I've always heard she was a nice person in addition to being a great driver. It was great that she helped jump start your car.

[Art Laski]

Great job on this one!

-Art

[indydog]

Great build, hopefully I'll get to mine soon.

Now, Lord knows I'm not one to question Michael or Kevin on their excellent work, but I have yet to see a period photo of Guthrie's Lightning that shows a black outline stripe.

Like so:


Either the strip is so small as to be invisible, or there isn't one.

[Calvin]

[indydog]

Ok... so that photo proves the stripe was there (excellent photo BTW), but it also shows that it was so small that I can just leave it off. You wouldn't be able to see it anyway.

Just how wide would it be in this scale?

[indy]

Mark, it would be hairline if done to scale. I don't think anyone would criticize a build here because it did not include it and with the explanation you've got, the guys here would support you building how you want. One thing that's pretty much been reinforced over time by the forum is that this is a hobby and a builder can build a car however they want.

Jordan

[jamesharvey]

This is a really nice build. All the photos, stories, and historical commentary make me relish those days. Was it easier to put together a package then than now? Is the racing any better today or is it all relative? When I read some of Dick Wallen's books and look at the size of the fields (18 cars)I wonder about the glory days.
Jim

[Calvin]

I would apply the black line decal as it makes your masking edge look nicer, without it would look rough.

[oldphotos]

The Glory Days and 18 car fields, AAA and later USAC had a rule that you could only start so many cars per the length of the race track. So on a 1 mile race track you could only start 18 cars so the fastest 18 made the race and the rest went home, If you look at some of the races from the 1950's some big name drivers went home. here is an example, Milwaukee 1954 DNQ. Jerry Hoyt in the Belanger, Tony Bettenhausen, Sam Hanks The Nat. Champion in 1953,Cal Niday, Eddie Sachs, Johnny Thomson, and along with 7 other drivers.
Later in the 50's they let 22 start on the paved tracks and you still had quite a few driver's go home.
It wasn't tell some time in the 70's you had promoters options to add cars to the field, so if a big name driver missed the show they could add him at the back of the field.

Oldphotos
Walt

[Deleted]

They had some dogs in the back, ask Ronnie Duman..............

[Deleted]

By the way, nice looking build. Why is the rear wing so low? I have not started on mine as of yet, but did get going on the 1980 Eagle.