Women’s Power

24. August 2009In the motor sport business women are something of a rarity – at least at the wheel. For more than a year now there are speculations about Danica Patrick – the winner in the IndyCar Series – joining the Formula One, but it never went beyond pure guesswork. The American racer would be the third women competing in the Formula One after the two Italians Maria-Teresa de Filipis, who took part in 3 races in 1958, and Lella Lombardi, who started in 12 races in 1975 and 1976 and, by gaining half a point, managed to go down in the annals of the point scorers.
At present there is only one female driver in the FIA European Truck Racing Championship, the Frenchwoman Jennifer Janiec who – although she is not on the FIA list – participates in most of the races as race-by-race pilot and will also take part in Most; but some years ago it was a bit different.
In the mid-nineties Reinhilde Braun from Germany, quite a petite woman, held her own in her Mercedes truck in the RaceTruck series; and Minna Kuoppala from Finland outpaced many of her male rivals in the SuperRaceTruck races. In 1996 there was women’s power in full force for some time, with Ms Braun as team boss and Ms Kuoppala as pilot (see also “New Mercedes RaceTruck, dated July 20, 2009).
Later on the truck racers had yet another front woman, Ellen Lohr from Mönchengladbach / Germany, who – prior to driving race trucks and also afterwards – proved in many other motorsport series, too, that you don’t necessarily have to be a ‘muscle man’ in order to command up to 1,500 HP excellently.
Outside of the cockpit the number of leading women was and is a bit larger, e.g. Séline Hellmonds, who almost ten years ago had her own SuperRaceTruck team and later became team boss for Buggyra. Or Silvia Lenz, who is manager of her husband Heinz-Werner and their son Sascha, who both are truck racing pilots.
And also in the Lenz Team there is the only female mechanic, Steffi Seifert – and she has been working for the team for more than a decade.
And also the Team Hahn Racing has been managed by a female boss for several years now. But for a long time there was no lady in the cockpit, until some time ago Jennifer Janiec followed in the footsteps of her elder brother, Anthony, and switched from the relatively small formula and touring car racers to the large 5.5 ton truck.
Although the Frenchwoman could not yet replicate the successes of her female predecessors, she can be sure to capture the attention of the fans especially in the truck racing paddocks which are open to the public. And also in the media and at PR events the focus is always on Jennifer. After all, a woman in a RaceTruck is still a rare sight.