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Cobra’s Celebrate 60 Years of Performance at Pebble Beach

May 15, 2025

One of the most intimidating cars of its era, the Shelby Cobra 427, marks its 60th Anniversary this year. Named for the 427-cubic-inch Ford engine that powered it to dominate SCCA racing and set a performance benchmark that stood for years, the “big block Cobra” earned iconic status from the day it was introduced.

To celebrate this anniversary, a Shelby Cobra class will take to the show field at this year’s Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, honoring the model’s legacy of speed, design and evolutionary performance.

“Carroll had a strong personal connection to Pebble Beach, racing and winning here in the 1950s and later sharing his cars at the Concours, so we are honored to feature his Cobras this year,” said Concours Chairman Sandra Button. “The design, performance, and historic wins of these iconic race cars highlight the legendary pairing of Carroll and Shelby American with AC Cars and Ford Motor Company.”

Carroll Shelby, an automotive legend, is popularly known for his groundbreaking work with high-performance sports cars, such as the Le Mans-winning Ford GT40, but he first made his mark as a race driver, winning numerous races, including the last Pebble Beach Road Race, triumphing at Le Mans and competing in Formula 1.

The Shelby Cobra came into being in 1962, pairing an AC Ace chassis with a Ford 260-cubic-inch V8 that was replaced by the larger 289 engine. The ultimate iteration, the Shelby Cobra 427 — with a new chassis, coil suspension, and powerful 427-cubic-inch engine — was introduced in 1965.

“Ford’s ‘Total Performance’ era of the 1960s was epic, equaled only today with the company’s global motorsport program,” stated Edsel B. Ford II. “Carroll Shelby was vital to our dominance in the sixties and his 427 Cobra put an exclamation point on that success! I am delighted that these iconic cars will be celebrated on this anniversary year.”

Four versions of the 427 Cobra were produced and will be showcased — “Comp” (competition), S/C (semi-competition), Street and Narrow Hip — in addition to the first production and last production Cobras.

“The Shelby Cobra remains an automotive icon even 60 years after its introduction,” said Aaron Shelby, grandson of Carroll Shelby and board member of Carroll Shelby International. “Few cars have achieved the fame and staying power of the Shelby Cobra. Not only does it represent performance, this sportscar represents American ingenuity! Simple but effective, it was created with grit and determination.”

The Cobras are coming… The Cobras are coming… to Pebble!

1962 Shelby Cobra 289 First Production Roadster

This is the first Shelby Cobra Production Roadster to be sold to a customer. It stands as the only Cobra to compete in the Tour de France Automobile. It was initially powered by the 260-cubic-inch engine and later fitted with the more powerful 289 engine.
1966 Shelby Cobra 427 Narrow Hip Roadster

Known for its rare design and powerful engine, the 1966 Shelby Cobra 427 Narrow Hip Roadster features a narrower track version of the Shelby Cobra. This Cobra is one of just 32 “Narrow Hip” 427 Cobras produced by Shelby American and is one of only ten that remain in original unmodified configuration.
1966 Shelby Cobra 427 Competition Roadster

This 1966 Shelby Cobra 427 Competition Roadster raced in Sports Car Club of America events at famous tracks including Meadowdale, Wilmont Hills, and Road America. It retains all of its original components including drivetrain, body, and chassis.
1966 Shelby Cobra 427 Roadster

This road-going 1966 Shelby Cobra is recognized as one of the most authentic 427 street Cobras, complete with original components throughout.
1967 Shelby Cobra 427 S/C Roadster

This 1967 Shelby Cobra 427 S/C Roadster is one of just 29 original S/C versions–one of the most revered Cobra models of all time.
1967 Shelby Cobra 427 Roadster

This 1967 Roadster was the last Shelby Cobra 427 built. It has been restored using all its original components including hardware, wiring, vinyl, leather and more.

This small yet significant display of Shelby Cobras will celebrate the automotive vision of Carroll Shelby highlighting the key elements behind the legacy of the Shelby Cobra 427 and its transformative impact on the world of motorsports, a legacy that continues to be celebrated.

About Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance

First conducted in 1950, Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance® has grown to be the world’s premier celebration of the automobile. Only the most beautiful and historic cars are invited to appear on the famed 18th fairway of Pebble Beach Golf Links®, and connoisseurs of art and style gather to admire these masterpieces. Charitable donations raised by Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance® now total over $41 million.

Related events include Pebble Beach Tour d’Elegance® presented by Rolex, Pebble Beach RetroAuto™, Pebble Beach Classic Car Forum™ presented by Alliant Private Client, and Pebble Beach® Auctions presented by Gooding Christie’s. Pebble Beach®, Pebble Beach Golf Links®, Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance®, Pebble Beach Tour d’Elegance®, Pebble Beach RetroAuto™, Pebble Beach Classic Car Forum™, and Pebble Beach® Automotive Week are trademarks, service marks and trade dress of Pebble Beach Company. All rights reserved. For more information, please call 831-622-1700 or visit pebblebeachconcours.net.

Thanks for stopping by!

Don Weberg - Editor-Publisher-Founder, Garage Style Magazine

Adrian Fernandez: From Mexico to Le Mans – A Legend’s Journey

Gran T

May 13, 2025

Adrian Fernandez: From Mexico to Le Mans – A Legend’s Journey

Evening with a Legend is a series dedicated to the icons of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, bringing their stories to life for fans around the world. In this episode, we sit down with Adrian Fernandez, a trailblazer whose path from Mexico to the podiums of Le Mans is as inspiring as it is improbable.

Adrian’s racing journey began in 1981 at age 15, sharing a Volkswagen Beetle with his uncles in the 24 Hours of Mexico. That grassroots start ignited a fire that would carry him through karting, Indy Lights, and eventually a decade in IndyCar. But the dream was always bigger. “Every time time I reached a goal, a new dream appeared,” Adrian recalls.

Tune in everywhere you stream, download or listen!

Determined to break into Formula One, Adrian moved to Europe in the late ’80s. With no sponsorship and limited resources, he worked as a mechanic and instructor at Brands Hatch, even sleeping in train stations and smuggling himself across borders to stay in the racing game. “I gave everything I had. I lived in a mechanic’s house, worked jobs, and hid in trailers to cross borders. That’s the kind of life I had – and I still made it.”

Photo courtesy Wikipedia; by Nate Grigg – Racing 194

His time in England, racing at Silverstone, Donington, and other legendary circuits, laid the foundation for his technical mastery and eventual team ownership.

Synopsis

This episode of Evening with a Legend features racing driver Adrian Fernandez. The focus is on Adrian’s experiences at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, where he made notable appearances from 2007 to 2012. The discussion begins with Adrian’s early career in Mexico, his progression through IndyCar in the United States, and his eventual transition to endurance racing. Insights include Adrian’s meticulous preparation for Le Mans, his adaptation to different racing categories, and the challenges of night driving in GT cars. The conversation also covers the broader impact of Le Mans on Adrian’s career, his post-racing involvement in motorsports, and advice for aspiring drivers. The script concludes with reflections on the evolution of motorsport safety and Adrian’s current life focused on family and personal enjoyment.

You started racing in Mexico in 1981 at the age of 15, then quickly moved up and spent 10 years stateside racing in CART/INDY CAR, building up your skills and reputation. Talk to us about how you got to LeMans in 2007. How was the deal put together?
Let’s talk in more detail about 2007; You’re the first LMP2 driver who’s joined us for EWAL, can you talk to us about those cars? How do they compare to others you’ve driven at Le Mans. Some people view LMP2 as “the Spec Class” – do you feel that way as well? Does that make the racing more fun?
2010 – Back again at Lemans, this time in the LMP1 Aston Martin; how did this attempt compare to 2007?
2011 – Luck did not favor Adrián in 2011, when his LMP1 Aston Martin AMR-One could barely complete two laps during testing. What happened?
And your final attempt in 2012, a bit of vindication for the 2011 false start? But this time you were in a GT (production) class car. What was it like running among the LMP1/2 cars?
Any advice for aspiring Latino drivers that want to make a career in professional racing?

Transcript

Crew Chief Brad: [00:00:00] Evening with a Legend is a series of presentations exclusive to Legends of the Famous 24 Hours of Le Mans, giving us an opportunity to bring a piece of Le Mans to you. By sharing stories and highlights of the big event, you get a chance to become part of the legend of Le Mans, with guests from different eras of over 100 years of racing.

Crew Chief Eric: Tonight, we have the opportunity to bring a piece of Lamar to you, sharing in the legend of Lamar with guests from different eras of over 100 years of racing. And as your host, I’m delighted to introduce Adrian Fernandez. In 2007, Adrian made his debut at Le Mans, taking home a second place in a V8 powered LMP2 prototype.

This was the first podium for a Mexican driver at the Circuit de la Sarthe since the 1960s. [00:01:00] Three years later, in 2010, Adrian found himself back at Le Mans, this time behind the wheel of Aston Martin’s LMP1, finishing fifth in class, sixth overall. Returning for the 80th running of Le Mans 2012, Adrian and Aston Martin took home a third place finish in the GTE Pro class, covering 322 laps without failures or problems.

And with Adrian’s help, the team achieved the fastest lap in their class of 3 minutes 54. 928. At that point, Adrian had the distinct honor of driving the Aston Martin to the checkered flag, and on September 12th of 2012, he announced his retirement from racing, thus concluding his relationship with Aston Martin.

But that wasn’t the end of his involvement in the world of motorsports. And with that, I’m your host, Crew Chief Eric from the Motoring Podcast Network, welcoming everyone to this evening with a legend. Adrian, welcome to the show.

Adrian Fernandez: Thank you. How are you, Eric?

Crew Chief Eric: Great. I’m glad you’re here. Let’s go back in time a little bit and talk about your road to Le Mans.

You started racing in Mexico in 1981 around the age of [00:02:00] 15, and you quickly moved up and spent 10 years or so racing stateside in kart and IndyCar, building up your skills and your reputation. So talk us through how that all led you to Le Mans. Was that a goal of yours to race at Le Mans? How was the deal put together?

Adrian Fernandez: I started in the 24 hours of Mexico. You know, that was my first race, 24 hours of Mexico in a Volkswagen Beetle with my uncles sharing the car. So my whole career went through basically every time I managed to get where I wanted to be like certain steps, then, you know, new dreams, new goals. Came to be able to make it.

So first for me was to raise formula one and, uh, at some stage, because I didn’t have the age, I started racing at 19 years old. So it was not the right age when I was there in Europe. So then IndyCar was more like the right fit for that. And so I moved to IndyCars in 93, 92, I did Indy lights. And in IndyCar, I stayed there all the way through until the [00:03:00] separation of Kart and Tony George.

And then I went to IRL, did the 2004 full season. Some of my sponsors, they didn’t really want to continue there. So at that point, really was. I was just searching to see what else I would do. I still had my own team with my partner, Tom Anderson. So we continued to do the IRL. And at a certain point, we decided to go with Honda to do the, uh, Ford Karts.

First with the Grand Am in 2006. And then in 2007, basically we started this program with the, uh, the American Amount Series with the LMP2, we work on the development of the engine and all that stuff. And basically that was my introduction to sport cars, to endurance series and, uh, 12 hours of searing and six hours of the glen, et cetera, et cetera.

So that’s really how I got to sport cars in that respect.

Crew Chief Eric: So you mentioned that you had raced in Europe earlier in your career, especially when you were doing open wheel and looking to get into formula one, where had you turned [00:04:00] laps in Europe?

Adrian Fernandez: As soon as I realized that I did everything I could in Mexico, I realized that I was not going to go anywhere.

If I stay in Mexico, you know, I have achieved everything I wanted to do, and I felt that I was stuck. So really I wanted to go the road to formula one and we had the Grand Prix at the time, but we didn’t have Mexican drivers. So I say, you know, this is the perfect opportunity. But there was no help, no sponsorship.

I mean, as big as it is now in Mexico, in that time, there was nothing. I was actually the first guy after the Rodríguez and a few guys that tried, but didn’t make it to the top and consistently stay there. I was the first guy to actually just dig my way through it, try to make it in racing in Europe. But I couldn’t get the sponsorship where I didn’t, I couldn’t even find 5, 000, 10, 000 in Europe.

I mean, I couldn’t, I was working as a mechanic. I was an instructor in Brown’s Hatch with Jeff Brabham and other good friends from England, when I didn’t find the money to race in formula four, I was already committed with a mechanic to do everything. I gave him all my savings. And [00:05:00] when the sponsorship was going to give me the other part of it, he’d say, well, sorry, I cannot help you.

I said, now I’m stuck. I’m living in the house of the mechanic that is going to work with me. He’s going to do the team for me and everything. And now I have no money. So I asked my dad, what do I do? And also come back home. You know, what are you doing? You’re crazy, you know, blah, blah, blah. So I thought about it and I said, no, I’m not coming home.

So I found a job. I found my job in Poland, but I have no money. I went through France and I didn’t have the visa. So I have to return. I have no money. I had to sleep three nights in the train station. before we crossed this time over through Belgium. And at that time I convinced the driver to keep me in the box, you know, in the trailer.

I hid for four hours and two boxes so I can go through it with no checkups. So I smuggled in two there because I didn’t want That’s the type of life that I had. And I still make it, made it. So that’s what I’m saying. You know, it was just very tough. So at that time in 87, 88 and 89, I really did all the circuits in Europe, especially in [00:06:00] England, you know, Silverstone, Trotstone, Donington.

I mean, you name it, all of them. It was a very good for my career because the experience that I got there, it was just incredible. I mean, it was the best racing. And even though it took me a while to, because I was, I stay in the same series for three years because I have no money and I was working at the beginning as a mechanic and things like that, but it gave me a lot of experience.

experience, which it made the base for me eventually to have the knowledge and things like that to own my own team and do the different things that I did in my racing career. So it was a very, very good decision to go to Europe at the time.

Crew Chief Eric: So a lot of drivers that go overseas and go to Europe, they end up cutting their teeth at some of the most famous tracks in the world.

You talk about spa, you talk about Silverstone, Monza, the list goes on and on, but then there’s always in the back of their minds. Le Mans or Nurburgring, but usually Le Mans because Le Mans is the biggest race in the world. And so for you, when you were there, was that ever a thought that was crossing your mind?

Like one day I want to [00:07:00] drive at Le Mans.

Adrian Fernandez: Yeah, it was. I mean, it was like, I wanted to drive Monaco. I wanted to drive the Indy 500. I wanted to drive the Daytona, you know, the big races and like Le Mans was one of the big ones. And Pedro Rodriguez won there and it was a very special race for us in Mexico.

We have knowledge about the race. And obviously Le Mans was like the jewel of the endurance racing. So yes, through my career, I always thought about it, but I never had the chance or the opportunity until I finished my career in IndyCars and just had this great relation with Honda to really start racing prototypes in America with an American Le Mans Zero, which was very competitive.

I don’t know if you remember, you know, we had the Penske’s, Porsche Penske’s and, you know, Andretti was there and eventually Gilles Deferran was there. And I mean, it was just a very strong and competitive series at the time. So, yeah, I mean, I got in love with it and it’s just so special to race those cars at that level because those cars are super fast.

Crew Chief Eric: So you put together the deal for your first run at Le Mans. In 2007, that was with [00:08:00] teams. I tech in the LMP two car. Yeah. What was it like going to Lamar the first time? What kind of impression did it make on you and coming from open wheel to endurance more so than let’s say ALMS in a much longer format and a track you’ve never seen before.

How different was it to drive that LMP two car at Lamar?

Adrian Fernandez: Lamar is my favorite racetrack and I will say the most challenging because of the high speeds. So I really. took my time to prepare myself very well. Firstly, that race that we did in 2007 was all orchestrated by Honda because Honda was looking into doing their own programming in the future in Le Mans.

So basically they took me as a driver and they made a deal with SciTech at the time for me to race there and for them to get an experience. about what was Le Mans all about it. So at the time we have small simulators, just very basic. We didn’t have, you know, the high tech simulators that you have now, but at least it gave me an idea of where the track was going and then just as I got there, you know, it’s a track that you [00:09:00] cannot just drive around 80 percent of the track is roads that people just go from town to town.

What I did is I took a scooter and I went corner to corner taking pictures because as a race car driver, especially in Le Mans, everything is about references. You know, you have to have a good reference to every turning point and breaking point, especially you’re going so fast, like in the Mulsanne straight, you know, it’s, uh, at night you go so fast.

that stopping into the first chicane, if you miss a little bit, your breaking point, you blow the chicane. So basically I went through with a scooter and I started looking at buildings, you know, there is a bar, there is this and that. And, you know, I took photographs of all of this while the test was happening and all that, with all this information that I got, I really, really got very well prepared.

And I remember that the Japanese driver. Karuaki Kurosawa, he had more experience. He’s already raced in Le Mans. So he did a few laps. And then that’s the other thing. You don’t do many laps before the race because the laps are so long. It’s not like you do 20, 40, 30 laps. No, [00:10:00] no, no. You do maybe seven laps.

And the other guys, 10 laps, you know, just not many laps. So that’s why I did my homework in terms of knowing where every breaking point may be, references and all that. So I didn’t feel like lost because otherwise it takes you forever to learn the track. And I did my labs and I told the guys, I said, don’t put any lab times.

Don’t show me any lab times. The first time that I went there, I said, don’t show me anything. Just let me be. Just going to go out and I know I’ll be fine. I just want to learn it. And I took my time and eventually I was starting better, better, better, better. And, uh, I mean, and then I was. Quite fast to the point that I qualify the car because I was the fastest of the drivers.

And, uh, we put the car on the pole, so that was very satisfying for me. But like I said, I did the homework and I walked the track. I check everything. So I didn’t feel like I was in a man’s land. So that was key.

Crew Chief Eric: So how different was the setup of the Le Mans prepared LMP two car versus the one you were running here in the States?

Adrian Fernandez: I mean, the cars are very. I mean, this [00:11:00] was an open cockpit, the same as I was driving in with a Lola chassis and then eventually the Acura chassis in the American Le Mans series. But the difference between the racetracks in America to Le Mans is that it’s so long. So you’re going super fast. You know, there, there is quarters of eight years, six years.

I mean, the entry of the Porsche corners and all that section is extremely fast to the point that if you make a little mistake, I mean, it’s over. It’s not like there’s nothing like a little mistake. It’s almost like the Indy 500. You’re not a little mistake. You’re on the wall. It’s the same there. So you have to have a lot of respect for the track.

It’s all about the speed. So it feels different in that respect because you’re going so fast. Nothing compares all the race tracks that we race in here. Sebring. Searing is super slow compared to them on wood tracks, but it’s just different setups, techniques, everything. For example, Sebring is super bumpy.

One year we wanted Luis Diaz and myself, just two drivers. I drove six hours and a half of total for the 12 hours. And I was absolutely done. I mean, [00:12:00] just because of the vibration and the bumps and everything in Lamonts is the other way around. It’s extremely super smooth. The track. And the nice thing about Lamonts is that the tire Keeps the grip lap after lap after lap.

So it’s really a pleasure and it’s very enjoyable to drive Le Mans because the tires then they don’t really dip. They stay very consistent and it was just fantastic to drive. So it’s just another technique, but it’s beautiful.

Crew Chief Eric: And I know I keep bringing up LMP2 cars and LMP2 cars because actually you’re the first.

Legend to be on evening with a legend that’s campaigned an LMP2 car. And oftentimes it’s one of those classes that we overlook. It is extremely competitive even to this day, but people view it like a spec class. And it’s like, ah, it’s LMP2. You know, I’m more interested in the LMP1 prototypes or what’s going on in production car.

And even TV coverage doesn’t often give enough light on the LMP2 class. So it’s fun to sort of pull these threads and learn from a driver. What LMP2 is really like I’ve heard from some other drivers. Coming from open wheel to prototypes, not [00:13:00] necessarily LMP2, they’re like apples and oranges, there’s no translation between the two.

And I often wondered, is that really true? How close is the downforce? Are they very similar handling wise, or did you have to relearn as you transition from one to the other?

Adrian Fernandez: First thing you have to relearn because you’re not the only driver in the car. You know, you’re sharing the car with somebody else.

So basically everything is a compromise from the seating position to the setup. So basically you have to really work with your teammates to be able to get the best setup and the best feeling for everybody because it doesn’t matter if I’m very quick and my teammate is not that quick because he doesn’t fit well or he doesn’t like what we make to the car.

It just doesn’t matter. So it’s a compromise. The LMP2 that we drove in those years that I competed in the American Le Mans series with Acura, those cars were extremely fast. I mean, super fast because after that they tuned down the engines, but 2007, eight and nine, the cars were extremely fast. In that respect, the car performance and speed up through the corners [00:14:00] was.

In some ways, very close to IndyCars. So really, the things that you needed to work a lot, like I say, working with your teammates, working in a compromise setup that it works for everybody, learning how to, uh, manage the car, not destroy the car. Obviously, these days, even in my days, you can push. 10, 10, all the time, the car and the car, they survived the other 12 hours, 24 hours is a go.

But at the same time, you know, it’s a long race, so you don’t want to do stupid mistakes. And you just really want to have a little reserve just to make sure you don’t make any mistakes. And you drive through the night. Sometimes you drive through the night in rain and things like that, that you don’t have in IndyCars.

IndyCars, you always have lights. The races are very short compared to Le Mans. I remember one year, 2010, with the LMP1, I was driving with my good friend Stefan Muka and Harald Primat. And Harald Primat had a problem through the night, and he couldn’t drive after one hour. And I just came out of the car. I was just getting ready, you know, you have your motorhome, you take a shower, you have your physiotherapist, you eat, [00:15:00] you do all the things.

And I was starting to get ready to go to sleep. And the team called me that they had an issue with him. And that if I would be able to replace him, he had, uh, an issue with, uh, cramping and things like that. So I jumped in the car. I didn’t rest much three years. Yeah. Three and a half hours after I came out of the car and I drove almost four hours straight.

And I say almost four hours, because it was like three hours and 55 minutes, because you cannot exceed in those days. You couldn’t exceed more than four hours. Otherwise you get a penalty, but I was fine. I was fine. I could drive. I was. Not sweating. I was just, I remember that thing that I did so long, actually the engineers and everybody went to sleep in the, in the trucks.

I was not hearing any, anybody was completely dark. There’s not even lights. The only part that there’s some lights is in the permanent course, but the rest is just absolutely night. So you just see your lights of the dash. The lights of the other cars, but it’s so peaceful and you’re just basically, it’s like diving at night, which is so beautiful.

But I was calling my engineer and nobody was answering like for two, three laps. I was getting [00:16:00] worried, you know, even though I knew exactly more or less when I had to get into the pit, but sometimes it gets a little, uh, scary if you don’t hear back from your team.

Crew Chief Eric: Glad you brought us into 2010 and the LMP1 attempt with Aston Martin.

And so I wanted to focus in on something you just said. said, we’ve heard from other drivers about the changing conditions at Lamar. What are the most stressful times when the sun is starting to come back up or what inevitably starts to rain, but almost four hours in the car, a lot of drivers these days don’t do those long stints like that.

They do two hours at a time. And you know, then they have the maximum amount of drive time and all those kinds of things. How do you stay focused for four hours in the middle of the night when you’re just by yourself? How do you not, let’s just say, get bored or. How do you keep your pace consistent? Lap after lap for four hours.

Adrian Fernandez: Just training. I have always been a very disciplined person, very disciplined athlete. Even in my days of IndyCars, I always worked to the maximum and more. I was very good with everything I did, you know, and the type of training physically that I used to do. It [00:17:00] was also about concentration and focusing and things like that.

For me, it was just natural. I felt I was very good at it. Barely made any mistakes. I’ve never crashed in Le Mans. So I was just very pure concentration. And to the point that, like I said, you know, I can drive for four hours and I didn’t have any problems with getting tired. In IndyCar, one of the challenges that I face when I enter IndyCar is that I have a very small bone frame.

You know, my bones are tiny compared to, for example, people in those days like Mario, Andre, Nigel Ma, Paul, Tracy, ARDI, et cetera. So the indicators in those days were so physical that you needed four or five LAP to do a, a good lap in qualifying, and the four feet lab were the best. And I couldn’t do more than three laps good.

And, uh, so the X track, which was in the fourth or fifth lap, my body was completely done. Physically, I just couldn’t turn the steering wheel. We have no assistance of anything. We have no traction [00:18:00] controls. We have no power steering control. And we have 1000 horsepower. Those cars were really a beast. I mean, you have physically.

I remember Ari lying like a night before the start of the Laguna Seca race. We were instead of talking about the car or whatever it is we were talking about, are we going to make it, you know, physically because it was so physical. So I learned a technique to relax. Obviously I changed the way I work out and everything, you know, less cardio, more, more weights and things like that.

But then I work a lot on relaxing my muscles through the straights. A technique that I learned and I applied very successful work with my engineer because we have this deficit. So how are we going to make it? So one, physically you have to work on this. So I learned how to relax my muscles on the straight and just put the effort on the, you know, so some people are like very tense, you know, even in the straight, no, no.

And in the straight I was just relaxed, just basically putting the minimum amount of effort just to keep the car on the line. And then when you get to the corners and all that, that’s when you put the effort. So that really [00:19:00] takes a lot of effort out of each lab. And that’s how I managed to improve because of the strength that I, that was, I was lacking.

And then because we were not qualifying so good, John Ward and myself, we work on just how are we going to fight with these deficits? So basically we work a lot on how to save fuel. And if you remember my days of IndyCars, we were the first one that we were so good on saving fuel. So I always managed to do one lap or two laps more than the guys when they came into the pits.

And that was how we compensate the lack of strength in those days. Within the cars to be able to win races that transfer it to Lamont. So same with Lamont, some guys who, when they come and you know, the speed and everything, they are very tense and they get tired more and all that. And I was extremely relaxed on the straight.

You have a such a long straight. So I was very relaxed driving the car in that respect, putting minimum effort into my muscles and just. Focusing on the track, but you’re going so fast, you know, [00:20:00] you’re going so fast, but you have to relax. And once you put everything in contest, you know, everything slows down in your mind.

It’s like a machine, you know, lap after lap after lap. And the only thing you have to worry is about somebody went off, there’s gravel, or there’s certain things that normally when there’s a driver change, you have to be ready, like half an hour before you get into your shift to getting back into the car.

And at that time, you put your earplugs, your radio, and you start talking to the driver that is driving the car. And he’s telling you the last three laps or two laps or the last lap, he tells you, you know, be careful in here, be careful in there, there’s a little bit of oil, or the track is okay, don’t worry, because you have to perform.

Once you get out of the pits, even if it’s 3, 4 in the morning, you know, a little chilly and all that. And you’re like sleepy or whatever. I mean, you have to jump on the car and you have to go and you have to be within three, four tens or, or the same lap times that the other guy got was, I mean, you have to be really on it because the competition is so strong, but it helps to listen to the driver that is coming out to see how is the track, how is the car, any [00:21:00] problems, blah, blah, blah.

And that’s the big difference when you were asking about Indy cars and sport cars, you know, the endurance. A competition is just that, that you’re sharing the car with somebody else. So you’re a team in that respect that you normally don’t do that in IndyCar. That’s a lot of fun and it’s very challenging.

Crew Chief Eric: So let’s catch everybody up. 2007, you come home with a second place finish in LMP2, your first time at Le Mans.

Adrian Fernandez: Yeah.

Crew Chief Eric: With all the preparation that you did, it paid off. I’m sure you couldn’t have been more happy with those results. Yes. You come back in 2010 running an LMP one car for a totally different team, totally different car.

And you come in fifth, sixth overall.

Adrian Fernandez: Sixth overall. We finished fifth in class and, uh, it was with Harold Priman and Stefan Munchen. We finished, uh, fifth in class. Yes.

Crew Chief Eric: Another year goes by the 2011 season comes around and I didn’t mention this in the introduction because your luck sort of ran out at Le Mans that year and you had some problems with the LMP1 Aston Martin AMR1.

So what happened?

Adrian Fernandez: David [00:22:00] Richard wanted to do his own engine, his And, uh, the way they designed the car, especially the engine, they run out of time to produce a good engine. Um, basically they were having so many problems, both cars retiring within. We started, we did one lap just as that after the door lock corner, you know, in the Molson straight, just 200 meters into the Molson straight, basically I broke first and then Darren Turner was driving the other one.

He broke a hundred meters ahead of me. And that was it. One lap in a quarter. That’s what we did. That was very hard on Aston Martin, in Debbie Richard. And it was just a tough day for the whole team.

Crew Chief Eric: But that didn’t stop you. No. Another attempt in 2012 at Le Mans. So how did that work? How did you move then into the GT production class?

Again, running for Aston Martin. Why the invite to go into production and not maybe another LMP2 or LMP1?

Adrian Fernandez: So this is what happened at the end of 2009, we see us and myself, we won the LMP2 championship in the American Le Mans series. At the same time was the end [00:23:00] of my team, Fernandez Racing, I closed the doors of Fernandez Racing.

And the reason was we had the crisis of 2008. And we did very good with Fernandez Racing. I wanted to, uh, keep the team, but it was very difficult to keep sponsors and a lot of things. At that point, you know, I’ve done everything in my career. I was, you know, I was very successful in most of the championships and cars that I competed.

So I was in a good position myself. And for me, the most important part of my life at that point was to put a lot of attention on my family. That was like as much attention and dedication I put to my race career. I wanted to put that into my family. I was just burned out. I was living in Miami. I didn’t want to go on and live in Indianapolis or somewhere else.

And I mean, I had different opportunities, but I was done basically. We decided to sell the team and Lowe’s USA helped me to get this deal with Aston Martin. They sponsor us. They paid for my salary and the deal was for three years. So basically I was going to drive whatever David Richard [00:24:00] wanted me to drive there and whoever he would put me to drive with because I was at that time, I was not an owner driver.

I was just a driver. So basically he wanted, first, the LMP one was the first time 2010 with him. Then 2011 was his project. It was our LMP one also, but it was just a total disaster. And actually that year we have to jump back to the other car that we had to the LMP one. You know, the beautiful, I don’t know if you ever heard it, but the, the aftermath, they call it BO nine 60, which was the Lola Chelsea, beautiful Chelsea.

With this B12 Astro Matthew was beautiful, sounding beautiful. So in 2011, we went back. After we saw that the AMR one was not working, we went back to the Lola chassis and we finished the season. So for 2012, David say no more LMP1 or LMP2. Obviously Aston Martin makes a lot of cars, you know, especially, you know, the Vantage GT and all those.

So they had always a program there. So, but basically they wanted to have the top [00:25:00] drivers. Driving in the pro team, basically that was my year that I just did GT, which I never done before in my life. I did a few NASCAR races in Mexico and things like that. And I did, uh, a few reasons on the, all of a sudden when I tried to go to NASCAR in 2005, six, seven, and it was challenging to be honest, driving the GT was the most challenging because I was driving with Darren Turner and Stefan Muecke.

These guys were extremely good drivers in GTs. When you come from cars like the LMP1, LMP2, and driving all your life single seaters, Indy cars, things like that, type of driving is just very precise, very small movements, etc. You know, when you jump in a GT, you know, the car moves a lot more. You have to get used to that movement and trusting the car and things like that.

So I really had to work really, really, really hard on it, but I managed to have a great season with them. I worked really hard on looking at how the car felt and everything. And I was always within two tens of them. So it was a great season [00:26:00] and basically a great finish for my career in terms of racing, because that was my last race.

And we finished third,

Crew Chief Eric: you know, when you follow. The WEC and even the IMSA schedule, not all of the races do the quote unquote, the bigger cars, like the LMP twos and LMP ones run the whole season with the GT cars. It’s a little bit different when you’ve got all the classes running together, like at Rolex or at the Glen and places like that.

So when you got to Lamar running the GT, even though you had been running it in the rest of the season, I’ve heard a lot of other drivers. Say that when they took a step into a production class, they spent a lot more time driving than their mirrors, than they were used to.

Adrian Fernandez: Yeah, that’s the horrible part of it.

I remember very well because, you know, I took my dad there because I, I really thought it would, that was going to be my last race. So he was with me there. So we started driving and in practice, I did race some at night and I was extremely uncomfortable, especially, you know, I was 50 years old. My eyes are not as good as when I was 35 and I was struggling at night.

The most [00:27:00] difficult part of it, first the lights, you know, you get these lights and obviously your marks are not as good and now they have better systems so you don’t get blinded. But you see the lights and you think that he’s there and you want to turn that part of it that you are not secure. If he’s there or he’s not there, it’s very difficult, especially in those years.

Now they have much better system to know if they turn, if the other guy is there or not. So it was just very, very difficult in that respect. So what I told my guys, Stefan Mucha and Darren Turner, and I said, how old are you? Is 20 something, you know, and you 31 or 32. Okay, good. See you in the morning. I’m not driving at night.

I took the right decision of not driving at night. They did all the work. They did a fantastic work. Fantastic drivers. And I drove in the morning and David Richard let me, uh, finish the race, cross the finish line. And, uh, that was very special.

Crew Chief Eric: A lot of drivers that tell their Le Mans story, it’s a turning point for them as a driver.

And for you, it was towards the end of your career, actually at the end of your career, as you decided to retire after the [00:28:00] 2012 season and move on to other things, still involved in motorsports, which we’ll get to, but everybody’s tends to agree that. Lamar changed them as a driver for the good. Sometimes maybe for the bad, but generally for the good.

So how would you say that Lamar changed you or what did you walk away from the experience with? What did Lamar teach you as a driver?

Adrian Fernandez: To be even more disciplined because any small mistakes, you know, like the Indy 500 is a tough race, but it’s just two hours and a half, maybe. Max, but Lamont says 24 hours, you know, you’re driving with different classes, different speeds.

So basically it just teaches you a lot about awareness and respect the other classes, respect the other drivers and be more disciplined within yourself. Every time you make any decision. When you’re driving, and that’s why Le Mans, it makes you a better driving in all aspects.

Crew Chief Eric: As you retired from racing, but you didn’t retire from motorsport.

You got involved with Sergio Perez in formula one and trying to promote the next generation of Mexican drivers coming up through the [00:29:00] system. And so you’ve been involved in motorsport for your entire life. When you look back over your career, working with Sergio, working with a lot of other drivers, do you have any advice for aspiring Latino drivers who want to make a career in professional racing?

Adrian Fernandez: Yes, of course. I mean, the main thing is that if you really want to become a professional race car driver and make an impact, you have to really take it with all your your arms. I mean, you have to be completely involved on it 10 10 all the time because it just takes so much. The competition is so tough.

There’s so many good drivers. So you have to always look at how can I be better than the other guys? And there’s so many good drivers around, you know, that the difference between the good drivers are not so good. It’s very small. It’s just the good drivers, exceptional drivers are the drivers that can stay in that limit for a long time and they don’t make mistakes.

They can adapt to different type of cars. If the car is not good or bad, they can adapt and they can go through adversity and things like that and still be there and make the results. And that’s what it takes. And to do [00:30:00] that, you know, your life has to be balanced, meaning you have to have. Time just to think about racing.

If you have other businesses, other distractions, family, or a lot of family or other distractions, you know, it’s difficult. I mean, look at Max Verstappen. He finished one race and even sometimes in the weekend of the Grand Prix, he’s racing online, you know, with the simulators and after the races. He’s racing on Monday and Tuesday and Thursday with a simulator.

He’s so sharp mentally because he’s on it all the time. And that’s how the level of competition it is. So if you really want to do this, you have to really put everything on it. You have to be very selfish because you have to really dedicate a lot of your time to it. And sometimes, you know, I miss a lot of weddings and special events for my family.

I have to leave Mexico. I have pursued my dreams and that takes a lot of sacrifices. It’s done. Nah. A lot of people don’t do it a hundred percent and they do it 98%, 97% or, or like that. And [00:31:00] sometimes that two 3% makes the difference between the good drivers and the exception of drivers.

Crew Chief Eric: Do you know of any pathways for younger drivers to come up through the system?

Is it easier now? Are there any incentives for Latin Americans and Mexicans to come into the US and European racing programs?

Adrian Fernandez: You know, I, I have not been so attached to racing. I mean, I watched the races. Because I like to race. I watched IndyCar races. I watched Formula One and I watched some NASCAR races because my good friend Daniel Suarez is there.

But for Mexican and for a lot of the Latin drivers, the doors now are open. When I went to Europe, the doors were shut and I had to open them because there were no opportunities to have sponsorship. Nobody believed that you can make it. Now it is proven. So now the work is that you have to go and knock at the doors of the sponsorship and convince them that this is what you want to do.

And they tell you, no, it feels bad, but you have to keep knocking at more doors. And because now it’s easier to really make it in terms of make it to different [00:32:00] categories. Like I tried to do, it’s easier, but I will probably say it’s more difficult to make it to the top in terms of Formula One, because there are so many drivers now.

They all know the techniques and all that, because it’s all out there. In my days, you have to walk the track. There was no simulator. They have no, I mean, you have to find yourself out now. All the information is out there. So that’s what I’m saying. So it’s in the old days, the difference between exceptional drug and a good driver was bigger because of the knowledge that we didn’t have now, because they have everything, they have all the tools now, the small details.

on your commitment to racing. That’s what makes the difference.

Crew Chief Eric: So let’s say non drivers, enthusiasts, you know, somebody walks up to you, Adrian, and says, Hey, I heard you drove at Le Mans. I’ve never watched an endurance race before. Why should I watch such a long race?

Adrian Fernandez: American Le Mans series, endurance racing is not easy to watch.

You just have to be very passionate about it because there’s too many drivers, too many classes. But when I race a sport car, so I mean, all those times the fans were really knowledgeable about [00:33:00] the drivers and the brands, everything. It was like a big family. And same with Le Mans, you have so much history there.

If you like cars and you start reading about all the stories about Le Mans and the Porsches and Ferrari and Ferrari versus Ford, et cetera, et cetera. And then you get there and you see the atmosphere, the place. I mean, it’s just, it’s overwhelming. It’s just beautiful, but obviously you have to like racing.

And these days, you know, uh, the young generations have three kids. The span of attention is very, it’s very short. They want things very quickly. And that’s why like NASCAR, you know, to watch a NASCAR race. Now it’s just more difficult in the old days. Remember, I mean, you have all the red, everybody watching the races stay there.

You know, I raised in those era, I raised against Dillon, her seniors, junior, all those legends. And he was, all the people were there because racing was in their blood. So now we just have to educate the new generations and like what is happening with Formula 1 because of COVID and Netflix and they did this [00:34:00] documentary on the racing, you know, people got cooked because of the personality of the drivers and everything.

And the same with me when my career became a boom in, in, in the nineties. It was because people knew about the drivers, we have very good television coverage and everything, and people really got really hooked into it. It was very special. So now it’s the same. It’s just, you know, we just have to educate the public in terms of endurance racing.

What’s it all about? Make small stories and all that. So, yeah, but I mean, as a driver is for me, it’s just one of the best. And I, I, I put Le Mans as my favorite racetrack in my entire career.

Crew Chief Eric: One of the things you touched on there was seeing a lot of change over the years and over your many years in the motor sports world, in your professional career.

And then afterwards you’ve seen a lot of change. What do you think is one of the best things to have happened to motorsport in your time in its involvement, or one of the best things that’s ever happened to Lamont? You came after the course redesign and the building changes. You didn’t get to see all [00:35:00] the stuff in the eighties, but there’s a lot out there.

So what do you think is one of the best? Things that’s happened.

Adrian Fernandez: Yeah. I say safety, definitely. I mean, I was one of the first drivers to test the Hans device. It felt weird. It felt like, really, we have to use this, but the safety aspect of it is just incredible. And then the halo, but all these things, I had also a terrible accident.

I don’t know if you remember, but in Michigan and one of my wheels came out and went into the public and it was just horrible and after my accident, the fences went up on the track and more in. And they start putting tethers in the uprights to attach the tires to it. So that was a big improvement in terms of safety, the halo and many, many, many other things.

So I I’ll say the aspect of safety, not just on the cars, but the tracks has made it much better. Since I started driving to when I finished driving, I lost 14 friends that they’re actually practicing testing or erasing. So that’s a lot of drivers. You know, my career was span of 32 years, but losing 14 friends, that’s a [00:36:00] lot.

That’s way too many. So, yeah, I say safety is the main thing. Obviously, the track has improved a lot. Le Mans. For example, my last race, you know, with the GT and the following year, I forgot his name from Denmark. I think was his name, got killed in, uh, Petra rush, just little things because it was a real and they had a tree on the back and things like that.

So I’ll say the safety is the main, main, main point. Obviously the cars are becoming also a little less physical, but more degrading in terms of your steering wheel, which in the old days, we didn’t have that many things on the steering wheel. We have them in different areas, so it’s more there. So basically you just have to train your, your mind, your brain to work with this little steering wheel where you have everything in our days, we didn’t have any, I, I actually, I used to, I remember I used to say to my engineers, you know, the less bottoms you have in my steering wheel, the better, you know, I don’t want destruction because it was already physically very, very hard.

And, you know, I just bought, um, a BRM from Pedro Rodriguez. [00:37:00] 1970. And the car is, uh, difficult to drive. It’s very, I drove it in the last year in the Monaco Grand Prix Storix. That’s when you realize how racing was so much more for the driver, more difficult, more challenging, especially physically, because the position wasn’t the right one.

You didn’t have the right steering wheels. The pedal position was not right. The cars were not that strong. They were very dangerous. Et cetera, et cetera. So when people start comparing drivers from different generations, eras, I always say, listen, you cannot compare, you know, you cannot compare, you cannot put me a modern Formula One driver and put it in, in the cars that I, I, we used to drive or other areas.

So they find you errors. Where if you have an off, you probably most likely are going to get killed or get burned because the cars were like that. So when, you know, for example, in a corner, you take flat out in Formula 1 these days, if you don’t make it, you go in, in a off lane, it’s all paved, no worries, offline, you know, off limits, like they call it these days.

Our off limits [00:38:00] was the wall, the trees, you know, the, the grass, the rocks, the fence, whatever. So in that respect, everything has changed a lot that has improved, which is good. In some ways, it’s good. In some other ways, I think they have taken a little bit too far, especially with these four wheels out of the line and all that.

I think that’s so stupid. I think they should put natural limits on tracks. And if you want to go up there, well, there’s no grip or you’re going to go into the wall. It’s still with the safety protocols that they have these days, they can still do that. But obviously always, always there is a compromise.

Well,

Crew Chief Eric: I’m glad you brought up driving historic cars because as we wrap up here, one of the final questions I want to ask you is if you could go back to Lamont today, all things being equal and drive maybe a car from 2023 or the 2024 season, what would it be? Or because this year we have the opportunity that we’re running the Lamont’s classic for the first time in many, many years, would you go back to Lamont and drive one of your previous cars or one of your [00:39:00] competitor’s cars?

Adrian Fernandez: I think I would love to have driven the GT 40, you know, the GT 40 that Pedro Rodriguez drove on typical, you know, the, the engines when they were fighting with, uh, Ferrari and all that, the GT is just a beautiful car. I’m actually trying to get one because I would like to drive it actually in Le Mans, in the Le Mans classics, you know, with the old cars, but that’s the car that I would love.

It’s just a beautiful car. Another car that I like is the 970, you know, from Steve McQueen those days. That’s another car that I love. It’s another beautiful car, but I think I like better the GT40. Just imagine in those days they didn’t have chicanes and they were flat out and if you jump in these cars if you see the 917 in the front it’s just little shoes.

There is nothing in front of your pedal to protect you if you hit the wall. I mean, you’re going to be just as much when the car is going to be like this. It’s just incredible that in those days through Le Mans and all that, what they did and the speeds they were doing in those days in these cars is incredible.

I mean, that’s a [00:40:00] Molson straight took forever. I mean, probably some guys smoke a cigarette those days.

Crew Chief Eric: To paraphrase something I heard Derek Bell once say, driving the 917 was like being strapped to a lawn chair that could do 200 miles an hour.

Adrian Fernandez: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I, I know him well and I, we talk about it and you know, I drove a lot of the cars that were very unsafe and sort of like when I started my career, but it’s incredible that in those days you don’t think about it, you know, even the truck that I used to drive, you see some of the pictures of my early days and you see people there, people there, whatever.

That was how racing was. And you, you just didn’t think about it. It was like, okay, well, you hit him and kill him. Well, that’s part of the sport, right? Sublime to think that, you know, now we’re thinking, you know, now is so scrutinize everything, safety drivers, everything, uniforms, fire, this, that. In those days, I mean, even the seatbelts and so many things that were not so safe as they are now.

Crew Chief Eric: What’s next? Is there more to the story? Are you done with motorsport?

Adrian Fernandez: No, [00:41:00] you know what? I have learned to close the circles. I live a beautiful life now. I have three beautiful kids. I have a beautiful wife. I have a 16 year old boy, a 17 year old girl, Valentina Nico, and then I have a four year old, Adrian Junior.

And like I said, I sacrificed so much and I was very selfish where I didn’t have other life but racing. I was so, so into it and so perfectionist in everything I did, that I miss a lot of those things. So now I just love my life because I’m just Adrian Fernandez. I’m not the Rayska Frapper. I go out, I can be myself.

If they don’t recognize me in the better, I can do the things that I didn’t do for so many years. And I absolutely love it because I had a fantastic career. I’m here. I’m still in one piece. I did a lot of good friends. I. I own my own team, I competed in different series. I won in most of them. I made my money doing racing, which not many people do that.

You’re right. Everything I have, I made it from racing. And also my career [00:42:00] teach me a lot of other things. So I’m in another thing investments and I’ve done very well, but it’s my own schedule. I don’t like schedules anymore. I don’t fancy that, you know, they invite me to the Mexican grumpy or to these, I don’t fancy that anymore.

I spent so much time, you know, I was an FIA steward also in formula one, apart from being a manager of Checo Perez. And I mean, those are the worst jobs because you know, you’re not looking after yourself, you’re looking after somebody and they don’t hear you all the time. So it’s, that’s not very nice. I, a lot of people want me to manage them.

I don’t do that anymore. I help them. I give them advice and I, I say, I help you for free. One day, if you become big, just invite me to one of the races. To be with you and we have a nice dinner and that’s it. That’s your thank you. And I’ll be happy, but I don’t have to get involved. I don’t have to go through the headaches.

I already have them, you know, because racing is tough, especially that I, I was the driver. I was the owner. I sold the sponsorship. I never had a managers. So I did everything myself and I did it very well, but I was extremely exhausted. So now this balance of life that I have here, where I am, I have a [00:43:00] beautiful museum here in Miami with some of my race cars, memorabilia, and I work here.

We have. Great partners with other collections of cars. It just cannot get better. Some people, sometimes they don’t let it go, you know, and they want to stay, stay attached. I see it with a lot of people, you know, drivers and they keep driving. You know, you see, I mean, I drove the 32 years. So what else am I going to prove?

You know, it’s a Lamont, you know, like I do Monaco that’s for fun. I don’t care if I win or if I’m bad last, I don’t care. I mean, what am I going to prove? I don’t have to prove anything I’m done. And that circle in my life is closed. It’s just the best part. A lot of people who cannot do that, then they start getting a lot of problems with themselves because they want to be that light.

They want to be in the spotlight. And they want to be there. It’s just, I don’t care if I’m in the spotlight. I don’t care if they look at me. They recognize me. In the 90s, I was big. You know, I was very That’s fine. I enjoy it. But that circle is closed. Now I do other things and I enjoy it a lot.

Crew Chief Eric: Have your kids expressed any interest in going into motorsport?

Or is that just part of [00:44:00] dad’s past?

Adrian Fernandez: No, I, you know, I took Nico, Nico because he’s, uh, two years younger than Sebastian Montoya. Juan Pablo Montoya is a good friend of mine. They used to live here in Miami. We were neighbors. The kids went to the same school. So when Sebastian, Sebas was starting to drive go karts and all that, I took Nico a few times with him and all that, but he was never, he didn’t really, didn’t like it that much.

He enjoyed, but like, if I invite you to a ride in, in, uh, Fairground or something like that, but nothing special. He never asked me again and I didn’t. So he has been playing soccer since then and he’s a fantastic soccer player, which I love it because I also do different things. And sometimes I think about it.

Do I want to spend the rest of my life going to the tracks again and the weekends and all that? It’s just too much. Now I live in other things. I do other things. And it’s just so your life is full. In terms of experiences and everything, when you do everything the same, that’s why I don’t do podcasts or [00:45:00] anything like this, because if I speak the truth, most of the time it’s, it’s going to be in trouble.

And now these days with social media that you have to be politically correct and all that, I mean, it’s all that bullshit. You know, I don’t want to get into that. I don’t need it. I don’t live from that. It’s just a great balance in my life at this moment. And I enjoy a lot of what I did. You know, I had a fantastic 31 years.

It was just a wonderful journey. And, you know, I’m just glad that I’m still here because I lost a lot of good friends that I love and that I like, you know, I’m very blessed to be able to be here with good health and enjoy my family and do the things I love to do.

Crew Chief Eric: As we wrap out here, I’d like to pass the torch to David Lowe, president of the ACO USA for some parting thoughts.

David Lowe: Adrian, on behalf of the ACO and the U. S. members. I just want to thank you for an incredible evening.

Adrian Fernandez: Thank you.

David Lowe: It was about Lamont, but it started to sound like a TED Talk, which is a big compliment. You touched on a lot of points that people don’t touch on in our evenings, and you brought [00:46:00] a different flavor to it, and I really appreciate that.

And I say that on behalf of the members. I personally thought it was an incredible evening. Thank you so much.

Adrian Fernandez: Thank you, Dave. Anytime, and thank you, Eric.

Crew Chief Eric: And on behalf of everyone here and those listening at home, thank you, Adrian, for sharing your stories with us. Since 1981, when Adrian entered his first auto race, the 24 Hours of Mexico, in Mexico City at the age of 15, he made racing a permanent part of his life.

In the 90s, he would enjoy many successes behind the wheel of an Indy car, along with his four attempts at Le Mans from 2007 to 2012, propelling him to even higher heights, becoming the manager for another up and coming Mexican driver, Formula One’s Sergio Perez. With over 30 years of professional racing under his helmet, Adrian is a model for many of us to continue to aspire to.

To learn more or to keep up with Adrian’s latest adventures, be sure to follow him on social at adrianf007 on Twitter and Instagram. We hope you enjoyed this [00:47:00] presentation and look forward to more evening with a legend throughout the season. And with that, Adrian, I can’t thank you enough for coming on the show and sharing your stories with us.

And whether you realize it or not, you continue to be a role model for up and coming drivers from here on out.

Adrian Fernandez: Thank you, my friend. Thank you, Eric. Stay well, my friend. Good luck. Ciao. Ciao.

Crew Chief Eric: This episode has been brought to you by the Automobile Club of the West and the ACO USA. From the awe inspiring speed demons that have graced the track to the courageous drivers who have pushed the limits of endurance, the 24 Hours of Le Mans is an automotive spectacle like no other. For over a century, the 24 Hours of Le Mans has urged manufacturers to innovate for the benefit of future motorists, and it’s a celebration of the relentless pursuit of speed and excellence in the world of motorsports.

To learn more about or to become a member of the ACO USA, look no further [00:48:00] than www. lemans. org, click on English in the upper right corner, and then click on the ACO Members tab for club offers. Once you’ve become a member, you can follow all the action on the Facebook group ACO USA Members Club and become part of the legend with future Evening with the Legend meetups.

Hello. Hello. Hello.

Crew Chief Eric: This episode has been brought to you by Grand Touring Motorsports as part of our Motoring Podcast Network. For more episodes like this, tune in each week for more exciting and educational content from organizations like the Exotic Car Marketplace, The Motoring Historian, Brake Fix, and many others.

If you’d like to support Grand Touring Motorsports and the Motoring Podcast Network, sign up for one of our many sponsorship tiers at www. patreon. com forward slash GT Motorsports. Please note that the content, opinions, and materials presented and expressed in this episode are those of its [00:49:00] creator, and this episode has been published with their consent.

If you have any inquiries about this program, please contact the creators of this episode via email or social media as mentioned in the episode.

Highlights

Skip ahead if you must… Here’s the highlights from this episode you might be most interested in and their corresponding time stamps.

00:00 Adrian Fernandez’s Le Mans Journey
01:56 Early Racing Career and Challenges
03:20 Transition to Endurance Racing
07:54 First Le Mans Experience
10:50 Challenges and Triumphs at Le Mans; The Art of Endurance Racing
21:45 Aston Martin and Later Years
24:49 Transition and Challenges of GT Racing
25:58 Final Race and Reflections
29:03 Advice for Aspiring Drivers
34:37 Changes in Motorsport: Safety Innovations
38:32 Historic Cars and Modern Racing
40:55 Life After Racing
45:35 Closing Thoughts and Farewell

Bonus Content

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Be sure to check out the behind the scenes for this episode, filled with extras, bloopers, and other great moments not found in the final version. Become a Break/Fix VIP today by joining our Patreon.

All of our BEHIND THE SCENES (BTS) Break/Fix episodes are raw and unedited, and expressly shared with the permission and consent of our guests.

Learn More

Evening With A Legend (EWAL)

Evening With A Legend is a series of presentations exclusive to Legends of the famous 24 Hours of Le Mans giving us an opportunity to bring a piece of Le Mans to you. By sharing stories and highlights of the big event, you get a chance to become part of the Legend of Le Mans with guests from different eras of over 100 years of racing.

We hope you enjoyed this presentation and look forward to more Evening With A Legend throughout this season. Sign up for the next EWAL TODAY!

After a successful run in IndyCar and a stint in IRL, Adrian transitioned to sports cars in 2006 with Honda, racing in Grand-Am and the American Le Mans Series. In 2007, Honda orchestrated his debut at Le Mans in an LMP2 prototype with Team SciTech. “Le Mans is my favorite Racetrack – Fast, Smooth, and Unforgiving. I prepared by riding a scooter corner to corner, taking pictures of buildings and landmarks to memorize braking points.”

That preparation paid off. Adrian qualified the car on pole and finished second in class – making history as the first Mexican driver to podium at Le Mans since the 1960s.

From LMP2 to LMP1 with Aston Martin

In 2010, Adrian returned to Le Mans in Aston Martin’s LMP1 program, finishing fifth in class and sixth overall. But the race was far from easy. “Harald Primat had to drop out mid-race, and I drove nearly four hours straight through the night. It was peaceful, surreal – like diving a night.”

His discipline and physical conditioning, honed during his IndyCar days, allowed him to push through exhaustion and maintain pace in the dark.

Photo courtesy Wikipedia, By Brian Snelson – originally posted to Flickr.

Adrian’s 2011 Le Mans campaign with Aston Martin’s AMR-One prototype ended in heartbreak. The car failed just one lap into the race due to engine issues. “It was a tough day for the whole team. Both cars retired almost immediately”

A Graceful Farewell in GT

In 2012, Adrian returned for his final Le Mans in the GTE Pro class, driving an Aston Martin Vantage GT. Despite never having raced GTs before, he adapted quickly and finished third in class. “GTs were the most challenging. The car moves more, and you have to trust it. But I worked hard and stayed within two-tenths of my teammates.”

That race marked the end of Adrian’s professional driving career. He took the checkered flag and retired on a high note.

Adrian’s insights into endurance racing reveal the mental and physical demands of sharing a car, managing fatigue, and adapting to changing conditions. “You’re not just driving – you’re part of a team. You have to compromise on setup, seating, everything. And you have to be ready to perform, even at 4 a.m. in the rain.”

Adrian Fernandez’s story is one of grit, adaptability, and relentless pursuit of excellence. From sleeping in train stations to standing on the podium at Le Mans, his journey embodies the spirit of motorsport. “I’ve never crashed at Le Mans. I always drove with respect, focus, and love for the race.”

ACO USA

To learn more about or to become a member of the ACO USA, look no further than www.lemans.org, Click on English in the upper right corner and then click on the ACO members tab for Club Offers. Once you become a Member you can follow all the action on the Facebook group ACOUSAMembersClub; and become part of the Legend with future Evening With A Legend meet ups.

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Junior Dragster: Abigail Cole

INIT eSports

May 12, 2025

Abigail Cole is a 13-year-old Junior Drag Racer. She has a 5-year-old Rottweiler named Bronco. Her family has a few family businesses, and she is a shareholder in one. She is a homeschooled student currently in 8th grade. Outside of racing, she trains in AKEA. She loves reading. Skateboarding with Dad is tons of fun. When the off-season allows it and Mother Nature plays nice, she enjoys skiing and snowboarding. Rock climbing is a fun challenge. She loves to bake and is a decent cook. She can powder coat, sand blast, weld, work on the lathe, and she is learning to engrave and has taken classes on how to do most of these things, including software and design.

How she got into Drag Racing

Her mom actually thought she was going to have me at the drag boat races. Dad crewed for good friends of theirs and then started racing his own boat when she was almost two. When she was three, her parents took her to Sea Fair in Seattle on Thursday, where she watched the hydroplanes, toured the pits, and climbed around an Army helicopter. The very next day, they went to the NHRA Northwest Nationals at Pacific Raceways.

Photo courtesy Abigail Cole; Social Media @Abigail629Racing

She met The Sarge, sat in his Army car, and made up her mind that drag racing was for her. As they went to sit in the stands and watch what she called “shaky cars,” she saw the display of junior dragsters. She got to sit in one and didn’t want to get out! they went back multiple times, and she just had to have that purple dragster with the fairy on it. For the next two years, all she talked about was that car, so Dad bought her a HalfScale junior that she runs today.

Watch the livestream

In the episode host Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya (@LoveFortySix) interviews 13-year-old junior drag racer Abigail Cole. The discussion covers Abigail’s introduction to drag racing at age three, her experiences, preparation routines, and the support from her family. Abigail shares her journey from her first race to winning a championship at her home track in Washington and becoming part of the JCM Main Family Protein team. They discuss the challenges and learnings she faces, as well as her passion for various hobbies like welding, karate, climbing, and baking. Abigail also emphasizes the importance of maintaining a positive mindset and having fun in racing. The episode highlights her future aspirations to go professional in drag racing and her dedication to inspire more girls to enter the sport. So buckle up – Screen to Speed starts now!

Tune in everywhere you stream, download or listen!

Highlights

Skip ahead if you must… Here’s the highlights from this episode you might be most interested in and their corresponding time stamps.

00:00 Meet Abigail Cole: Junior Drag Racer
02:32 Getting Hooked on Drag Racing
05:07 Balancing Racing and Life
06:56 Training and Preparation
08:58 Hobbies Beyond Racing
11:50 The Racing Community and Team Dynamics
17:16 Breathing Exercises and Nervousness
17:44 The Purple Dragster Story
18:50 Fun Questions and Quickfire Round
21:15 Future Plans and Aspirations
22:52 Plans for the Season and Beyond
25:59 Promoting Racing for Girls
28:23 Lessons Learned from Racing
30:31 Social Media and Online Presence
32:48 Inspiring Message for Future Racers
35:00 Conclusion and Farewell

Transcript

Crew Chief Brad: [00:00:00] Welcome to Screen to Speed, powered by Init eSports. In this podcast, we dive into the journeys of remarkable individuals making waves in sim racing and bridging the virtual with the real. From the thrill of digital circuits to the roar of real life racetracks, we explore the passion, dedication, and innovation that drives the world of motor sports.

We’ll hear from athletes, creators, and pioneers sharing their stories, insights, and the powerful ways sim racing is connecting communities and creating pathways into motor sports. So buckle up Screen to speed starts now.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Hi everyone. Welcome to need talks. Uh, happy to see everybody here on evening. Um. Who’s living in the United States again? Morning today. Um, please [00:01:00] welcome Abigail Cole. She’s a 13 years old, uh, junior drag racer. Um, Abigail, welcome to our Inid Talks.

Abigail Cole: Thank you.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: So let’s start, uh, how you get into this, uh, racing and, uh, also.

Tell us a little bit about your family. I know that you got a dog. Uh, I think we’re going to talk about this as well because I got dog and I really like them. Um, so tell us more about your family, first of all.

Abigail Cole: Yeah, so we are a family of three. It’s me, my mom, um, plus my dog. His name’s Bronco, and he is a five-year-old Rottweiler.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Mm-hmm. That’s great. Um, do you like to play with, uh, with Bronco and also Bronco, maybe visit some of your races?

Abigail Cole: Yeah, he comes everywhere with us. Um, and of [00:02:00] course I love playing with him.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: That’s really nice. So I got, uh, Shel. She is, uh, two years old. Uh, we doing some agility that’s like, uh, you know, like rally uh, together.

So we doing some, uh, jumps, uh, tunnels and other stuff together, so we’re running. Um, and yeah, really like, uh, my dog, we always, uh, walk. We, I always, uh, like took her with me. That’s really cool. Um. So how you actually get into the drag racing?

Abigail Cole: Yeah. So I got, um. Hooked on it. When I was three, my parents took me to Sea Fair in Seattle on Thursday, and I watched Hydroplanes and I climbed, is that in an Army helicopter?

And then the very next day we went to NHR North Regionals. Mm-hmm. At [00:03:00] Pacific Race. So I was just my home track and I met Tony Schumacher, the Sarge, and I sat in his army car and that was kind of what. Got me hooked on drag racing. Um, I saw the display of juniors and sat in one of those, and of course I kept going back and did not wanna get out.

Mm-hmm. Um, and so for the next two years, that’s pretty much what I talked about. So that’s when we bought my half scale juniors that I rent today. Um, so that’s the car that I’ve had my whole career.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Mm-hmm. Um. Hows actually there was for you, you know, to choose the drag racing, uh, not ovals or like, uh, dirt ovals, uh, which are really popular in the United States and, uh, maybe some road racing as well.

So what’s, uh, the biggest thing which you really like about drag racing?

Abigail Cole: Um, I don’t know. The comradery is a awesome and drag racing, but [00:04:00] I was also never really introduced to. The other aspects of racing, um, besides boat racing, which my dad races a boat. He started that when I was about two. Mm-hmm. But you can’t race a boat until you are, it’s either 15 or 16.

Um, so that wasn’t exactly an opportunity for me.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Mm-hmm. That’s awesome. Also, can you tell me what feelings you, you got when you first time race it?

Abigail Cole: You know, um, I was still really young and I got super nervous. Um, but I’ve kind of come over that and it’s a more, I get nervous for the competition wise, but not necessarily driving.

Um, as soon as we started that car when I was little, um, I kind of was just ready to go. Um, but now I’m mixture between nervous and exciting. Mm-hmm. Um. Feelings there. So, yeah.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Yeah. So you, [00:05:00] uh, get used to the speed and, uh, just, uh, having fun with it. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. That’s nice. Um, so can you tell me, how does it feel for you?

So, being 13 years old, uh, girl and racing around, uh, the country, um, travel and, uh, doing all the stuff and, um, also balance with, with everything.

Abigail Cole: Yeah, so it’s, it can be hard at times. ’cause I mean, last trip we were on the road for two months and, um, it’s a lot to deal with, but it’s doing what I love and, um, I get to race.

So I’m happy with that. Um, and we, we traveled quite a bit. Um, we’ve gone as far as Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado, and we’re here in Washington, so yeah.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Yeah. Nice. Uh, so you actually enjoy the traveling part and racing, uh, yes. [00:06:00] Together. That’s really nice. I also, yeah. Uh, when I did, uh, so I started from karting, uh, when I was nine.

Um, so we’ve been, uh. On card circuit together with my dad and, uh, you know, all the time, uh, driving the car to this track. It, it was so exciting. Uh, you just, uh, woke up in the morning and like, oh, great, I’m going to, uh, race. I’m going to practice. That’s really nice, uh, feeling and definitely. And, uh, then I travel quite a lot.

Uh, when I did some open dealers, um. So I went to Malaysia. There was like, you know, 10, 10 hours flight. It, it was a horrible, uh, real long flight. Uh, the longest my life, I think. Um, but I like to race, uh, sipan. It’s a great circuit. Definitely. Um, so can you tell me how do you prepare to race, uh, like mentally and physically?

What exercises you doing, uh, what’s your routine looks like? [00:07:00]

Abigail Cole: Well first I do reaction time stuff. So we have a little simulator tree thing. Um. That brings down the tree. Mm-hmm. So I get to work on my reaction times there. And then we have a bunch of different exercises for other ways of reaction time as well.

Um, and then mental side of it, I have dove deeper into that recently. Um, whereas books, audiobooks and that kind of stuff, and I’m actually in a mental strength and mental toughness class right now. Mm-hmm. So I’m getting a lot of exercises from that and working on that a little bit more.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Mm-hmm. That’s great.

Also, I just, uh, read your bill and, uh, you’ve learned to do so many cool things like welding and powder coating. Uh, so tell me what’s your favorite and what do you like the most of it?

Abigail Cole: Um, that’s [00:08:00] really hard ’cause I like ’em all. Mm-hmm. Something with sandblasting, um, powder coating and working on the LA and all those kind of things all come together.

’cause I started making piston candles. Mm-hmm. So I would take, um. Old pistons, broken pistons, that kinda stuff from my dad’s engine builder, um, who was one of my sponsors and cleaned them up, sandblast ’em, powder coat ’em, and then we made little inserts so that the wax didn’t fall out everywhere. And then, um, on the lathe and then we would make candles in them and sell them.

So that was always really fun. And I’m still doing that. I just have kind of fallen off on that a little bit, being more involved in racing.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: That’s really cool There. You got, uh, you know, some, uh, different activities outside of the racing. Not all the time. You can see the racing driver who’s doing like, uh, the welding and all the stuff.

That’s really awesome. Um, [00:09:00] you also mentioned, uh, then you’re doing some training at a KEA. So can you tell me more about this? And you also doing some climbing and baking. Like you, you, you got a lot of hobbies. That’s great.

Abigail Cole: I do, yes. So AKA, it’s the American Karate Esma Association. Mm-hmm. So we base more towards like self-defense, karate than anything.

And then ESMA is stick work. Um. So that’s always really fun. And then climbing. I love rock climbing. So fun. Um, unfortunately I don’t have a lot of time for all of this, considering how much we’re on the road. Um, and then of course the baking, the cooking when we’re at home. I try to do as much as I can of that during the holiday.

Um, always all the baking, so yeah. Definitely have fun outside of racing.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: That’s nice. Uh, so you develop yourself in, uh, different side, [00:10:00] uh, sites. Uh, it’s really cool, uh, because you’re 14 years old. I think the, the world is really interesting for you. So you’re really curious about, uh, different stuff. Uh, it’s really nice.

Uh, I like when people, you know, jumping into. Different stuff. Uh, like I jump into agility with my dog and get a dog like, uh, one half a year ago. And that, that’s my first dog in the family. And I’m like, okay, let’s, let’s do the new hobby. Let’s jump into it. And I started like to learn from scratch and, uh, it’s really refreshing feeling.

Definitely. Um, okay. Uh, let’s return back a little bit and talk about your car. I know that your car got a name. Can you tell more about this? Uh, what’s the story behind this?

Abigail Cole: Yeah, so my car’s name is Lou. Um, it’s after my grandparents old Scotty dog. Um, I was really attached to her and she passed away. [00:11:00] I believe it was last year or the year before that.

Um. It kind of broke my heart. So I decided my car didn’t have a name at the time. Mm-hmm. And her name was Whitaker Lou Whitaker. Um, and so I decided to name it Lou after her.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Mm-hmm. Interesting story. And, uh, I think it means a lot for you. Definitely. Uh, yeah. I remember that, uh, when I race in open wheelers, uh, I had a formal masters, uh, which is a formal Bart uh, uh, car and, uh, named Jackson.

So it was, you know, quite aggressive and, uh, sounds good at the same time. So, yeah, also had a car with name. It’s, uh, kind of cute. Um, so what can you tell about, uh. Community in the drag racing in United States, like what it’s like to be 14 years old and girl in, in this, um, racing industry. [00:12:00]

Abigail Cole: Yeah. Um,

really the racing community is really,

the racing community is really. Dang, what’s the word?

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Um, like, you know, friendly or may maybe not really.

Abigail Cole: Yeah. You could say friendly. Yeah. Um, but it really isn’t hard being a girl or mm-hmm. Young in the sport either. Um, because. It’s pretty much 50 50 from the girl boy standpoint as well there. And then I have, in racing, I have more stuff onto that.

Um, we own a parts business for juniors. Um, so I’m doing inventory, getting orders out. Mm-hmm. Um, selling the parts at the track and that kind of stuff as well, [00:13:00] so. That brings another aspect of racing into it as well. Um, so it’s not necessarily just the driving or the tuning.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Mm-hmm. Interesting. Uh, I was aware that in drag racing, actually more girls than in any other categories.

Uh, definitely. Uh, what’s in your opinion, uh, brings girls into that, like speed or community or everything together?

Abigail Cole: Yeah, I don’t really, I don’t know. Um, I would say same thing for everyone. Um, the community, of course, if you like, the general adrenaline rush, um, the competition. I personally love competition, so that’s, some of that is great about racing for me.

Mm-hmm. Um, but there’s so many different things that you can find in racing. Um, I am homeschooled, so, um. Racing is something that we bring into my schooling. So the [00:14:00] math in it, from measuring oil to doing my data and all of that, um, is a learning opportunity as well.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Mm-hmm. Uh, tell me more about your team.

How you’re working with your engineers, with kind of settings you maybe apply to the car, uh, and like how the work on the track looks for you.

Abigail Cole: Yeah. So, um, like I said earlier, it’s just the three of us. So my mom, my dad, and me. Mm-hmm. So obviously I’m the driver, um, and I do like the tires, the oil, the fuel, all of that kind of stuff.

And then my mom, she does all the video and picture taking stuff, and then I do data and then anything else. Mm-hmm. That’s more on the card does and kind of fills in the holes of what I don’t do.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Mm-hmm. Um, so speaking about team, uh, how’s the teamwork, uh, uh, brings, uh, good [00:15:00] positions for you? Like, did you, uh, do you remember any highlights, uh, races in your career?

Abigail Cole: So last year, um, I won the championship in my class at my home track here in um, Washington. And then I have two Wally, so pretty prestigious award there. Um, and then I, this year newly am part of the JCM Main Family Protein. Mm-hmm. So that’s super cool. Um, and then. Yeah. And so that the main JCM team mm-hmm.

Is pretty much, it’s just opportunity for mentoring and, um, pretty much any questions I have that comes to the mental side, the social media side, um, the actual racing. Um, I can go to them with any questions that I have.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: That’s awesome. Congrats to you with the first [00:16:00] position. Uh, that’s great feeling. Thank you.

I think, um, how you handle the pressure, uh, during competition and, um, what’s your team looks like on a day, uh, when, when you got the race.

Abigail Cole: Um, well, I really try to stay outta my head as much as I can, but obviously why I am in the mental, um, classes and have all the books and stuff is because I’m not the best at doing that.

Mm-hmm. So I do get in my head, but I’ve found breathing really helps. Um. Mm-hmm. And I. Tried multiple different breathing exercises and stuff like that. Um, something that I’ve been trying newly is visuals visualization. Um, so just visualizing myself running the past and then going out there and doing it.

Usually before we started the car, I try to think about nothing, just so I don’t have to worry about anything. Mm-hmm. [00:17:00] I’m just. Not thinking. Mm-hmm.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: So you focus on the, on track, on the car and, uh, like all stuff which, which happened with you in, in the moment. Right? Right. Yeah. Nice. Um. So that’s great, uh, that you doing some breathing exercises.

I think they help a lot. Uh, definitely. Um, and I think you have to continue to do this. Of course, we all get nervous when we, on the start of the race, that’s absolutely normal, uh, because, you know, entering the line pumps in your blood and, uh, you’re getting excited and all this thing, uh, things happening.

Um, it’s absolutely okay. Um. Can you tell me about the purple dragster? Uh, the, is it, is it Lou or. Different.

Abigail Cole: No. So that is actually, she’s aged out now. Mm-hmm. Um, but it’s one of my friend’s cars, but that is the first car that I sat in. So when I went [00:18:00] to that NHR race, um, when I was three, that is the car that I in.

And for a while that’s the car that I wanted. I wanted to have the purple dragster that has the ferry on it. Um, but. It. Yeah. Um, it’s really cute. So the person that just aged out of that, she just aged out and her name was Z. Um, but I literally was in love with that car. I had the bit, unfortunately I didn’t exactly get that car, but I love mine.

So, um, yeah.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: That’s a really cute story also, uh, I hope you go on to get in the future top fuel, uh, dragster purple with ferry on it. It’s going to be awesome. Um, okay, uh, let’s do quick, uh, fun questions. Uh, if Luke could talk, what would she, uh, what would, uh, he [00:19:00] say? What do you think?

Abigail Cole: I’m sorry. Can you say that again?

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Uh, if Lou could talk, uh, what would he say?

Abigail Cole: I’ve never been asked that before. That’s, um, I don’t know.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: I know, maybe I’m fast, I’m furious. Something like this,

Abigail Cole: I don’t know. I think that she was just like congrat, well, not congratulate, but like. Wish me luck and like be positive things. Mm-hmm. Like stuff like that.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Nice. Uh, what’s your favorite snack? Uh, when you’re on the trek?

Abigail Cole: Ooh, that’s so hard. Um. Um, well a lot of times when we’re at home, my grandparents come out and my grandma always [00:20:00] brings like fruit and veggie tray.

Mm-hmm. So that’s always super nice to have. So I’d probably say fruit and veggie tray.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Alright. Uh, and, uh, tell me about the book you take to the race weekend. ’cause I know that you’re reading, uh, a lot.

Abigail Cole: Yeah, I, I read quite a bit. Um, I like, like fantasy sci-fi type books. Mm-hmm. Um, if I’m not reading the mental stuff mm-hmm.

Um, I have, I like the Harry Potters Hunger Games, um, more magic side of stuff too, so I. A lot of books. I have like two bookshelves full. Mm-hmm. Um, plus I borrow so much from the library that I wish I could fit in my room, but I just don’t have enough space. Um, but yeah. So the fantasy, sci-fi, fractured fairytale type things, um, yeah.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Mm-hmm.

Abigail Cole: Um, and I ha [00:21:00] I don’t have a favorite book. I, I’ve read too many, so that’s. Something that I could never choose.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: So you actually just enjoy, uh, every book, which you read?

Abigail Cole: Pretty much. Yeah. Okay.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Um, so for the future, what do you think, what’s your dream, uh, sponsor to like, bring you to the top few, uh, Dr.

Drag, uh, career?

Abigail Cole: Um, I would love to go pro. Whether that’s top fuel. Mm-hmm. Um, funny car. Mm-hmm. Or I would love to do pro stock. Okay. Um, I think pro stock would be super fun, but really whatever I have the chance to do.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Alright. Um, what advice, uh, can you give to like girls and boys who’s starting, who’s also 14 years old, uh, because you got quite big experience already in this life with all traveling, different hobbies and all this stuff.

Abigail Cole: Yeah. Um, I’d [00:22:00] probably say just take it slow. I mean, don’t go too crazy. Don’t think that you’re gonna be perfect. Um, ’cause I mean, mistakes happen and, um, definitely breathe through everything and keep a good mindset. Mindset is very, very important, so stay positive.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: That’s true. That mindset is so important, uh, because how you think that that’s how you actually see things and um, yeah.

If you see them from bedside, from negative side, you like things going to be bad for you. But if you see a little spark in, in bad stuff, it’s a really, uh, nice skill, uh, to have in this life. Absolutely agree with you, uh, in this and. Tell me about, uh, plans for this year, uh, which you got for this season, uh, and for [00:23:00] the future, maybe for the next, uh, three years or five.

Abigail Cole: So this season, I know I’ve got a big race coming up in Texas, the JDRL, Western Conference Finals. Um, and that in, I believe, an eight day race. Um, so a lot of races packed into those eight days. Um, but that’s usually about the biggest event that I have every year, so I’m super excited for that. That’s in, I wanna say like.

A month or so. Um, so coming up fast already, and then, I mean year, two year plans. Um, I don’t really have anything planned yet. Mm-hmm. Um, just ’cause I don’t know where I wanna go at this point. I, of course, like I said, I’d love to go pro. Um, I think I’ll, I’ll keep working on the junior step. Um, keep.

[00:24:00] Keep working on my mindset, keep working on all of that stuff, and, um, hopefully win some more races, win some more championships, um, some more wies, all the fun stuff. Uh, yeah, coming up we’ve got Western Conference finals and then of course the division seven, um, bracket finals, which I think is probably the second biggest race that I have every year.

So, yeah.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: That’s nice. Uh, also, can you tell me, uh, if, uh, you know, outside of the being the racing driver, uh, what’s your dream, uh, job which you would like to have in the future? Like maybe, uh, working as an engineer or like doing some welding or some other stuff.

Abigail Cole: I’ve really never thought of that before.

Mm-hmm. Um, just ’cause I’ve always, um, thought about racing and hoping to go pro there, but [00:25:00] I don’t really know at this point. Um, I mean, I love all the shop work stuff, so. Mm-hmm. Maybe something in that direction. Mm-hmm. Or, um, I don’t know. If we could bring some sort of something with books into it ’cause mm-hmm.

I am a bookworm and would love to do something that entails books. Mm-hmm. Um, but shop work definitely. And then if I can do something on the side that’s books, that’d be so awesome. Um, but mainly drag racing.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Nice. So maybe you can, uh, write a book about, uh, your career in drag racing. Uh, we’ll see in the future.

I’m so excited, uh, because with all your experience, I think, uh, you got a really bright future and, uh, with all the positive mindset and uh, uh, mental, uh, stuff, which you are reading. It’s really cool. So, um. Can you tell [00:26:00] me, so you girl in the racing? Yes. And uh, me too. And what do you think how we can, um, develop the racing to get more girls into this, like in United States and in the rest of the world?

World as well?

Abigail Cole: You know, I really think that you just gotta spread the word. You have to kind of put it out there as something fun. Um, something that’s competitive, not just serious, because I feel like a lot of people see racing as super serious, which it can be at times, but, um. I think it’s important to have fun, um, because if you’re not having fun, there’s no reason to do it because it is just a sport.

I mean, until you get up at higher ranks mm-hmm. You don’t have to like, be totally serious. I mean, um, [00:27:00] but definitely put the word out there, whether it’s through word of mouth, so social media or anything like that. Mm-hmm. Um. But I really do hope that we can grow the sport more for everyone because, um, I think it’d be awesome to have more kids in it and, um, grow the sport.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Mm-hmm. That’s great. Uh, as you said. You know, always have fun. This is, uh, what I say to, to people on my streams and when, you know, people doing some racing and they get to series, uh, sometimes, uh, and yeah, so just, uh, the main thing is to have fun and, uh, yeah, for sure some things happen, uh, on the racing track or like in some racing as well, uh, which can upset you.

But, uh, I think you’re right with this. Um.

And[00:28:00]

I wanted to say something, but then I, I just forget because, uh, it, it’s so exciting that first time I, I got person, uh, who’s, uh, 13 years old and it’s really cool that you, uh, you know, doing a lot of stuff also.

All right. Um. What, what’s actually, uh, the best lesson, which, which you learned during this years in, uh, racing and, uh, in other activities?

Abigail Cole: Um, I’ve probably, Hmm. I’ve learned so many whether I’ve realized it or not. Um, and I’ve learned from my mistakes. So many, I made so many mistakes. Um, but. Lesson that I have learned.

Um,

you know, [00:29:00] probably that, like I said earlier, you can’t be super serious. You have to relax. Mm-hmm. And you have to breathe through it and you can’t get too mad, you can’t get too emotional about whether you win or lose. Um, obviously losing. Just not feel the best sometimes. Mm-hmm. But, um, you gotta learn to get through that and learn from what happened.

Let’s say maybe you were still on the light, maybe you were not paying attention, or I mean, some tracks you, there’s tons of planes flying over and this is something I’ve done. Mm-hmm. Maybe you were watching the planes and had a horrible time, but you just gotta learn to focus. You gotta. Breathe through it, like I said.

Um mm-hmm. And so I think that’s probably the biggest lesson I’ve learned, but I’m sure there’s so many that I didn’t realize I learned. Mm-hmm. It just kind of grew through it without. [00:30:00] Realizing that it was even the thing.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Mm-hmm. Yeah. I noticed that you kind of go in with the flow in this life and, uh, it’s really nice, uh, because sometimes, you know, uh, like that happened to me.

Unfortunately, my team who supported me in the open wheelers, they completely shut down the program. Uh, but then some racing happened, then streaming happened and all the stuff. So you just go in with a. Flow and, uh, actually enjoying your life and having fun. It’s, uh, the main thing I wanted to ask you about.

You mentioned, uh, that it’s really important to, uh, go with, uh, social medias. Do you enjoy to, um, like, uh, doing something for your Instagram and also please tell people where they can find you. Um, maybe you got some kind of blog or something else.

Abigail Cole: So we’re on Facebook and Instagram as Abigail Cole racing, along with our family race team, which is 6 2 9 racing, [00:31:00] and then on YouTube is 6 2 9 racing.

Um, that’s all we are there. Um, wait.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Mm-hmm. That’s nice. Do you actually enjoy to do posting? Do you, uh, like. Photos and other stuff of social medias, uh, like do you want to do maybe some reels, uh, YouTube channel in the future about the drag racing or about your life overall?

Abigail Cole: It really depends on my mood, on whether or not I wanna do photos.

Mm-hmm. Or wanna do a video as a race, a recap, whether I just wanna write something. Um, like I said earlier, mom does all of the videography and the photography. Um, and then she does most social media. I write a lot of stuff, but, um. I’m not on there a lot. Um, so she’s doing most of the posting. I’ll go on and respond to comments and stuff, [00:32:00] but she handles most of that.

Mm-hmm. Um, and I just come in a little bit, um, but. As of taking photos and stuff, like I said, it really depends on my mood sometimes. Mm-hmm. I’m like super happy about it and like, okay, let’s do this. And sometimes I’m just like sitting there with a frown on my face and I have to be told to smile. To smile.

Mm-hmm. Um, so, um. That’s always fun times.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: I got you. Yeah. So sometimes you got a mood that you’re like, oh yeah, I don’t want to make any photos. Like, leave me alone. I feel that we all got, uh, that moment. Uh, definitely. Um, so last thoughts. Um. Maybe, uh, you can tell sentence, uh, which going to inspire girls in, uh, to jump into drag racing and, uh, we’re going to see a lot of, uh, girls in it [00:33:00] in the future.

Abigail Cole: Yes. Yes.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: I really hope for that. Mm-hmm. So what the would, would be the like inspiring, uh, message from you to girls. Hmm.

Abigail Cole: Um,

I would say, um,

I mean a lot of different sports have the competition, but I think that if you are really loving the competitive side is, is definitely probably the number one sport I would say for. Competitive stuff because mm-hmm. Um, of how competitive it can get. Um, but definitely if you enjoy speed, this is the sport for you.

Um, is so fun to go [00:34:00] so fast. I mean, at six years old I was going like 30 miles an hour and then I slowly moved up 50, um, 70, 80, um, and going. Like 82 miles an hour at 13 is absolutely insane. Mm-hmm. Um, especially with the size of the car. So it’s really fun for that side of things as well. So, um, I mean, and like I said earlier, if you’re getting into this stay focused, like don’t.

Freak out too much, like don’t overthink it. Mm-hmm. Which that’s something I really struggle with. I overthink everything. Um, so don’t overthink and just, just stay having fun with it. Mm-hmm. If you’re not having fun, I don’t see why you should be doing this.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Yeah. I think we all thinking sometimes it’s, uh, it’s fine.

Yeah. All [00:35:00] right. That, that was really nice, uh, to meet you. That was, uh. Cool to talk with you. Uh, wish you good luck for your racing career and uh, for other hobbies which you got, and, uh, be with this, uh, spark in your life for the future. Thank you so much guys. Thank you for watching. Uh, there was Abigail Cole with us, uh, young drag racer and absolutely amazing person.

Thank you Abigail, to being with us. Thank you for having me. Yeah. Bye guys. Thank you.

Crew Chief Brad: Innate eSports focuses on SIM racing events in digital tournaments. They bring eSports content to fans and sponsorship opportunities to brands while maximizing audience reach across multiple sports industries and platforms. eSports is a woman-led company [00:36:00] where diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility is in their DNA and their platform aims to combat bullying and cheating to help make the eSports world as safe and fair as possible.

To learn more, be sure to log onto www.initesports.gg or follow them on social media at init eSports. Join their discord, check out their YouTube channel, or follow their live content via switch.

Crew Chief Eric: This episode has been brought to you by Grand Touring Motorsports as part of our Motoring Podcast network.

For more episodes like this, tune in each week for more exciting and educational content from organizations like The Exotic Car Marketplace, the Motoring Historian, break Fixx, and many others. If you’d like to support Grand Touring Motor Sports and the Motoring Podcast Network, sign up for one of our many sponsorship tiers at www.patreon.com/gt Motorsports.

Please note that the content, opinions and materials presented and expressed in this episode are those of its creator, and this episode has been published with their consent. If you have any inquiries about this [00:37:00] program, please contact the creators of this episode via email or social media as mentioned in the episode.

Abigail’s car is a HalfScale Outlaw Junior Dragster. Powered by Nic Woods. Which is named Lou. Her home track is Pacific Raceways, commonly known across the nation as Seattle International Raceway. She races on weekends at home and on the road as much as possible.

In recent years, Abigail and her parents have worked really hard to build relationships and bring on sponsors, allowing them to travel and race starting in February and ending in October. In 2024, she raced in Washington, Arizona, Texas, and Nevada at 7 racetracks. They also own 629 Racing Parts and Support, so she can often be found slinging parts, doing inventory and getting orders out.

Copyright INIT eSports. This podcast is now produced as part of the Motoring Podcast Network and can be found everywhere you stream, download or listen!

More Screen to Speed…

Dive into the journeys of remarkable individuals making waves in sim racing and bridging the virtual with the real. From the thrill of digital circuits to the roar of real-life racetracks, they explore the passion, dedication, and innovation that drives the world of motorsports. They hear from athletes, creators, and pioneers sharing their stories, insights, and the powerful ways sim racing is connecting communities and creating pathways into motorsports.

INIT eSports focuses on sim racing events and digital tournaments. They bring eSports content to fans and sponsorship opportunities to brands, while maximizing audience reach across multiple sports, industries, and platforms. INIT eSports is a woman-led company where Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility is in their DNA, and their platform aims to combat bullying and cheating to help make the eSports world as safe and fair as possible. To learn more, be sure to logon to www.initesports.gg today or follow them on social media @initesports, join their discord, check out their YouTube Channel, or follow their live content via Twitch.

At INIT eSports, founder and CEO Stefy Bau doesn’t just settle for the ordinary. She creates extraordinary experiences by producing thrilling online competitions and real-life events that transcend the boundaries of the eSports universe. And she’s here with us on Break/Fix to share her story, and help you understand why you need to get more involved in the world of eSports.

Tune in everywhere you stream, download or listen!

Studebaker at the Brickyard: A Forgotten Chapter of Indy 500 History

IMRRC

May 8, 2025

Studebaker at the Brickyard: A Forgotten Chapter of Indy 500 History

When you think of Indianapolis 500 legends, names like Duesenberg, Miller, or Offenhauser might come to mind. But tucked away in the annals of racing history is a surprising contender: Studebaker. Known more for its solid middle-market cars than for motorsports glory, Studebaker made a brief but fascinating foray into the Indy 500 during the early 1930s – an era defined by innovation, grit, and a touch of corporate bravado.

Photo courtesy of Andrew Beckman, Studebaker National Museum

Studebaker’s founders were no strangers to speed. In 1881, the Studebaker brothers famously raced horses down Lafayette Street in South Bend, Indiana – earning a fine and a place in local lore. That spirit of competition lingered as the company transitioned from wagons to automobiles, dabbling in early racing with EMF and Flanders models before stepping back to focus on reliability and reputation.

Tune in everywhere you stream, download or listen!

But by the late 1920s, Studebaker was ready to re-enter the fray. The introduction of the President 8 engine in 1928 – a robust inline eight-cylinder powerplant – marked a turning point. Studebaker began endurance testing at Amatol Speedway, logging 30,000 miles in under 19 days and proudly proclaiming, “Nothing on Earth has gone so far, so fast.”

The 1930 rule changes at Indianapolis opened the door for production-based entries. Studebaker engineers seized the opportunity, fielding the Rompthie Special and the Russell 8 – both powered by modified President engines. Though not factory-backed initially, these cars showed promise, with Snowberger’s Russell 8 finishing 8th in 1930.

By 1931, Studebaker was all in. The Hunt Special, a stealth factory project, joined the grid alongside returning entries. Snowberger stunned the field by taking pole position, proving Studebaker’s engineering chops could rival the best.

Spotlight

Andrew Beckman has been with the Studebaker National Museum since 1999 and currently serves as Archivist. He previously worked at the Sheboygan County Historical Society in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, and the Wade House State Historic Site in Greenbush, Wisconsin. Mr. Beckman hails from Manitowoc, Wisconsin, and holds a BA in History from the University of Wisconsin- Green Bay. In 2004, he completed the Modern Archives Institute at the National Archives and Records Administration in Washington, D.C. In 2009, he earned his mid-level certificate in Collections Preservation from the Campbell Center for Historic Preservation Studies in Mount Carroll, Illinois. Mr. Beckman is the author of The Studebaker National Museum: Over a Century on Wheels, and Studebaker’s Last Dance: The Avanti, and is a columnist for the Studebaker Drivers Club magazine, Turning Wheels.
In addition to his duties at the Studebaker National Museum, Mr. Beckman is a member and Past President of the Society of Automotive Historians. He also serves as a commentator for The Henry Ford Museum’s Motor Muster and Old Car Fest.

Synopsis

This episode of The Logbook, our History of Motorsports series, explores the history of Studebaker’s involvement in the Indianapolis 500 car racing events during the early 1930s. The presentation recounts Studebaker’s brief but significant presence in motorsports. Andrew Beckman from the Studebaker National Museum delivers detailed accounts of the development and performance of Studebaker-powered race cars, focused on the company’s efforts in the 1932 and 1933 races, as well as the ongoing impact and legacy left by these vehicles. Beckman also discusses the technical development of the cars, the challenges faced by Studebaker due to economic constraints, and the eventual disposition of the race cars. The presentation is heavily informed by Studebaker’s corporate archives, museum collections, and contemporary race accounts.

Follow along using the video version of the Slide Deck from this Presentation

Transcript

[00:00:00] Brake Fix’s History of Motorsports series is brought to you in part by the International Motor Racing Research Center, as well as the Society of Automotive Historians, the Watkins Glen Area Chamber of Commerce, and the Argettsinger family.

Studebaker at Indianapolis. While Studebaker is rarely the first name one thinks of when discussing motorsports, the company had a strong yet brief presence at the Indianapolis 500 in the early 1930s. Studebaker laid the groundwork with the introduction of the President’s inline 8 cylinder engine in early 1928.

The advent of the Indianapolis 500’s 1930 rule changes opened the door for production based entries, and the president’s rugged eight powered a pair of private entries. These Studebaker engine specials showed promise and led to the development of Studebaker’s corporate team. This presentation will detail the origins and evolution of Studebaker powered race cars beginning in 1930, with a special emphasis on the company’s factory backed [00:01:00] campaigns in 1932 and 1933.

Additional focus will be placed on the technical development of Studebaker race cars, as well as the post Studebaker disposition of the team cars and their present day status. Sources include Studebaker’s corporate archives and image collection at the Studebaker National Museum, plus period publications and race accounts.

Additional data is drawn from secondary sources profiling the Studebaker team, plus owner research compiled during their stewardship of the cars. Andrew Beckman has been with the Studebaker National Museum since 1999 and currently serves as archivist. He previously worked at the Sheboygan County Historical Society in Sheboygan, Wisconsin and the Wade House State Historic Site in Greenbush, Wisconsin.

Mr. Beckman hails from Manitowoc, Wisconsin and holds a BA in History from the University of Wisconsin Green Bay. In 2004, he completed the Modern Archives Institute at the National Archives and Records Administration in Washington, D. C. In 2009, he earned his mid level certificate in Collections and Preservation from the Campbell Center for [00:02:00] Historic Preservation Studies in Mount Carolina, Illinois.

Andrew Beckman is the author of the Studebaker National Museum, Over a Century on Wheels, and Studebaker’s Last Dance, the Avanti, and is a columnist for the Studebaker Drivers Club Magazine, Turning Wheels. In addition to his duties at the Studebaker National Museum, Mr. Beckman is a member of and past president of the Society of Automotive Historians, and he serves as a commentator for the Henry Ford Museum’s Motor, Muster, and Old Car Fest.

So we will begin our final afternoon session with Andrew, who’s going to be discussing Studebaker at the Speedway, so please welcome. Andrew Beckman. Thank you for having me today. It’s my first time out here at the conference in general and also my first time to this part of New York. It’s absolutely beautiful to answer Kip’s question.

He asked me beforehand. Yes, Studebaker did race at the Indianapolis 500. So you’re gonna have to stay for the whole thing now. I’m sorry. We’re merely conducting an exacting test of our cars stated a Studebaker executive on a fine spring day in 1933. The executive was Studebaker’s [00:03:00] chief engineer, Barney Roos.

He was standing at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in front of the team of Studebaker race cars. His full quote was, as was our policy last year, Studebaker is not trying to win the Indianapolis race. We are merely conducting an exacting test of our cars. He went on to say he had a bridge to sell you in Brooklyn and he also had some land in Florida you might be interested as well.

For if anyone believes that anyone entering a race is not trying to win, well, certainly wouldn’t lend them any money. Now, Studebaker is, I realize, not the first name that comes to mind when you speak of motorsports. In fact, it’s not even the first name that comes to mind if you speak of motorsports from South Bend, Indiana.

Thank you, Ryan Newman, for that. But Studebaker, for its 114 years of vehicle manufacturing, had a very limited but very intense period of motorsports competition. Now this is somewhat of a surprise. You would think maybe the Studebaker brothers, the company’s founders, had something against motorsports. No, this was not the case.

In fact, Henry and Clemens Studebaker were avid horsemen. J. M., all the brothers, loved a fast race or so the day. In fact, in [00:04:00] 1881, J. M. had just acquired a new mount, and he felt that his horse was faster than his brother Clem’s. His brothers are wont to do. They took exception to this thesis, and they decided the only logical thing to do was to settle this on Lafayette Street in front of the Studebaker administration building in South Bend, Indiana.

Unfortunately, they passed by a local town marshal who immediately cited them for speeding and forced them to appear before the chief magistrate, who was also the mayor of South Bend. Despite a full throated defense of their actions, they were fined 2 in course costs and furthermore agreed never to do it again.

Again, if you believe that, well, I wouldn’t put too much stock in that. As Studebaker transitioned to the automobile age, the early Studebaker automobile history is not one of just building automobiles out of the Studebaker factory. They were essentially marketing cars produced by other upstart companies.

After all, Studebaker had the name recognition. They’d been around since the 1850s. They were the worldwide leader of horse drawn equipment. The new EMF models for Everett Metzger Flanders. That was the larger of the two models in the Flanders 20, given for its horsepower. Those as well as some Garford models and even one of their electrics [00:05:00] competed regularly in local contests throughout the early part of the 20th century.

The EMF in Flanders down all competing cars in the first sanctioned race meet of the season on Montgomery, Alabama’s track. And of course pointing you to where you could go out and buy one of these new race proven Flanders 20 and EMF 30 automobiles. Yet despite this early flurry of activity, Studebaker really stepped back from encouraging their cars in competition.

Studebaker was really more playing off their name, again, their reputation. You could go to your Studebaker dealer, you were going to get a solidly built car, you would pay a little more for it, they certainly weren’t competing with Henry Ford in the low price field, but you could count on getting a solid, middle priced car from Studebaker.

And indeed, their reputation spoke for itself. We have a 1919 Big Six in the collection that logged 475, 000 miles. Not as a company test vehicle, but as a privately owned automobile. And Studebaker felt this was noteworthy, hence they bought it back for inclusion in their collection. The first appearance of Studebaker at the Speedway was in 1924.

This deserves a bit of an asterisk here. The Studebaker Special No. 8, driven by Earl Cooper, actually placed second [00:06:00] that year. And I will point out the Studebaker components on this car right now. That would be the decal on the side here, and also the radiator badge. This is a Miller engine, Miller chassis body.

If you’re familiar at all with, uh, Indianapolis race cars, the rules formula for that time, these were all very specialized, high performance vehicles. And let’s face it, Studebaker’s 40 horsepower, light six engine was probably not going to cut it on the field that day. And Studebaker at this period too was in a bit of a crossroads.

They had, at one time, the top engineering team in the industry with Owen Skelton, Carl Breer, and Fred Zeder. They worked for Studebaker in the late teens. They developed Studebaker’s popular Big Six model. But they had a falling out with company executive Albert Erskine. He was actually the president at the time.

And they packed their bags and headed off to Chrysler. And did very well for Mr. Chrysler and his new corporation, which debuted in 1924. Studebaker also had a problem in the early 20s of, really, one of marketing. There was a survey done of the industry at some point and it figured out Studebaker had one of the narrowest price margins in the industry.

That is, from their least expensive automobile to their most expensive automobile. Erskine realized this, [00:07:00] but he also realized Studebaker needed more capacity. They needed larger factories. So starting in the late teens up to the mid twenties, he was trying to overhaul Studebaker’s plant complex. And when that was in place, he thought about reinvigorating the model lineup.

I had mentioned the Light 6 previously and the Big 6. Their middle priced model was called the Special 6. Let’s face it, from a marketing standpoint, these are not very stimulating names. Their marketing partner got it in gear in 1927. The Big 6 became the commander and certain models became the president.

The Special 6 became the dictator. It seemed like a good idea at the time. That’s a talk for another time. The Commander, however, and particularly the Commander Roadster with the three musketeers designed Big Six engine, it was noted for being an incredibly reliable engine. In terms of its engineering style, robust would be your words.

Someone had said that Studebaker’s engineering philosophy was there’s no substitute for cast iron, and if you can’t cast a glance at one of these engines, you’d be hard pressed to dispel that. Developed a massive amount of torque. It could churn along all day, Studebaker. Actually gave it full pressure lubrication in 1924.

And with that, they saw, well, we have this [00:08:00] very rugged automobile. Let’s go out and do some testing with it. We’ll do some racing. Again, these were more private events, not necessarily sanctioned by Studebaker, but certainly not exactly discouraged by the company heads either. This is at the Amatol Speedway in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

And we see a couple of commanders right there. And of course, I wouldn’t be showing you this picture if they did not win the race. And again, the cars held together very well. You got a very rugged, a very solid automobile with the Commander Big Six. They sent three more commanders back to Atlantic City in 1928.

And the orders were to complete 25, 000 miles as quickly as possible. The commander you see right there in front, the roadster, completed that task in 23, 000 minutes. Now, 23, 000 minutes is a bit of a tricky concept to wrap your head around. Anyone good at math in here? How long is 23, 000 minutes? Put it in days.

Anyone? Anyone? I see Luke furrowing his brow. I gotta tell you, the grade schoolers I give tours to figure this out a whole lot faster than you guys do here, but, uh, it comes out to 16 days. So for 16 days, day and night, these commanders lapped, Rain or shine, through mid [00:09:00] and darkness, and it was not running time.

The clock started when they started the first mile, and it stopped when they completed the 25, 000s. It was a new record, and in fact, Studebaker proudly proclaimed, Nothing on Earth has gone so far, so fast. Now as part of Albert Erskine’s grand plans for the company, marketing the product as one end, he had to do something about expanding Studebaker’s price reach.

So with that, he acquired the Pierce Arrow Corporation in the late 1920s, I believe it was early 1928, to give Studebaker a luxury brand. He wanted to introduce a low priced model called the Erskine. Modestly named, one might say, but the Erskine VI, it had an incredibly handsome car designed by Ray Dietrich.

Unfortunately, it had that fatal flaw in the automobile industry of being both overpriced and underpowered. And the Erskine was not a success in the market, especially when this new product from Chrysler and Plymouth and Ford’s Model A came on the scene later. The Erskine really never had a chance, and unfortunately, it disappeared from the landscape just a few years later.

On the other end of the line, however, was Studer’s President 8. The President, as I mentioned, initially started as a upscale model of the Big 6 when they renamed that line. But for [00:10:00] 1928, the all new model F A President came out, and with it came a fresh engine design. 313 cubic inch inline eight cylinder engine, fresh off the drawing boards from new chief engineer Delmer G.

Barney Roos. Mr. Roos had previously done stints Marmon. He had a good engineering mind, and he was The chief engineer that Studebaker was looking for at the right time. The President 8 was really a hot performer for the day, and kind of very out of character for Studebaker’s steady yet solid reputation.

And they immediately realized they had a pretty hot car on their hands. Back they went to the Amatol Speedway with a quartet of presidents. This time the goal was 30, 000 miles, in which the roads through up front there completed in 26, 000 minutes. So that’s about 19 days. Again, Studebaker was doing things that no other automaker was equal to able.

I believe Hudson went out and did a similar test, but they counted driving time instead of actually continuous running clock last time. And you got to think Studebaker was really on to something here. Erskine, in his mind, I think he was looking at going kind of the General Motors route, a [00:11:00] car for every person purpose, really expanding into the luxury market, and expanded Studebaker’s reach and awareness, trying to really rebrand Studebaker from that old horse drawn air manufacturer to someone who’s really bringing you some exciting automobiles.

Now the Studebaker President 8 might have sounded like an ideal power plant for the Indianapolis 500, and fortunately the rules at the time were such that that engine simply did not qualify. They had a maximum displacement of 91 cubic inches. And again, we hear the names Miller and Duesenberg bandied about a lot during talk of the 500 at that time.

Thankfully, there were no restrictions on displacement for the pace cars, and Studebaker was selected to serve as the pace car for the 1929 race, and also supplied a trio of official cars as well. And here we see the Pace car, you know, festooned as one would be, so there’s no mistaking, this is most definitely the Pace car.

Anyone identify this? I know an Indianapolis figure, a name that will sound familiar, and you’ll probably go, Oh, yeah. Anyone? Well, that would be Harry Hartz. And sitting behind the wheel is, if you get this one, I’ll give you 5 right now. Miss Anita Page, a star [00:12:00] of the screen, an actress, and she was actually appeared in an Academy Award winning movie, The Broadway Melody, available on Netflix, check it out tonight back at the hotel.

Now, back when I was in high school, some guy tooled around town in his Chevy Monte Carlo pace car replica, and apparently, I’m not sure if it came with the jacket and the hat and, you know, everything else, or if he stopped at the pro shop on his way out, but, I mean, there was no mistake in that car driving around Manitowoc, Wisconsin, and of course, I’m sure a lot of you remember the pace car replicas from the later 60s, early 70s, uh, at our Concord and South Bend, we had one of the I think it was early 70s Oldsmobile pace car replicas.

This is not a new concept. I came to learn when I was putting this talk together. Studebaker commissioned 30 replicas of the 1929 Indianapolis 500 President Roadster powered by the 115 horsepower Studebaker President 8 motor. This car possesses the speed and endurance so strikingly demonstrated by its record breaking performance of 30, 000 miles in 26, 326 minutes.

They weren’t wasting a beat on promoting that achievement. One of these cars still survives today, believe it or not. It was found, it had been repainted [00:13:00] several times, and the seller had actually promoted, Oh, you know, this is one of the Pace cars, replicas, and the guy who bought it was like, Yeah, sure, right, you know, you’re trying to boost the price a little bit.

Then as he’s stripping the paint, he found the unique paint scheme that was only supplied. On those 30 cars, so it’s good to know one of those is still with us. Well, ahead of the 1929 race, there was an announcement for rules changes for 1930. In particular, displacement was up to 366 cubic inches. Minimum weight was established, I believe it was 1, 750 pounds.

The riding mechanic came back and a few other choices to really open the door for stock engined vehicles at the Indianapolis 500. And as you might imagine, some people were looking at Studebaker’s new President 8. They said, this might be a pretty good idea to look into this as well. Now, this period at the 500, the early, the so called junk formula period, this was very much like open mic night at the Indianapolis 500 for a couple years with all the different manufacturers.

In 1930, you had Buick, Stutz, Oakland, Chrysler, this along with a couple of Maseratis, Mercedes Benz chassis car. Literally, [00:14:00] the quote unquote junk formula where, you know, run what you brung. Looking through the pictures before putting this together, and there’s the picture of the Stutz. And it literally looks like a guy went and got a Stutz Roadster, took the fenders, the splash aprons, running boards off, and painted a number on the side, and he was able to qualify and race.

The Studebaker entries for that year, a quintet of Studebaker engineers got together, said, hey, we can build an Indianapolis 500 race car. They called it the Rompthie Special. That may sound like an odd name. Well, it was the first initial of the last names of the engineers, and they added an E on the end to make it at least pronounceable.

But we see J. C. McDonald, that’s the M in Rompthy, as the driver. And William Richards, the R in the Rompthy, as the riding mechanic. And another name, a privateer, if you will, that was Russell Snowberger in the Russell 8. And he also competed with his, Paul Rice’s riding mechanic, and they qualified for the 1930 Indianapolis 500, one of the many stock blockers there.

And here we see a Russell 8 motor. Studebaker’s present engine was given the usual massaging. You see the magneto down there, four carburetor intake, raised [00:15:00] compression ratio. The standard hot rodding features to get a little more output out of the engine. So how did they do? Well, the Rompton qualified 13th.

It finished 13th. And the Russell 8 qualified 7th and finished 8th, the top finish of the stock block entries. Billy Arnold was actually the winner that year, having the lead from start to finish. But to give you an idea of how the race was going, the first year of the junk formula, In 1929, your slowest, fastest qualifying speed was about 18 miles an hour.

18 miles an hour spread on there. But you’ll see the stock blockers are trying to figure things out as the years go on. So fast forward to 1941, we’ve got the Russell 8 coming back, the Rompsey Special has been renamed the Richards Special because William Richards bought out his partners and set out to campaign again.

And there’s a new entrant, the Hunt Special. This was really a Studebaker, if I could say Skunk Works Project, an off books project. Studebaker was kind of eyeing up the 500, but they weren’t 100 percent sure they wanted to go in and have a grand failure. Looking ahead at what Ford V8s and the Miller component there a few years later, trying to get those cars to work well.

Studebaker wanted to hedge their bets, so they [00:16:00] commissioned George Hunt, their director of testing, to create a Studebaker powered car for the 500. Instead of a home built special, they contracted Herman Ringling from Indianapolis to supply the body and chassis, and then they used the Studebaker President engine.

Which, conveniently, was up to nine main bearings for the 1931 model year. Wouldn’t they have loved to have nine main bearings in 1930? Well, they added that for 1931, and continued to raid the rest of the Studebaker parts bins for the remaining parts. The brakes came from the Studebaker Dictator and Studebaker 6 models.

The rear axle came from a 29 President. And other odds and ends, gauges and whatnot, were sourced from other parts bins. The big news? Russell 8 took the pole in 1931. Now, the Duesenberg and Miller guys didn’t just stay home that year and say, you know, we’re not going to sit there. No, they were there.

Russell 8, with his home built Studebaker President 8 engine, took the pole, finished 5th. Richards, 12th, had some problems. I believe they had a ruptured fuel tank that year and finished 20th. And the Hunt special, steady yet unspectacular, managed to finish 18th. Now Studebaker was satisfied. They were convinced that they could really make a go [00:17:00] of this.

What a go they did for 1932, the company commissioned four additional Studebaker specials. They went back to wriggling and said, we need four more what you built for us in 1931. And again, they were outfitted in the Studebaker shops. This is actually the Studebaker engineering building in South Bend, Indiana.

See, Tony GoTo will hear a little more from him. In a minute right there, as the Studebaker specials took shape. Studebaker advertised these cars as 85 percent stock. This is also Depression Era II. They were trying to say, you know, we’re being sensible with our expenditures, but this is, as Mr. Roos would say, the next year, just an engineering test of our car, for cars that we’re never going to produce for the public anyway, but you get the point, went on Sunday, sell on Monday.

Certainly that was playing into their thinking as well. Here we see the Studebaker team at the 1932 Indianapolis 500. And for drivers, they had quite an impressive roster. Of course, we mentioned Tony Gulotta. We see him right there in the 25 car. Other drivers included Luther Johnson, another Studebaker test driver.

Cliff Berger, who was a Hollywood stuntman and also was an available free [00:18:00] agent. Peter Kreese was a building contractor by trade who also, as I said, he took a month off each year so he could go racing at Indianapolis. As one does, apparently. Most of my friends who are building contractors, they go out on their boat on the lake in northern Wisconsin.

Routing out the quintet was Zeke Meyer, who had experience as an airline mechanic and had been dabbling in racing, I believe he started racing in Indianapolis in 1926. Just from a visual standpoint, you know, you’re from Indiana, home of Studebaker, you buy your ticket to go sit down at the Grandstand, the 500, and you see Studebaker Special, Studebaker Special, Studebaker Special, Studebaker Special, who’s that?

Oh, Duesenberg, and someone else. Number 18 car sitting in the pits here and one of my coworkers was looking at this picture and they said, What’s that? And I said, Well, that looks to be the men’s room. My coworker, Joe McCoy, our assistant director said, Where’s the ladies room? I did not have a good answer for that because I could not find it anywhere.

So at the start of the race, Studebaker drivers were really stressed. It’s important to finish the race. Again, they’re not gonna just pull over and do leisurely drives around the track. There’s definitely competition going on. But they were instructed, try and finish the race. There’s [00:19:00] much more value in that.

So, with a very moderate, aggressive standpoint, and they knew that the Studebakers would hold together, whereas let the other cars break themselves. Ultimately, this strategy proved to be successful. Studebaker did not win the Indianapolis 500 in any of the years they competed, I’m sorry to say. However, they did finish 3rd in 1932, which year started 10th, 3rd, and the other teams shook out.

1315, solid showings and all, and also a rather lucrative year for Studebaker. 1932, they netted 11, 435 in prize money. So for not spending a lot on their specials, was it a profitable event? Is any race unprofitable for the company? But still, I thought that was a fairly impressive return. They could have gotten very little, had things gone poorly for them.

So what do you have in store for 1933? Well, if you aren’t changing something, if someone else will and they’re going to catch you, and Studebaker definitely had it on their minds that they needed to up their game for 1933. What that brought was new streamlined bodies. They used scale models just like these, actually with the aid of the University of Michigan’s wind tunnel, to determine what could be a more aerodynamic shape.

And this is [00:20:00] where you can tell the competitorship is starting to show a little bit with the Studebaker engineers. Even though they said their cars were 85 percent stock and, oh, everything’s the same as last year, they just upped it, no. No, they didn’t. Because we have in Studebaker’s part number list here, 92 in Studebaker language means the 1933 Speedway President.

Notice the name they applied to their grandmother, the Speedway President. In 1931, they had a Speedway package for the President Roadster with a little higher output. Certainly making the most they could on this campaign. These entries, 92 race, these are the race only parts for the 1933 model year. And you come down here, cylinder, part number 180607.

Those were the race only blocks for the 1933 race. They had a few modifications. They also had special heads, special camshafts. And these were only used in the 1933 model year. Indianapolis race cars. This did not cross over to any production model. If anyone sees a Studebaker straight 8 block that has a casting number, please call me day or night.

Feel free to stop by the house. I’ll give you the address. The dog will bark a little bit. Don’t worry about that. He’s friendly. But there are only two of [00:21:00] these blocks known to exist. And we see the new streamlined bodies here on the Studebaker mounts. You notice only four or five cars got the new body.

Studebaker had chosen to sell one of the cars, the 47 car, and it was actually technically owned by Ab Jenkins. Another noted racing driver who had actually done many campaigns for Studebaker, particularly for endurance racing. And he was actually slated to be one of the drivers for the 1932 Indianapolis 500.

Unfortunately, he found closed course driving was not really to his strengths. He much preferred endurance driving, so eventually he relented the driver’s seat to someone else. But as such, because Studebaker did not own the car, they weren’t paying for a free body for Mr. Jenkins, so only the four cars here got the new coachwork.

So how effective was this? Well, the Studebaker bodies and the extra engine components bought them an extra three to five miles an hour of qualifying speed, which was fairly significant. As I mentioned before, the rest of the field was upping their game. Spread from 1931, 16 miles an hour from fastest to slowest.

For 1932, it was six miles an hour. For 1933, it was nine miles an hour. Now, compare this to the last year of [00:22:00] the very exclusive 91 cubic inch formula. That was about a, uh, 18 mile an hour top to bottom speed. So you were seeing a lot more competitive racing from the junk formula, really achieving what they had hoped for.

And this shot, of course, in front of Indy’s iconic Gota. And representation of the Pierce Aero connection here, too. We see in the back one of the Pierce Aero silver Aero show cars. Piercero built these for the 1933 Auto Show Circuit. They only built five. These were actually built in Studebaker’s Experimental Body Shop in South Bend, and, uh, one made it down to the Speedway for publicity purchases at that time.

So, the start of the race again. Studebaker was going through a cautious race, but there were also some additional entrants at the Studebaker Contingent that year. A number of privateers joined the fray. We’ll talk about them in a minute. Pictures you see, I’ve seen many of these, and I always assume the numbers on the grill were just airbrushed in by the photographers after the fact for identification purposes.

It’s like, oh no, they put those on the day of, and he had, here, look at this picture, and it was a picture of the number 34 car, and yeah, it must have been placed on hastily with tape or paint or something like that. They literally painted the number on the front of the car. So here we go for [00:23:00] 1933. This is the Studebaker roster right here.

We see the wriggling chassis cars. You get the Studebaker Special, the factory teams. Russell Snowberger was back with a new chassis, Russell 8. And you had some other, uh, interesting cars in here as well. The Art Rose Special, driven by Dave Evans. That was a front wheel drive automobile. And it was actually powered by Studebaker’s smaller straight eight engine, the 250 cubic inch unit that was used in the 1929 Commander and up through the 1942 President line.

I gotta call out this one here. Yes, this was a Duesenberg chassised race car with a Studebaker engine, which is not something I ever thought I’d say in my life, and I’m gonna say it again. The chassis was Duesenberg, the engine was Studebaker. Doc McKenzie piloted that to an 18th place finish after 192 laps.

And we had three guys who were unable to qualify, Brady and Nardi, Allegheny Metal, and the Snell brothers. And I felt bad for Mr. Speed Gardner, because he has an awesome racing nickname, and he failed to qualify two years in the Studebaker cars. So, I don’t know if he went back to his given name after that or not.

The team best finisher for the Studebaker team was the [00:24:00] number 34 Studebaker Special. It came in 7th. We saw one of the privateers actually came in 6th. And you look at the finish here, we had 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 were all Studebaker powered. From the starting standpoint, just over 20 percent of the Studebaker powered from the factory teams and the privateers.

The bodies were great. There was a minor flaw, however. The streamlining was so good, the cockpits were like Dutch ovens. And the drivers were coming in saying, I can’t go on anymore, it’s too hot. And supposedly, one story circulated that they used a fire axe to actually chop holes into the car to get some ventilation into the cockpit.

That was not the case. As you can see here, I don’t see any evidence of axe trauma anywhere on the car. And this was rebunked later by some of the other engineers saying, I No, no, we use more conventional methods to keep the drivers cool. Studebaker, of course, wasted no problems advertising their success.

From the Speedway comes the stamina. From the Skyway comes their style. They created this wonderful logo of the circling car on the racetrack and an airplane flying. Seven of the first twelve winners at Indianapolis were Studebakers. How [00:25:00] did you have seven winners at a race? No, you won third place. You won seventh place.

You won twelfth place. It’s all in the copywriting, really. Studebaker promoted that far and wide that their cars had been so successful that Indianapolis and U2 could buy a Studebaker with that racing predigreed engine. Unfortunately, Studebaker had entered receivership in March of 1933. The company was broke, plain and simple.

The only reason they continued at the Indianapolis race was they were able to convince the creditors this is essentially bought and paid for. Whatever our plans were, this will be good publicity that we’re still trying to go on. But when Studebaker entered receivership, that meant the end of the factory backed racing program.

The cars were sold off. Company memo, this was issued on August 28th of 1933. Serial numbers 50 were sold off at 1, 000 a piece. And verified with, these is actually from the 34 car, the engine number and the serial number that correspond with memo. But Sudebaker was still not done racing. They were happy to enter the power plant business.

The smaller Commander 8, used in the Art Rose Special, they were willing to supply those to racers at the mere [00:26:00] cost of 750 a piece. And with that, you got A fully dressed race engine ready to go. See, when I say fully dressed, you’ve got the carburetors. Four carburetor intake, the magnetos. By the way, these are the same magnetos that some Bugatti race cars use.

Which, amazingly, the interchangeability has not brought down their price at all, on the current market. Since we’re back in 34, and it was all privateers from here on out. As I mentioned, the Art Rose Special with his front wheel drive, that’s the Schrader Special for 1934. The Russell 8, again, Russell Snowberger really had the secret sauce for getting performance.

He actually finished far better than any of the Studebaker team drivers. Luke and I were talking about this before. We never figured out why he didn’t hook on a team. Well, maybe he was just making more money being by himself than he was actually under the employ of the Studebaker Corporation.

Studebaker power continued in 1935 and 1936. But by 1935, a new name was starting to appear in the Indianapolis 500 leaderboard, and that was Offenhauser. And you can wonder, what would have happened had Studebaker not entered receivership? Well, I think the, how the racing was going, I don’t know how much longer they could have been a player.

I mean, even without [00:27:00] factory support, they continued to go as long as, we’ll see, 1939. I’m in here, but this is 1937. This is actually the original 22 car from 1933 that had been sold off. It was a Sobonite plastic special in 1937, and the last of the Studebaker cars to campaign at the 500. Another privateer, Joel Thorne Special.

This was Schrader Special we just saw previously. Unfortunately was out of the mix after an accident during qualifying. This car still survives today. Unfortunately still with the damage to the front wheel drive componentry which we found out does not interchange with an L29 cord. So he’s figuring out how to repair that.

The Greenfield Service Special. In 1937, this started life as the American Twist Drill Special. And this was a Perseverance Award. He tried to qualify three, four years in a row, did not make it. Finally was able to punch through and has the distinction of being the last Studebaker powered entry to run at the 500 in 1939, finished 24th.

But not the last attempt at Indianapolis to qualify. The Kiel Osborne Special of 1947. This was put together by two Studebaker engineers. The body was designed [00:28:00] by Virgil Exner, who at that time was in Studebaker styling. And again, went back to the 250 cubic inch President, now the Studebaker President, engine to power the car.

Unfortunately, the car did not qualify, despite two years of attempts. They just did not have enough development time and resources to proceed and make it successful. As for the Sobonite Plastic Special, we just saw Virgil Exner. Bought this car from Studebaker, turned it into a sports car. Virgil Exner Jr.

is still with us and lives in South Bend, Indiana. He remembers going out to meets all across East Side. We were driving an absurd amount of speed on the new Pennsylvania Turnpike with this car. People were amazed that we got from one side of the Turnpike to the other as fast as we could. The SCCA guys did not want to let them in because they said that’s a race car, that’s not a sports car.

Eventually they relented, probably pointing out they’d driven all the way from South Bend, Indiana. Studebaker bought this car back on at least two or three occasions because it appeared at the 1952 Indianapolis 500 when Studebaker paced the event, and we’ll have more on the disposition of that car in a moment.

And here we see Studebaker in 1962, they bought the [00:29:00] 22 car back, as I mentioned, for the second or third time with orders to restore it and also have it functional at its Racing capable speeds from 1932, so they could show off that at the Indianapolis 500. Joining him was the freshly restored 34 Special from the Brooks Stevens Collection.

As Studebaker was showing off their brand new sports model. They did have some difficulty getting the 22 car back together because as strange as this may sound, when they went to rebuild the engine, no one had any bearings for the big President 8. This was the Studebaker factory. They took to sending telegrams to dealers all over the United States.

Does anyone have a set of bearings for a 33 President engine? They eventually found that because the Pierce Arrow Straight 8 was also designed by Barney Roos and is identical in many formats with critical measurements of Studebaker, that engine was used in fire trucks until, I think, right around World War II.

They actually found they were able to adapt some Pierce engine bearings and be able to get the car going again. The Hunt Special, 37 car. And here we get into the nebulous part of what constitutes a car. The running joke with the Studebaker Specials is, of the five were built, eight remain. We’ll get to that in a minute here.

The Hunt Special, [00:30:00] 37 car. This is currently out at the Price Museum of Speed in Salt Lake City, Utah. Number 34, Studebaker special. It, too, suffered the indignity of a roadster body applied to it. The original body sat outside a garage in Chicago for many years. It was actually advertised, I believe it was in Car Classics magazine.

And the 34 car was acquired by Brooks Stevens in the late 1950s. It was sitting on a used car lot in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. Brooks knew what they had, so he got it and commissioned a restoration. He actually had the back section of the body rebuilt from scratch, just from photographs. And they were nearly done, and someone calls and says, Hey, we have the original body.

Do you want it? How much? I heard that I think it was 25. Nope. Don’t want it. Don’t need it. That body is actually out in California as part of another Studebaker Tribute Racer. Or is it not a Tribute Racer because it has part of the original body? That’s a debate for another time. The 22 car is down at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum, currently on loan to us at Studebaker National Museum.

Now here’s where it gets a little foggy. The 18 car, still with us, you see it right here, this is actually out from the [00:31:00] vintage races in California. The body, grill, and some aftermarket frame rails were found in a garage in Chicago. The story is, it was the most crowded garage you ever saw, but there was the Studebaker body.

Collector Mike Cleary from California acquired the body with aid of a Studebaker President Parts car and a lot of fabrication skills. Mike is a very skilled engineer. They were able to create the new No. 18 car. As for the original chassis of No. 18, that car went down to South Africa. And it was actually raced up into the 1950s, at which point it was disassembled, broken down, and used for spares.

The story I heard was the engine was actually used to power a Studebaker President Hearst from the early 1920s after that. And we have boots on the ground in South Africa. They’re still trying to track down any remnants of this car, but I’m afraid that one is lost to the mists of time. And lastly, the Kill Osborne Special, it was sat in a garage in South Bend, Indiana for a number of years until the guys who had it said, you know, this isn’t really practical as a race car.

We’re going to make a home built roadster out of it using 1950 ish Studebaker parts. The car still survives [00:32:00] today. No one really knows where it is. We suspect it might be in the South Bend area, but we’ll save that for talk some other time. And with that, I will be happy to field any questions. That logo that was from the Skyway comes the style?

From the Speedway comes their stamina, from the Skyway comes their style. Is that a Chicago Skyway bridge reference? No, it was referring to aviation, just the byways and skyways of America. Oh, so it’s an aviation reference. Yeah, because they actually had the little, uh, airplane going up. And that was really, Studebaker was hung up on the whole Skyway moniker.

In fact, they introduced a trim level in 1941, the Skyway series of cars. They really, uh, Really? We’re pushing that hard. Oh, very good. Thank you. The mantra for a long time, since the thirties actually was went on Sunday, sell on Monday, did Studebaker get in to racing in order to help sell production cars and if so, and, and obviously they were in it for a fair length of time, but they went into receivership.

So. It didn’t really seem to help, but it was a very ambitious effort. I’m just wondering if it correlated to trying to sell production cars. I feel bad that I didn’t include [00:33:00] graphs in here, because it would actually be very depressing. Did the success in 1932 with the third place finish help the president model for 1933?

Nope. 33 was the worst sales year and the depression had a lot to do with that, trying to sell their luxury model. Did it help them buy time with the receivership to show their viability? You can’t really measure that, but the fact that there was interest, there was helpability. The sales were one part of it.

Studebaker President Albert Erskine also, his business practices had a lot to do with receivership. You know what happens to your capital reserves when you pay out a dividend and yours you don’t show profit? They go away very quickly. In 1932 or 33, he paid out 506 percent of net profits in dividends.

And that’s what happens when you pay out dividends when you show a loss. He was convinced prosperity was just around the corner. It’s not. And Studebaker suffered the consequences. And it’s really, Studebaker could have folded up the tent in 1933. That could have happened very easily, but they managed to convince the bankruptcy judge that their best course of action to satisfying their creditors was And they hung on for another 20, 30 years.

Do you know what the [00:34:00] last race car to be powered by a Studebaker was? We’ll have to define your terms a little bit here, but go ahead. Okay, in 1965, the Canadian Grand Prix, for the most part, David Hobbs drove a Lola T70 powered by a Studebaker. He qualified second. It was entered by, uh, Harold Young Racing, I believe, the Canadian team.

I did not know that. Mr. Hobbs was just down at the Chattanooga Concours. I wish I could have discussed that with you. No, no. So you went through years rapidly there. Which year did they take the pole? 1931. Alright, 31. Then was it the following year they had multiple cars, but nothing more than 7th or 8th position?

In 31, Russell Snowberger took the pole. He was a privateer. He did not work for Studebaker, but it was the Russell 8 with the present engine. The team in 32, they had their best finish 3rd, the number 22 car, I believe. Cliff Ger was behind the wheel of that car and in 33 they were moving a little back in the qualifying, but they also, they hung in 33 was one of the most traumatic races the Speedway ever saw, just with the carnage.

And I wanna say there was [00:35:00] only 14 or 16 cars running at the end of the race, but all the Studebaker team was able to finish race. They never really had any terrible mechanical difficulties. But yeah, when that’s, when they say seven places, actually six through 12 in 1933 were all Studebaker power. So why the drop off?

Because of the carnage of the race? I mean, they Well, I mean, racing If I remember the qualifying speeds or whatever, they seem to suddenly drop down. The qualifying, they actually picked up a couple miles an hour qualifying from 30 to 33 with the new bodies and the new engines. But relative to the competition?

Relative to the competition, yeah. You started to see some of the more specialized You know, the Miller Duesenberg engine cars of that ilk were starting to spread the gap. And, like I said, when the Offenhauser came online in 35, you could really see the handwriting on the wall for the stock locks. That was fascinating.

Thanks, Hender. Appreciate it. Yes, they did race at Indy, Kip. Yes, they did, I guess. This episode is brought to you in part by the International Motor Racing Research Center. Its charter is to collect, share, and [00:36:00] preserve the history of motorsports, spanning continents, eras, and race series. The center’s collection embodies the speed, drama, and camaraderie of amateur and professional motor racing throughout the world.

The Center welcomes serious researchers and casual fans alike to share stories of race drivers, race series, and race cars captured on their shelves and walls and brought to life through a regular calendar of public lectures and special events. To learn more about the Center, visit www. racingarchives.

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Highlights

Skip ahead if you must… Here’s the highlights from this episode you might be most interested in and their corresponding time stamps.

00:00 Studebaker’s Early Motorsports Involvement
01:27 Andrew Beckman’s Background
02:51 Studebaker’s Racing Philosophy
04:32 Studebaker’s Early Racing History
09:50 The President 8 and Racing Innovations
13:19 Studebaker at the Indianapolis 500
17:00 The 1932 and 1933 Racing Campaigns
20:50 The Elusive Studebaker Straight 8 Block
21:01 Studebaker’s Racing Legacy
22:29 The 1933 Indianapolis 500
23:14 Privateers and Unique Entries
25:14 Studebaker’s Financial Struggles
25:30 The End of Factory-Backed Racing
26:16 Studebaker’s Continued Influence
27:03 The Last of the Studebaker Racers
28:55 Restoration and Legacy
32:05 Q&A Session
35:54 Sponsors and Closing Remarks

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Visiting the Studebaker National Museum

The Studebaker National Museum is devoted to sharing the story of the automotive and industrial history of South Bend and the greater region through the display and interpretation of Studebaker vehicles along with related industrial artifacts. The Collection also includes seven objects designated as “National Treasures” including the carriage Abraham Lincoln rode to Ford’s Theatre the night of his assassination, and a carriage used by the Marquis de Lafayette during his farewell tour of United States in 1824.

LEARN MORE ABOUT THE STUDEBAKER NATIONAL MUSEUM

Photo courtesy Andrew Beckman, Studebaker National Museum

The Studebaker National Museum is housed in a state-of-the-art, 55,000-square-foot facility that opened in October 2005. The building has three levels and features fully climate-controlled galleries and storage facilities to ensure the best possible care for the Collection. The Studebaker National Museum was designed by South Bend’s own James Childs Architects and features several design elements from Studebaker’s factory buildings.

Studebaker’s official team debuted in 1932 with four factory-backed specials, built in collaboration with Indianapolis chassis maker Herman Ringling. Drivers included Tony Gulotta, Zeke Meyer, and Cliff Berger – a Hollywood stuntman moonlighting as a racer. The team’s cautious strategy paid off: Studebaker finished 3rd, 13th, and 15th, earning over $11,000 in prize money during the depths of the Great Depression.

In 1933, Studebaker upped the ante with wind tunnel-tested streamlined bodies and race-only engine blocks. These “Speedway Presidents” gained 3–5 mph in qualifying speed, a significant edge in a tightening field. Though they didn’t win, Studebaker-powered cars filled positions 6 through 12 – an impressive showing for a company that claimed it wasn’t trying to win.

Studebaker’s Indy adventure ended as quickly as it began, but its impact lingers. From pace car replicas to race-only engine blocks (only two known to exist), the company’s brief flirtation with motorsports left behind a trail of engineering innovation and marketing savvy.

As Andrew Beckman, archivist at the Studebaker National Museum, quipped during his presentation: “If anyone believes that anyone entering a race is not trying to win… well, I wouldn’t lend them any money.”

Studebaker may not have claimed the Borg-Warner Trophy, but for a few thrilling years, they proved that even a company known for cast iron and caution could chase glory at the Speedway.

This episode is sponsored in part by: The International Motor Racing Research Center (IMRRC), The Society of Automotive Historians (SAH), The Watkins Glen Area Chamber of Commerce, and the Argetsinger Family – and was recorded in front of a live studio audience.

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Screen to Speed: Caitlin Wood

INIT eSports

April 28, 2025

In this episode of Screen to Speed, powered by Init eSports, host Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya (@LoveFortySix) interviews Australian professional racing driver Caitlin Wood. Caitlin shares her journey into racing, which began at age seven with family support.

Photo courtesy of Caitlin Wood, Social Media

She discusses her progression from go-karting to Formula Ford, and eventually moving to Europe to pursue higher levels of racing such as GT4 and GT3. Caitlin highlights key moments in her career, including winning a class at the Nürburgring (Nordschliffe) and competing in the W Series. She emphasizes the importance of endurance racing, the challenges of raising funds, and the significance of female representation in motorsport. Caitlin also offers advice for young women aspiring to enter the racing world. So buckle up – Screen to Speed starts now!

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Tune in everywhere you stream, download or listen!

Highlights

Skip ahead if you must… Here’s the highlights from this episode you might be most interested in and their corresponding time stamps.

00:00 Meet Caitlin Wood: Professional Racing Driver
01:03 Caitlin’s Early Racing Journey
02:26 Transition to Formula Racing
07:10 Racing in Europe and Endurance Challenges
13:51 Achievements and Future Goals
19:23 Women in Motorsport: Progress and Challenges
25:04 Lightning Round Questions with Caitlin
27:21 Closing Remarks and Contact Information

Transcript

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Hello. Welcome everyone to new talks. Uh, today we got Kaitlyn Woods. Uh, she’s a professional racing driver. Welcome Kaitlyn.

Caitlin Wood: Hi. Thank you for having me.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: [00:01:00] Yeah. Thank you so much for joining our in Talks today. Uh, let’s start with, uh, how you get into racing, how all this, uh, passion started for you.

Caitlin Wood: Yeah. Okay.

Um, I started racing when I was young, when I was seven. Um, but I think I kind of caught the bug a few years before that. There’s quite an age gap between myself and my brother. So he’s 12 years older than me. Um, so by the time I was born, he was already go-karting and I was lucky enough to grow up around it in that environment.

So by the time I was seven, I wanted to. My first go-kart and yeah, on my seventh birthday, my dad and my brother took me out to our local cart track back home in Australia, Newcastle Cart Club, and I guess that’s where, that’s where it all started. I didn’t make it past the first corner and I was straight off into the gravel trap.

So, um. My, uh, my poor dad had lots of running round to do after me, but, you know, uh, I loved it. And I guess ever since then, um, [00:02:00] at seven, I’ve never not been involved in Motorsport. Obviously started in go-karts and then progressed through the junior ranks of, of Motorsport. Yeah.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: This is great. Uh, I also started in the same way in cars, so I remember that, uh, first time I went to the, uh, tree or something.

It was really fun.

Caitlin Wood: Yeah, yeah, exactly. So we all start somewhere, right?

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Yeah, that’s true. Uh, can you tell me more, uh, where you move after go-karts and how your career started to develop?

Caitlin Wood: Yeah, so I guess. You know, carting was always a family hobby, um, you know, for me and my dad and my brother. And it was something we did on weekends, as I’m sure you can relate to.

And I guess the older I got, you know, when I started to come into my teenage years, 12, 13, 14 was when I realized, you know, I really am enjoying this and I wanna do more. So, you know, I spoke to dad and was like, I wanna try [00:03:00] and be better and, and. I’m passionate about Motors sport and I wanna see where that takes me.

So he did his best and we did our best to try and compete in national carding championships and compete against the best. My dad’s kind of motive was if you wanna be the best, you gotta compete against the best. So, um, yeah, we tried to do that as much as we could. And when I turned, uh, 1516, I guess kind of similar kind of.

Uh, story is my brother had made the step up into Formula Ford into race cars, obviously quite a few years before me. And the formula Ford car was back home in our shed, kind of in a million pieces. Um, so it had kind of been in, in, in the shed for, for quite a few years. And I remember, you know, 15-year-old Caitlin in the, in the shed after school with dad.

And I was just like, so when’s it my turn her when, you know, when can I, when can I drive the formula? Ford and Dad was really shocked. I don’t think he, he knew what [00:04:00] to say. Um, so he kind of gave me an ultimatum and he was like, well, if you can put the race car back together, then you can drive it. Um. Yeah.

15-year-old Caitlyn thought, yeah, that can’t be that hard. I can do that. And uh, you know, turns out it is pretty difficult. But, um, yeah, so I then spent those summer holidays in Oz, which was over Christmas and New Year’s with dad kind of rebuilding the formula forward. In the following year, we, we took it racing and I had my first test day, and that’s ultimately how I made that progression into, into race cars.

So again, I was fortunate to have that opportunity to be there and obviously my dad pushed me to make sure I was ready and it was something that I wanted to do. And thankfully, on our first test day, all four wheels stayed on. So I did an okay job. Um, but yeah, we, um, we enjoyed it and it’s a really special way for me to have got started, especially doing that with dad and, [00:05:00] and having that, and that was our own, I guess, little race team.

We did it together. So my dad would kind of be my mechanic and my brother would be my engineer, and we’d. Travel up and down Australia competing in different formula Ford championships, and obviously being 15, I’d never driven on the road before, so I was getting used to driving a manual and understanding the characteristics of driving a car and not a, not a go-kart anymore.

And so I was a really. Fundamental tool to, for me to develop as a driver and, and compete in formula forward. And after that, we then started to look into race teams, et cetera. Um, but yeah, it was a, a very, very fun way to get started.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: That’s great. Uh, so formal Ford is a great car. I race it and I racing, uh.

A lot of times. Yeah. And, uh, it’s really fun indeed. And, uh, of course, uh, when you jump from go-karting to, uh, foremost, it’s completely a different thing, uh, [00:06:00] with a view with, uh, how you race and how you balance the car for the corners and everything. Uh, can you tell me more, uh, about what is your favorite, uh, Australian tar uh, trek?

Which you race.

Caitlin Wood: Oh, that’s easy. That’s easy. What do you think it is?

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: No. Yeah. Yeah.

Caitlin Wood: I feel like it’s every Aussie, uh, favorite track. Um, yeah. Either Bathurst Man, Panorama or Philip Island. They’re definitely my two. Mm-hmm. My two favorites back home.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Yeah. Philip Island is great. One also I think a little bit underrated in I racing, so I’m all the time. A little bit set. Yeah. When people not racing it, I think it’s, uh, really fun and uh, you know, going with a flow track.

I really like it also.

Crew Chief Brad: Yeah.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: All right. And, uh, uh, then after some time you like, uh, [00:07:00] jumped different formulas after formal Ford or there was, uh, like, uh, GT cars. Uh, so how you move Yeah. Forward with career.

Caitlin Wood: Yeah. I think just like ev everybody in Motorsport, it’s very difficult financially to. To take those next steps.

Um, you know, we, we all know what that’s like. And so yeah, I did a few years, uh, a formula forward. We stepped into a race team and I did one and a half seasons with the race team, uh, synergy Motorsport, because unfortunately we did, we kind of ran out of budget. We ran out sponsors to continue that program.

Uh, afterwards I got a scholarship drive to do a few rounds in Australian Formula four. So, again, obviously sounds similar but separate. We obviously have slick tires and wings and a little bit of downforce and um, yeah, that was two or three races at the end of 2015. And then the following year in 2016, that was kind of my, yeah, fresh 18.[00:08:00]

It was a little bit, I think of, I don’t know what kind of year we call it, but it was my, um, you know, I took a, I took a chance. I took a leap, that’s for sure. And, uh, a German team had been in touch with me called Rider Engineering, for anybody that I’ve heard of them and asked if I would like to be a part of their junior program called the Writer Young Stars.

And that was a part of the European GT four Championship. So it was a big step for, you know, a young Australian living, uh, going to move to the other side of the world. And, um, so I remember kind of my dad sitting me down at the dinner table being like, you know, this is, this is as far as we can take you.

Uh, Caitlin, you know, it was a, it was like a sponsored drive, but obviously my parents had to. You know, give up a lot for me to be able to move to Germany on my own and things like that. So, um, yeah, he said not many Australians get to go and race in Europe, let alone Monza and spa and all these amazing circuits, let alone, you know.

There’s, uh, not many female, [00:09:00] um, Australian drivers before me that have done that either. So he is like, go and enjoy yourself and do the best you can, and you know, if you win, you then got a fully funded drive the following season in GT three. With writer in the Bloon GT series, now known as GT World Challenge.

So for me, I could see the progression and I could see how I could progress my career in GTS and, and continue that progress. So I really wanted to take that step and yeah, and then dad was like, but you know, if you don’t win, that’s absolutely fine. You can come back home to Australia and go to university and.

Continue another route, so to speak. Um, so yeah, that was enough motivation and I think for me to, uh, for me to win. And so, yeah, I won that, that Young Stars program in European GT four, and I won that scholarship. So then that snowballed me into GT three in Blanc Point, in a Lamborghini, in the Lamborghini Gado, REX.

So the previous generation before the hurricane. And [00:10:00] yeah, that was crazy, uh, to compete, you know, in my opinion, against some of the best drivers in the world. And it was an endurance championship. So I had a few teammates that year and we finished on the podium in our first race at Mazano, which was really cool in our class, in the Silver Cup class.

Um, yeah. And then, and then from there, it was a little bit of an unfortunate year with a few incidences and we didn’t, um, finish many races. Just ’cause that’s kind of racing. Um, and yeah, uh, at kind of fresh 18, I’d moved to Germany by myself and committed to, to trying to, to make it work. So it was very daunting.

Daunting, sorry. And obviously, well not obviously, but I didn’t know German. Um, so I struggled with the language barrier. Quite a lot, but I, you know, I tried my best and I grew up a lot in that phase of my life and I’m very grateful for that opportunity to have worked with that race team and progressed myself and continue that journey.

So yeah, I did two years [00:11:00] over there and then after that I then moved to the UK ’cause I thought that would be a good stepping stone to continue that GT journey. And yeah, I’ve kind of been in the UK for a few years now. I did a, the following year, I did a few rounds with. A driver in the Lamborghini Super TR series.

Mm-hmm. Two or three rounds. And then the W series came about in 2019. So I became obviously the Australian representative in the W series, which I was a part of from 2019 to 2021. So yeah, obviously covid happened in those times, which made life very difficult for everybody. Um, yeah. And then, uh, in 2021, I became a part of the Humor W Series team.

Which was very cool to represent a brand like Puma and be a part of their team. Um, and I just competed in selected rounds, so I did Spa Hungary and Coda. Mm-hmm. And yeah, we had a [00:12:00] really good, really good round at SPA and obviously very, was very grateful for that opportunity to. He and the W Series be a part of the championship and get back into single seater racing.

I don’t think without, without that, I would’ve been able to progress into Formula three, you know, into the formula regional cars. So yeah, it was very, very, very cool to be a part of.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Yeah, I remember we’ve been into one team on W series, uh, selection event. Uh, yeah. Yeah, that was really fun to see all these, uh, girls and, uh, just they bring every, everybody together.

It was a great event. Really.

Caitlin Wood: Yeah. Yeah, it was, uh, the first of its kind obviously, and they, you know, as you know, got women from all around the world. And that was really for me, exciting and empowering to see so many girls and women drivers from all around the world be able to meet. [00:13:00] And, um, like, ’cause I think, you know, up until that point you.

Sometimes you think you’re the only one, don’t you? If you, you know, ’cause you are a minority. So to be put in a room with, you know, 70 other female drivers was pretty cool.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Yeah. And that’s really sad. That’s, uh, W series, unfortunately you stopped there. Um, I. Races and their championships. Yeah, really set. Um, but, uh, I really, I think that, uh, they involved a lot of, uh, girls into this and, uh, probably a lot of, uh, girls also into racing community, uh, because, uh, we had a great, uh, like introduction, uh, to the world that uh, hey girls can, can drive fast and that yeah, that can be the whole series.

With, uh, with girls only. It was really cool. Um, so I know that you won the race at Berg Ring. Uh, can you tell me more about this event and how was it [00:14:00] to win on the Berg ring for you?

Caitlin Wood: Yeah. Yeah. Um, so the following year in 2022, I decided to take a step back into endurance racing. My ultimate goal has always been to compete at Lamont.

I love endurance racing. Um, and I’ve competed in a few 24 hour races. So we thought it’d be a good step to go out to the nor life and get my permit and kind of work my way up the, the ranks out there. And so I did a few VNS when it was VLN, which is now known as NLS, did a few NLS rounds in a BMW three series.

And yeah, we were competitive as a team. ’cause as an endurance racing, you have other drivers in the car with you. So I had two other drivers with me. And yeah, in 2023 I did, I became the first Australian woman to kind of win a race, win a class at the, at the Nords life, which was very, very cool. And. In the moment, we didn’t actually know that.

I [00:15:00] was, I guess the first one. It wasn’t until we sat down afterwards and I’m like, oh, I really, I wonder who did this before me. And we couldn’t find any Aussie woman that had done so. Yeah, it was very cool to, I guess, put that in the, in the books somewhere, um, for people to. To see and to kind of show Aussie girls back home that you can compete in Europe and you can compete on the world stage and that there is, um, it is accessible.

So yeah, it was, um, racing out at the nor life is crazy. There’s, I, as you know, it’s such a long circuit. Mm-hmm. There’s so many cars on track. The traffic is insane. You’re dealing with faster cars, slower cars. So I was competing in the production car class in a BMW three series. Mm-hmm. So we’re kind of, I guess, in the middle of the pack.

We’re not the fastest car on track, but we’re not the slowest either. So you’re, you’re looking for traffic in front of you and behind you. So yeah, it definitely makes you very aware and teaches you so much as a [00:16:00] driver about how to. I guess be fast in traffic as well, not just fast as an overall lap time and you know, know when to go for a move, when to hold back and just be, drive a little bit smarter realistically.

And. The nor life isn’t afraid to, to throw out some wild weather as well. So, um, I remember in one of my stints, in one of the races there, I was out on slicks and it started to rain. Mm-hmm. So it was literally all about ringing, bringing the car home. But you still have, I don’t know, six, seven kilometers left of the, so yeah, it’s a.

It’s a, uh, it’s a crazy, it’s a crazy circuit out there, but it was very cool to be able to get some results out there and, um, yeah,

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: and compete. Yeah, that, that’s awesome. Uh, nurse life will definitely difficult track and endurances, I race a lot of endurances in, uh, racing and, uh, all the time you have to [00:17:00] manage the, the traffic.

If you like LMP two and you got Gs and GD freeze, so you have to watch out for them. And yeah, as you said, sometimes you just, um. It’s taken easy and uh, then you just, uh, pushing, uh, in, in some corners, uh, to, um, like to be more predictable for people on track. Uh, it’s a different world. Yeah. Yeah. And I think endurance is, uh, such a great, uh, because you working with a team, you, you also managing traffic and you’re saving fuel and you’re doing a lot of, uh, stuff.

So I really like Endurances as well. Um, yeah, so how, how do you see, uh, your road to lemon? Because that’s your dream. Uh.

Caitlin Wood: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Um, you know, there, well for me personally, there hasn’t been an Australian woman compete at Lamont since 1935, and there’s only been one, and her name was [00:18:00] Joan Richmond.

So it’s been 90 years. Um, so I’m, yeah, I’m definitely passionate and ready to kind of break that. Mm-hmm. Break that drought and get on the grid somehow. And yeah, the road to Lamont. Ultimately the next step is to try and get on the Michelin Lemmont Cup grid or ELMS grid and get some experience. And the road to Le Mon, um, race with Michelin Lemmont Cup is obviously, uh, very important because you race at Lamont, albeit in, you know, a small, uh, in a shorter distance race, two one hour races, but it gets you on that platform and you’re able to progress.

So. Yeah, I guess the next step in my career is to try and raise the, the sponsorship and the budget and the funding to be able to, to do that and take a, take a step into the prototype. I would love to mm-hmm. Raise l and p three. I would love to do that. Um, but I also have experience in gts, so I’m very open-minded and I’m very happy to drive anything and everything.[00:19:00]

So yeah, I’ll continue kind of pushing for that route full of mon, but. I would never say no to an opportunity at the same time.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: We wish you good luck, uh, for that. Uh, hopefully we’re going to see you thank you and LT free and, uh, 24 hours of lemon. Uh, yeah, that’s a absolutely amazing event and a great track to drive on.

Definitely. Um, how do you see, um, the representative of women into the racing right now? Like, do you see that something changing and uh, actually like community more friendly to everybody?

Caitlin Wood: Yeah, absolutely. I think, I don’t think it’s just motor sport. I think it’s sport as a whole, and I think it’s society as a whole.

We’re definitely making steps in the right direction to make Indus, you know, male dominant industries or industries more accessible to everybody that previously weren’t. And you know, specifically motor sport is. Becoming more [00:20:00] aware of where it needs to help, um, help drivers and try and progress them, and especially women as well, and, and open those doors.

And like we said before, I think the W series was really important to be that representation for the, you know, a next generation of drivers and engineers and mechanics and journalists. And for people just to see women involved in motorsport in all different avenues, which is really important. And I think.

The one thing that everybody struggles with, whether you’re male or female in motors sport, is always the budget in raising that. Mm-hmm. To be able to go racing. So having, um, scholarship programs and initiatives like the Iron Dames and obviously now F1 Academy is great to see, to be able to put these talented women up, um, and for the world to see ultimately to see them perform and perform well, which is important.

Um, I’d say. Society is, is more accepting. Don’t get me wrong, I think there’s [00:21:00] always been a little bit of a stigma about female drivers and it’s just ultimately, you know, at the end of the day, we know our own capabilities where as individuals, as drivers, and you just go out on the track and you just perform.

And it doesn’t matter who you are or where you come from or anything like that. And that’s, that’s I guess, the most important thing. But, um. In terms of opportunity, I think representation is very powerful and it’s a very powerful tool and we’re, we’re kind of seeing that with Netflix and drive to survive, not only with women, but with opening a new audience into Formula One and all of these avenues.

But what I’m really passionate about as well is obviously we want to influence and inspire the next generation, but then what, what do we do with these women and these girls to. Once they are inspired, where are the opportunities? Where are the stepping stones? And you know, not just as a driver, but as an engineer and as a mechanic, and are we enabling, [00:22:00] are we still having.

It be accessible, it’s all well and good sparking all this inspiration. Mm-hmm. And getting people interested. But I think the next step is to really try and increase the opportunities and the scholarship programs and, um, university opportunities and work, work placement and all of these different avenues to actually get women on the ground and, and in the field.

And not just women, but you know, everybody from all different areas. So yeah, I think that’s also really important.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: I think I agree with you that, uh, we have to have like workplaces and, uh, like for women or like, uh, whatever would, would like to be involved into racing. It’s really important. Um, what advice can you give to young women, uh, who, uh, trying to go for the same path as you?

Caitlin Wood: Yeah. Um, motor sport is tough. It is tough. [00:23:00] Um, it’s like any sport in the world or any, anything that you wanna achieve, it’s not gonna come easy. And that’s okay. And that’s part of the journey. Um, and that’s what makes you a better driver, a better person, a better athlete. So enjoy the journey. Um, believe in yourself and.

Try not to take no for an answer. If someone tells you, no, you can’t do that. You know, turn around and tell them and ask them why you can’t. Um, you know, always try and keep, keep striving to be the best version of yourself that you can be. Um, but at the end of the day, the most important thing is that you enjoy it.

I think throughout my career there’s definitely been ups and downs, just like anybody’s career or any sports person. Sports person, sorry. And I think. You can kind of fall in and out of love with the sport when it does, when it does hurt you. Um, so, you know, bring yourself back to the point of what you enjoy most about the sport and [00:24:00] what, what, what gives you the most joy and, you know, um, that ultimately will be where you’ll perform best as well.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Yeah, you’re absolutely right with this, uh, I think and, um. Can you tell me where people can follow you and, uh, just, uh, you know, to see you and, uh yeah. Follow your career?

Caitlin Wood: Yeah, that would be great. Um. Obviously, uh, my name is Caitlyn Wood and I on all of my socials, I’m Caitlyn Wood Racing. So yeah, Instagram, Facebook, uh, LinkedIn, all those good things.

Um, always feel free to reach out. I think I’m probably most social on my Instagram, but I need to get better at. Being better on social media and I do have a sim at home and I do jump on I racing. Mm-hmm. So I need to, um, I need to join, join in on some races with you guys. Definitely.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Yeah. True. I think you have to join some of the screen to speed events if [00:25:00] you’ll have time.

For sure. We’ll be happy to see you on the track. Absolutely. Yeah. Uh, alright, uh, so the last one, uh, will be fun, quick questions. Uh, uh, what’s your favorite track snack?

Caitlin Wood: Snack? Snack? Oh, that’s such a good question. Um, um, probably I’m probably boring. You know, I’m probably just gonna say like a protein bar, something easy.

Mm-hmm. But like a chocolate protein bar, when I want something sweet, but I know I can’t have anything too naughty, so it just kind of eases the cravings.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: All right. Uh, next one will be the hard one. Uh, GT or single sitter for the rest of your life.

Caitlin Wood: Ah, that’s hard. That’s so hard. Um, well, oh, that’s so hard.

Well, endurance racing has to be gt, but overall lap time or overall qualifying lap has to be single seater. So, [00:26:00] am I going racing or am I just doing poly lapse, is the question?

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Uh, I think your answer was, was good enough. I think I’m.

Okay. And uh, the last one, uh, race you’d redo in a heartbeat.

Crew Chief Brad: Oh, good one. Um, probably,

Caitlin Wood: probably Spa with W series in 2021. Mm-hmm. Um, and it was wet and. It was that parental race weekend where the F1 didn’t end up racing, but uh, yeah, we did on the Saturday and. Yeah, I would probably relive that because I finished fifth and I was so close to the podium.

Mm-hmm. So I, I was given another crack. I remember battling Marta, who was my teammate at the time, and we were PMA teammates. And, um, I made a, [00:27:00] a really good move around the outside of her, around Poon. ’cause obviously I, I had the wet line. Um, and yeah, we had a really good battle. So I’d probably say, I’d probably say that race because I’d like to get it back.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Yeah. Far more free. Uh, I bet it’s, it’s great on the spa and, uh, especially in the rain.

Caitlin Wood: Yeah. Yeah, it was cool.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Okay, so guys, thank you so much, uh, for watching. Caitlyn, thank you so much for taking your time, uh, to be with us today. And, uh, don’t forget to follow her on her socials so you can find her in Instagram.

Uh, and we probably going to see her in one of the screen to speed events. Thank you so much guys.

Caitlin Wood: Absolutely. Thank you so much for having me. It was lovely to chat with you. Thank you.

Crew Chief Brad: Innate eSports focuses on SIM racing events in digital tournaments. They bring eSports content to [00:28:00] fans and sponsorship opportunities to brands while maximizing audience reach across multiple sports industries and platforms. eSports is a woman-led company where diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility is in their DNA and their platform aims to combat bullying and cheating to help make the eSports world as safe and fair as possible.

To learn more, be sure to log onto www.initesports.gg or follow them on social media at init eSports. Join their discord, check out their YouTube channel, or follow their live content via switch.

Crew Chief Eric: This episode has been brought to you by Grand Touring Motorsports as part of our Motoring Podcast network.

Please note that the content, opinions and materials presented and expressed in this episode are those of its creator, and this episode has been published with their consent. If you have any inquiries about this program, please contact the creators of this episode via email or social media as mentioned in the episode.

Now based in the UK, Caitlin is continuing to work towards her ultimate goal of representing women and Australia at the legendary 24 Hours of Le Mans. Alongside her racing career, she is an advocate for women in sports and STEM, working to inspire the next generation of engineers, drivers and industry leaders.

Copyright INIT eSports. This podcast is now produced as part of the Motoring Podcast Network and can be found everywhere you stream, download or listen!

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The Simeone Foundation Automotive Museum and ACO Partner for a Historic Celebration of Le Mans

Event Highlights Include

Historic vehicle demonstrations on the museum’s 3-acre tarmac, featuring over 30 automobiles from the Simeone Collection including icons like the Aston Martin DBR1, Ford GT MK IV, and Porsche 917 LH
Official ACO USA broadcast of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, available exclusively at the Simeone Museum
Special appearances by veteran Le Mans drivers (pending confirmation)
The unveiling of a major new addition to the museum collection
A nighttime light and sound show capturing the mood of midnight at Circuit de la Sarthe
An exclusive preview of “DriverVision,” the museum’s upcoming immersive experience
Exclusive ACO swag, memorabilia, and discounted memberships available for attendees
Live Le Mans storytelling sessions, expanding on the museum’s signature Demo Day format with a rich lineup of narrative segments that bring racing history to life throughout the weekend
Screenings of exclusive video interviews with legendary Le Mans drivers, conducted by author and historian Harry Hurst

Photo courtesy of the Simeone Foundation Museum.
Photo courtesy of the Simeone Foundation Museum.
Photo courtesy of the Simeone Foundation Museum.
Photo courtesy of the Simeone Foundation Museum.
Photo courtesy of the Simeone Foundation Museum.
Photo courtesy of the Simeone Foundation Museum.
Photo courtesy of the Simeone Foundation Museum.

“This partnership represents more than a shared love of endurance racing—it’s a shared responsibility to honor its legacy,” said Kevin Kelly, Executive Director of the Simeone Museum. “We’re not just watching the race—we’re telling its story, with the people and the partners who make that story matter.”