Janet Guthrie

Who is Janet Guthrie? If you're not at least a middle-aged fan of auto racing, I wouldn't begrudge you the question.

As a fan of the sport since the age of 16 I do not blush to admit that I have read hundreds of books on the sport. More than a few of these have been biographies, and more often than not they've been self-serving fluff pieces, rushed out to capitalize on the often all-too-brief fame some star of the circuits has achieved. Usually ghost-written and not worth the time to print and bind them, let alone read them, they're literary candy...appealing on the wrapper and initially tasty, but ultimately unsatisfying. They work well as monitor stands and look pretty on a shelf, but that's about all they have to recommend them. And before I go any farther, I will come out and say it: this is NOT one of those books!

What it is, then, is the story of Janet Guthrie, Race Car Driver. It is lovingly-written, by Janet herself, the story of someone who didn't necessarily set out to prove anything other than that she was a helluva race car driver. And she was all that and more. "A Life At Full Throttle" is an amazingly well-told story of Janet's triumphs...personal triumphs mostly, at least in terms in racing history, but, such is the lot of the Pioneer, and that is what Janet surely was; not the first woman race car driver by any means, but the first to achieve any degree of notoriety on a global stage. I won't attempt to list all of her achievements, the book does a much better job of of that. Suffice to say, she was, for her time, the sort of sensation that Danica Patrick is today.

More important though is the personal struggles through which she persevered to reach the summits of her chosen field, the starting grids of Indianapolis and Daytona. And not just to simply make the race, but to be competitive, and in machinery that often didn't match that of her competition, on budgets that didn't match the level of preparation on the cars. "Overachiever" easily describes Janet's career in motorsports.

My only minor gripe with this book is that it stops rather abruptly in 1978, just as Janet's racing career seemed to be hitting full stride. True, 1979 and 1980 were not so much full stride as full stop for Janet Guthrie and her racing-wise, and that's just a shame if you were to know some of the details...but for an ill-timed wave off by her crew of a qualifying run at Indy in 1980 that would have easily made the race, she might well have had the race of her life, and there could have been a helluva epilogue to all of this. Even as is, it would have been fascinating to have had the opportunity to read of what had to be an intensely disappointing experience, but then the book would/could have ended up several hundred pages longer, and might have ended on a distinctly sour note.

In summation: Janet Guthrie didn't necessarily set out to be a Pioneer, but there you go. Funny what happens when you live out your dreams. Along the way she became, and remains, a role model for anyone fighting adversity, no matter their gender. There are lessons to be learned in this book for everyone, even if you don't have any interest in racing, but her inspiring, gripping story should be required reading for anyone who is a serious student of the sport of auto racing, or for anyone seeking a fascinating, engaging read.… (meer)