This weekend is the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona, which is North America’s most famous sports-car race. The twice around the clock event will be contested by over 200 racers, as teams utilize 3 to 4 drivers, each taking shifts behind the wheel. It’s a shame that Jamie Chadwick, one of the best female racers on earth, will be on the sidelines.
Even worse, Jamie Chadwick has been named the Grand Marshal for the race, and will give the command to start engines. The 3-time W Series champion will have to stand there, look pretty, and smile for the cameras as all her rivals prepare to race.
“It is an honor to be Grand Marshal of the Rolex 24 At Daytona and, as the spiritual home of Rolex and motorsport, I am looking forward to reflecting on the history, while watching some great racing. I’m excited to be involved and hope to join the line-up at Daytona in the future.”
– Jamie Chadwick
Chadwick is best known as an open-wheel racer. After running the table on the W-Series all-female category, she spent years as a ‘development driver’ for Williams Formula 1. While font and centre at promotional events, there was no chance of ever getting a race seat.
Chadwick moved to America to compete in Indy NXT (the step below IndyCar). For the 2025 racing season, she will compete in the European Le Mans Series with IDEC Sport, competing in prototypes similar to what’s being raced at Daytona.
With the European teams she jumped through every hoop and did every stupid promotional puff piece they asked her to. Drove the pace car, drove the vintage race cars, stood next to the team boss to show the world how enlightened the team is by hiring a woman.
Even in America, a woman with Chadwick’s list of accomplishments couldn’t even scrounge up a seat for Daytona. Not even a back-marker team looking for phony publicity. Sometimes the thin veil hiding the misogyny in motorsports is pulled back to reveal the ugliness underneath.
That’s really too bad. I feel in another life I would have pursued this lol. One of my greatest regrets is when I was 16 or 17 my uncle asked me to drive his stock car in the “powder puff” race and for some reason I declined. I think if I had, it would have taken me on some other path possibly. I LOVE driving and especially in the snow, it’s so fun and I get a little too into it just driving around town, trying to drift ever so slightly on corners AND be the fastest, without getting caught of course lol.
I agree, it is too bad that totally qualified women drivers never get a shot. Even this weekend with hundreds of seats available, the top woman is standing on the sidelines.
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I think you’re the only person I’ve ever heard call them ‘powder puff’ races. It’s like segregation, isn’t it? Women only allowed to race against each other. Not sure if that’s supposed to give a woman a better shot at winning, or protect the fragile egos of the guys driving.
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Do your kids love snow drifting too? Or did mom behind the wheel scare them too much ?
Powder Puff definitely adds to the misogyny lol…but that was the early 90’s so things were so different but I still would have gladly raced woman to woman
Ugghhh don’t even get me started on my kids’ driving records lol….they try to be cool like me but what they lack is the experience…my son’s on car #5 I think and he’s only 21, my younger daughter rear ended someone last week, six hours after passing her driver’s test…I do blame myself a bit cause I set a bad example
Jeez… 5 cars by 21. You have a heavy cross to carry.
It’s a sad reality.
It really is. Many of the drivers pay to be in this race. That’s the reality of the sport. But there’s still supposed to be enough opportunity for qualified drivers.
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Sad reality is that for women, there is very little room on the grid. I’m glad my daughter doesn’t race.
With driving, the cars are equalizers, so car racing is a much better sport for women to compete against men than sports like boxing, swimming, running, bicycle racing, etc.
Back to manual transmissions. My boss is looking at this Porsche: https://www.porschealbuquerque.com/inventory/certified-used-2024-porsche-718-cayman-style-edition-rwd-2d-coupe-wp0aa2a88rk255885/
He drives a Porsche Macan and said the automatic tranny in the Macan is great and shifts faster than he ever could, but he misses having a standard.
First off, that’s a very nice looking Porsche. That stripe down the hood (front trunk?) sets it off.
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I can totally understand what the boss is saying about missing the manual gearbox. I think the Porsche PDK transmission has two clutches, and automatically shifts in milliseconds. Even using the paddle shifters, the moment you click it, the car is in the next gear. Just amazing technology for improving lap times.
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And there’s the problem. The automatics are now faster than stick shifts. Even Subaru claims their WRX with the automatic is faster, therefore enthusiasts should love it.
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But is it just as much fun? As engaging? Dows the driver feel the same connection to the machine?
Fun and connection to the machine are really big deals. People who have never driven standards don’t know what they are missing.
My son drives a 2003 WRX. When we started our Subaru search 5 years ago, he was insistent on it being an automatic. His race car is a manual H-pattern gearbox, but for his daily driver, automatic. I thought it was a stupid decision, but driving downtown every day would drive anybody crazy. That clutch is no fun in stop-and-go traffic.
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The WRX isn’t as much fun as our 5-speed ’99 Miata at the track, but you’ve got to decide what the car’s real purpose it. So, I guess stick shift isn’t ideal for everyone.
I’ve driven in stop-and-go traffic for years. I live on the wrong side of the river; trying to get across the river is challenging at rush hour. I never thought about the clutch being annoying. The traffic is annoying.
Kids these days are spoiled. It all boils down to that. By the time my daughter starts driving, she’ll complain that steering is such a chore.
Watch out. She might want a self driving car.
Yeah…that’s not happening. No electric cars, and no self driving BS. If she wants that, I’ll get her a bus pass!
There you go. A bus pass is perfect.