"The First Lady of Racing"
Trailblazing female racer campaigns for spot in Motorsports Hall of Fame
Posted: Monday July 06, 1998 04:38 PM
TALLADEGA, Alabama (AP) -- Years of being the odd woman out during NASCAR's formative years haven't rendered Louise Smith bitter or angry.
She was the circuit's only female driver during the 1940s and 50s, and, still spry at age 82, she believes her accomplishments are good enough for a spot in the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in Talladega, Alabama.
Instead of complaining, Smith recently spent time typing neat thank-you notes to the people who voted for her induction. Known as "The First Lady of Racing," she's come close to being enshrined, having made the final 20 in Hall of Fame voting for the past two years. But she hasn't made the final cut.
"I cannot explain in words just how proud it makes me feel" to be considered, she wrote in her thank-you notes. Next year, "The First Lady of Racing," is hoping she will be writing thank-you notes about being inducted.
"I feel a little more confident about my chances," she said
in a telephone interview from her home in Greenville, South Carolina.
She said people seem to be going out of their way to help her,
but at her age, "if they wait too much longer to put me in, it
won't matter much because I won't be around to enjoy it."
As a driver, Smith was known as much for her spectacular crashes
as she was for her hard-charging style of racing. And even though she has been retired for 42 years, her spirit and pride are just as strong as when she competed in the 1940s and '50s.
"The other drivers didn't like me when I raced because I was a
woman, and they liked me even less when I beat them," Smith said.
"There are even people now who wouldn't want me in the Hall of
Fame because I showed them up back in the 1940s and 1950s.
"If I was a man, I'd already be in the Hall of Fame. I'm not
being a smart aleck about it, I'm just telling the truth. I always
tell people I wished I'd raced just a few more years and maybe that
would've made it easier for me to get in."
Smith grew up in Greenville, and took an early liking to the
world of speed and grease.
"I had outrun every cop in the country, so I was a good
driver," Smith said. "I liked speed and I liked to let it loose
behind the wheel. I'd always wanted to race because I knew I'd like
it and knew I could win, but when you're a woman you didn't race
much back then -- and you don't race too much now, for that
matter."
Smith's venture into the world of motor sports came courtesy of
Bill France. Before he would create and transform NASCAR into the
most popular racing circuit in the world, he was a struggling
promoter simply trying to put people in the seats.
"Before NASCAR got going good, 300 or 400 people in the stands
was considered a big crowd," she said. "Bill knew I knew how to
drive a car, and he thought he might could put more folks in the
stands if I drove in a race. He was looking at it as a publicity stunt at first, but I was looking at it as an opportunity."
Her first event was at the half-mile Greenville-Pickens
Speedway, and fans turned out by the hundreds to see how the woman
driver could compete against "real" stock car pilots. Smith
finished third in the event, and France quickly realized she was
much more than a novelty.
"Coming in third made a lot of the guys mad," Smith said. "I
think a lot of them are still mad at me now. They're nice to me and
say I'm their friend, but I guarantee they wouldn't like it one bit
if I raced them today. But Bill and I became good friends and he
let me race, and I think I turned out to be a pretty good driver."
She went on to win 38 modified races in 11 years, showing her
skills at ovals from Daytona to Canada. The motivation then was competition and fun, not six-figure purses.
"Money was nothing back then," she said. "Sometimes it seemed
like the more you drove the less money you had. I remember one time
Buck Baker and Lee Petty and me had to put our money together just
to split a hot dog and a Coke."
Smith is glad that NASCAR has finally achieved what she and
France hoped it would, and says she isn't bitter about being shunned during the past several decades of growth. During NASCAR's
Night in Hollywood, a star-studded television event highlighting 50
years of the series, she was a hot commodity.
"I enjoyed the show -- what I saw of it," she said. "But
they'd take me to one interview room to talk to the newspaper
people, and another room to talk to the TV people, and I had to
walk down this long red carpet by myself. I was scared half to death, but I appreciated the attention."
Now she hopes she gets the attention of the 150 Hall of Fame
voters, who will soon begin selecting the 1999 class of inductees.
"I won a lot, crashed a lot, and broke just about every bone in
my body during my career," she said. "I gave it everything I had
and I honestly think I made a big enough impact to get in the hall.
"Maybe I didn't win as many races as a lot of the NASCAR guys
in there, but I was the only woman out there way back when. And I
won my share."
Copyright 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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