Open-wheel racing has never been an easy space to break into—and for women, it’s often meant fighting twice as hard for half the opportunity. But across different eras, a group of drivers refused to wait for doors to open. Instead, they forced their way in.
From pioneers like Janet Guthrie and Lyn St. James to modern competitors like Katherine Legge and Pippa Mann, each of these women built careers through resilience, talent, and persistence. Some made history with wins and records. Others carved out opportunities in a system that wasn’t built for them. Together, their stories aren’t just about racing—they’re about changing what the sport looks like, and who gets to be part of it.
Here’s a rundown of some of the women who made their mark on IndyCar—on their own terms.
Ana Beatriz
Ana Beatriz didn’t just show up in IndyCar’s ladder system—she made sure people remembered her name. The Brazilian racer, full name Ana Beatriz Caselato Gomes de Figueiredo, built her career the hard way: grinding through open-wheel racing while quietly rewriting what was possible for women in the series.
Her breakout came in Indy Lights (now Indy NXT) with Sam Schmidt Motorsports in 2008. Right away, she made an impact. At the Freedom 100, she finished fifth, the best ever result by a female driver in that race at the time. Whilst not a headline grabber to some, in context? That was a statement.
Then came Nashville. On July 12, 2008, Beatriz didn’t just compete: she won, and became the first woman ever to win an Indy Lights race, full stop. That moment alone locked her into the sport’s history. She backed this up by winning the Rookie of the Year honours and the Tony Renna Rising Star Award, capping off one of the most impactful debut seasons ever seen.
2009 should’ve been the follow-up surge—but racing rarely goes clean. A heavy crash at the Freedom 100 derailed her momentum and forced her to miss races, including Milwaukee. Funding issues later sidelined her again before the season finale. However, she fought back to grab another win at Iowa Speedway, proving the Nashville result wasn’t a one-off.
By 2010, she stepped up to IndyCar with Dreyer & Reinbold Racing. Her debut in São Paulo felt like a full-circle moment—Brazilian driver, global stage. She made the Indianapolis 500 that year too, though her race ended in a chaotic last-lap incident. Not the finish she wanted, but she was nevertheless in the fight.
Her first full IndyCar season in 2011 was nothing less than a brutal start. A broken wrist in St. Petersburg after an early crash meant she was racing hurt almost immediately. She missed a race and spent much of the season driving with a brace—one of those details that doesn’t show up in stats, but says everything about her resilience.
Yet, she kept pushing. Tests with Andretti in 2012 opened doors, leading to Indy 500 and São Paulo entries. In 2013, she ran a partial schedule with Dale Coyne Racing, staying in the mix across multiple circuits.
Eventually, her focus shifted back home to Brazil. In Stock Car Brasil, she logged 120 races—grinding, consistent, and never flashy, but always present. Two top fives and a best championship finish of 24th don’t scream dominance, but that wasn’t the point. She was still there. Still competing.
After stepping away for maternity leave, she came back, proving that drivers like Beatriz don’t just ‘fade out’. Since 2023, she’s been racing full-time in Copa Truck, adopting a different discipline, but the same mindset: show up, compete, and keep pushing boundaries. Ana Beatriz didn’t just open doors—she proved you could kick them down and stay in the room.
Tatiana Calderón
Tatiana Calderón’s story starts the way a lot of racing stories do—except hers didn’t stay ordinary for long. At nine years old, she was already at a kart track in Bogotá almost every day after school, racing alongside her sister. By ten, this wasn’t just a hobby anymore. It was the plan.
She had to fight for it early: from convincing her father to invest in a kart, pushing through her mother’s concerns about safety, and carving out space in a sport that didn’t exactly roll out the welcome mat. Inspired by Juan Pablo Montoya and Ayrton Senna, she set the bar high from the beginning. And she delivered.
In 2005, she became the first woman to win a Colombian national karting title. That alone would’ve been enough to stand out, but she kept stacking results. Wins, podiums, championships. And not without resistance—she’s talked about being deliberately raced harder, even aggressively, by male competitors. Her response? Push back harder.
By her mid-teens, she was already transitioning into cars. At 17, she stepped into open-wheel racing in Star Mazda, finishing 10th in her rookie season. A year later, she made history again, becoming the first woman to stand on the podium in that series. From there, her career became a global climb: Europe, Formula 3, GP3, and Formula 2.
She didn’t take the easy route—and honestly, there wasn’t one. In British Formula 3, she became the first woman to score an overall podium. In GP3, she fought through tough qualifying struggles but kept improving. In Formula 2, she made history again by becoming the first woman to compete in the series—and later, the first to lead a lap. That’s the pattern with Calderón: even when the results sheet doesn’t jump out, the milestones do.
Behind the scenes, she was building something bigger. Development driver roles with Sauber (later Alfa Romeo) put her inside the Formula One world. Her life became testing, simulator work, race weekends, and repeat. All her hard work paid off when she became the first Latin American woman to drive a modern F1 car.
But her uphill battle has been anything but smooth. Funding issues, limited testing opportunities, and the constant challenge of adapting to new machinery kept putting obstacles in her way. Her 2022 IndyCar stint with A.J. Foyt Enterprises showed flashes, but ultimately got cut short due to sponsorship problems—not performance alone. That’s a theme in her career: opportunity vs. access. Still, she kept moving.
Endurance racing. Le Mans. Daytona. Super Formula in Japan. Formula E tests. She’s built one of the most diverse resumes in motorsport—not just among women, but period. And now, in 2026, she’s taken on a new challenge in the Brazilian Stock Car Pro Series.
Tatiana Calderón isn’t defined by a single breakthrough moment like Beatriz’s Nashville win. Instead, her legacy is built on persistence across every level of the sport—breaking barriers one series at a time, in different cars, on different continents.
Simona de Silvestro
Simona de Silvestro’s IndyCar story? It’s chaos, resilience, and flashes of brilliance all rolled into one. Before IndyCar, she was already building something serious. In Atlantic Championship, she didn’t just compete—she won. Long Beach 2008. Street circuit. Pressure. Delivered. That made her only the second woman ever to win in the series, and it wasn’t a fluke. She came back in 2009 and won four races, leading the championship for most of the season before it slipped away late.
That set the stage for IndyCar. She went full-time in 2010 with HVM Racing, and right away, she showed she belonged. Indianapolis 500 debut? 14th place and Rookie of the Year. Not bad for a driver still figuring out the series.
But if you’re talking about Simona, you have to talk about the crashes—because they tell you everything about her. Texas 2010. Massive fire. Burns to her hand. And the bigger story? How long it took the safety crew to respond. That moment didn’t just highlight her toughness—it exposed cracks in the system.
Somehow, she kept going. 2011 started strong—fourth at St. Pete—but quickly turned into another brutal stretch. A terrifying Indy 500 practice crash left her with burns again after her car launched into the catch fence and flipped. Later that season, dizziness and vision issues forced her to sit out races. At one point, she was literally dealing with injuries, mechanical failures, and even visa issues that kept her out of the country.
Image Credit: ESPN
It just never came easy. Then 2012 hit—and honestly, it might’ve been the toughest challenge of all. She was stuck with the Lotus engine. While the rest of the field moved on to Chevy and Honda, she didn’t have that option. The car was underpowered to the point where she couldn’t even stay competitive, and she was struggling to simply stay on track and keep up the pace. It wasn’t about talent—that season was survival.
And then 2013 flipped everything. New team. KV Racing. Proper equipment. Finally, we saw what she could really do. Houston—Race 1—P2. Her first IndyCar podium. And suddenly, she’s in the same conversation as Danica Patrick and Sarah Fisher as one of the few women to ever stand on that podium. That moment mattered.
She kept pushing after that—Indy 500 attempts with Andretti, later returning with Paretta Autosport in 2021, a team built around female leadership. Even when she wasn’t full-time, she stayed connected to the series. And her career didn’t stop at IndyCar. Formula E? Points scorer. One of the first women to do it.
Formula One? Sauber affiliation, testing, real shot at breaking through before it fell apart due to contract issues. Through it all, Simona became known for one thing: toughness. Not just surviving the hits—but coming back from them.
Milka Duno
Milka Duno’s path into racing didn’t follow the usual script—and that’s exactly what makes it stand out. She didn’t grow up karting at five. She didn’t climb the ladder step by step. She started at 24. And still made it all the way to IndyCar. That alone tells you everything about her trajectory.
She began in Venezuela in the mid-90s, quickly finding pace in GT racing before making the jump to the U.S. By 2000 she was already making history, becoming the first woman to win a Ferrari Challenge race in America, then adding a Panoz GT Series title on top of that.
But where she really built her reputation was endurance racing. American Le Mans Series. Rolex Grand-Am. Daytona. She wasn’t just showing up—she was winning. Then came her Petit Le Mans class win. Multiple victories in Daytona Prototype competition. And in 2007, she finished second overall at the 24 Hours of Daytona—the highest finish ever by a female driver at the time. That’s not a footnote—that’s elite-level performance in one of the toughest races in the world.
Then came IndyCar. In 2007, she entered the series part-time, including the Indy 500. That year also marked something bigger: for the first time in North American open-wheel history, three women started the same race.
By 2010, she was full-time with Dale Coyne Racing. Results-wise, it was tough—IndyCar wasn’t where she found her strongest footing. But she showed up, ran the races, and stayed in the mix during a time when female representation in the field was quietly growing.
And then there’s that 2010 statistic that still stands out: five women in a single IndyCar race. Duno was part of that lineup. That matters. Her career didn’t stop there, either. She moved into ARCA, where she grabbed a top ten and steadily improved, eventually finishing seventh in the championship in 2013—one of the best seasons by a woman in that series.
Then NASCAR. Limited starts, but still another box checked. Duno’s legacy isn’t about one defining IndyCar moment—it’s about range. Endurance racing, stock cars, open-wheel. She covered all of it. And she proved you don’t have to start early to go far.
Sarah Fisher
Sarah Fisher didn’t just race in IndyCar—she helped reshape what women in the sport could look like. She started early… really early. Quarter midgets at five years old, climbing through karting with serious success. By the time she hit her teens, she was already deep into sprint cars, learning the kind of car control that doesn’t come easy. But her path wasn’t just about driving—it was about figuring everything out herself along the way.
By 1999, she was knocking on IndyCar’s door. And when she got there, she didn’t simply ease in—she made history, becoming the youngest driver to compete in the Indy Racing League at the time. In 2002, she took pole at Kentucky Speedway, and became the first woman ever to win a pole in major American open-wheel racing. That wasn’t just symbolic. That was speed. She backed it up with results too, most notably a second-place finish at Homestead in 2001, which stood as one of the best finishes by a woman in IndyCar for years.
But like a lot of drivers on this list, her career was a constant fight against funding and equipment limitations. Different teams. Partial seasons. Underpowered cars. Still, she stayed. And then, she did something even bigger. In 2008, she launched her own team—Sarah Fisher Racing. Driver. Owner. Leader. That’s a completely different level of impact.
She had to fight just to get cars on track: funding Indy 500 entries, piecing together schedules, making tough calls (including stepping out of the car herself to put other drivers in competitive seats).
Eventually, that team evolved into something even bigger—laying the groundwork for what became Ed Carpenter Racing, one of IndyCar’s key teams today. Yes, Fisher had the results—podiums, poles, records. But her real legacy? She didn’t just compete in IndyCar. She built something that lasted even after she stepped out of the car.
Janet Guthrie
Janet Guthrie didn’t just show up in motorsports—she forced the door open. She started racing in 1963 in SCCA events, driving a Jaguar XK140, and by the early ’70s, she had gone all-in on racing full-time. Before stock cars and Indy, she built a strong sports car résumé, including two class wins at the 12 Hours of Sebring, which already put her in serious company.
Then came 1976—and history. At the World 600, Guthrie became the first woman to compete in a NASCAR superspeedway race. She didn’t stop there either, running multiple races that season and proving she belonged. A year later at the Daytona 500, she finished 12th despite her engine failing late in the race—still good enough to earn Top Rookie honours.
Across four seasons, she ran 33 NASCAR races, with a best finish of 6th at Bristol in 1977—a result that stood as the best by a woman in NASCAR’s top level for decades. But her impact at Indianapolis might be even bigger.
She qualified for the 1977 Indianapolis 500, becoming the first woman to compete in the race, although mechanical issues cut her day short. In 1978, she came back and finished 9th—while driving with a fractured wrist she didn’t even tell officials about. Overall, she made 11 IndyCar starts, with a best finish of fifth.
What makes her story stand out even more is everything working against her. When she failed to qualify in 1976, some drivers blamed it on her being a woman. That didn’t sit well with A. J. Foyt, who lent her a backup car—one she proved was fast enough to make the field.
Even with the talent, results, and backing from respected figures in the sport, sponsorship never fully came together. Like a lot of drivers from that era—especially women—funding ultimately cut her career short. Still, her legacy was already locked in.
She became part of the Supersisters trading card set, her gear is preserved at the Smithsonian, and she was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 2006. Her autobiography, Janet Guthrie: A Life at Full Throttle, only adds to the story of someone who didn’t just compete—she changed what was possible.
Katherine Legge
Katherine Legge’s career is the definition of persistence: a career mixed with a willingness to race pretty much anything, anywhere. She came up through the European ladder system—Formula Ford, Formula Renault, Formula 3—and was already making noise early on. She grabbed poles, broke lap records (including one previously held by Kimi Räikkönen), and became the first woman to win the BRDC Rising Star award.
But getting to the next level wasn’t straightforward. She actually ran out of funding and had to take matters into her own hands, literally showing up at Cosworth’s offices and refusing to leave until she got a meeting. That gamble paid off, and by 2005, she was in the Toyota Atlantic Championship.
And she didn’t ease into it. She won her very first race at Long Beach, becoming the first woman to win a developmental open-wheel race in North America. By the end of the season, she had three wins and finished third in the championship.
From there, she kept breaking new ground. In Champ Car, she became the first woman to lead laps in the series, and despite a massive crash at Road America, she walked away and kept going. She later raced in DTM with Audi, competed in Formula E’s early days, and built a long career in endurance racing—including IMSA with Acura.
Her IndyCar career had its ups and downs—limited opportunities, team changes, and tough equipment—but she still managed a best finish of 9th and multiple Indianapolis 500 appearances.
Then, years later, she came back and made headlines again. At the 2023 Indianapolis 500, she set a new qualifying speed record for a female driver (231 mph)—and out-qualified multiple full-time teammates. It was one of those moments that reminded people she’d never really gone away.
More recently, she’s added NASCAR to the mix, making her Cup Series debut in 2025 and scoring a top-20 finish in Chicago, the best result for a woman in the series in years. Through all of it—different series, different continents, setbacks, comebacks—Legge’s career has never followed a straight line. But that’s kind of the point. She’s stayed in the fight, and kept finding ways to compete at a high level.
Pippa Mann
Pippa Mann’s career is one of those that really shows how tough—and unpredictable—racing can be, especially when funding is always part of the equation. She started in Formula Renault in the early 2000s and steadily worked her way up, eventually becoming the first woman to race in Formula Renault 3.5, which at the time was a serious step toward Formula One.
Her move to the U.S. came with Indy Lights in 2009, and that’s where things really started to click. In 2010, she made history by becoming the first woman to win a race at Kentucky Speedway and also the first female pole-sitter at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Indy Lights.
From there, it was on to IndyCar—and specifically, the Indianapolis 500. She made her debut in 2011, becoming the first British woman to qualify for the Indy 500, and finished 20th after charging through the field—while dealing with dehydration from a failed water system in the car. Not exactly an easy introduction.
Her IndyCar career was never full-time, but she kept coming back to Indy whenever she could put a deal together. That meant a lot of one-off entries, last-minute rides, and constantly fighting for sponsorship. Still, there were some strong performances mixed in.
- 13th at Auto Club Speedway (one of her best results)
- 17th at Texas
- Career-best 16th at the 2019 Indianapolis 500
She also became known for her partnership with Susan G. Komen, using her platform to raise money for breast cancer research—turning her Indy 500 efforts into something bigger than just racing.
Like a lot of drivers in similar situations, funding ultimately dictated how often she could compete. She attempted multiple Indy 500s and even got bumped from the field in 2018—a reminder of how brutal that qualifying process can be.
But she’s stayed involved in the sport, working as a driver coach and commentator, and continuing to be a visible voice in the paddock. Mann might not have had the consistent seat time of some of her peers, but she carved out a career through persistence—and made an impact both on and off the track.
Danica Patrick
Danica Patrick didn’t just break into motorsports—she became the face of it for an entire generation. She started in karting in Wisconsin, with her dad as crew chief and her mom tracking stats. It wasn’t glamorous—just a family trying to make it work. Early on, she wasn’t chasing records for women—she just wanted to be the best, period.
By her teens, she was already winning consistently, taking multiple regional titles and three World Karting Association Grand National Championships. That momentum led her to England, where she tried to climb the European ladder—Formula Ford, Formula Vauxhall, all of it. It wasn’t easy.
Funding issues, inconsistent equipment, and missed opportunities followed her through those years. But she still managed to stand out—finishing second at the Formula Ford Festival, one of the biggest events for young drivers at the time.
Eventually, she came back to the U.S., where things really started to build. In Toyota Atlantic, she became the first woman to win a pole position in the series and even led the championship at one point. By 2005, she made the jump to IndyCar with Rahal Letterman Racing.
And right away, she was fast. At the Indianapolis 500, she led laps and fought for the win before fuel strategy dropped her to fourth—but it was still one of the most impressive rookie performances the race had seen. She ended the year with Rookie of the Year honours for both the Indy 500 and the series.
From there, she kept on climbing. Her breakthrough moment came in 2008 at Motegi, where she became the first woman to win a top-level open-wheel race. That wasn’t just a milestone—it was a win against the same field as everyone else.
Then came 2009—and arguably her peak in IndyCar. She finished 3rd in the Indianapolis 500, the highest finish ever by a woman in the race, and ended the season 5th in points, outperforming a lot of big names and finishing as the top non-Penske/Ganassi driver.
After that, the focus started to shift. She began transitioning into NASCAR, running both series before eventually going full-time in stock cars. In 2013, she made headlines again by winning the Daytona 500 pole, becoming the first woman to do it, and later finishing 8th in the race, another record.
Her NASCAR career didn’t include wins, but it had moments—like a 6th-place finish at Atlanta, one of the best results by a woman in Cup history, and multiple top-10s that added up over time.
By the time she stepped away from full-time racing, her impact was already clear. She wasn’t just another driver—she brought attention, sponsors, and visibility to the sport in a way few others had. For a lot of fans, Danica Patrick was the entry point into racing. And like the others on this list, her legacy goes beyond stats. She didn’t just compete—she changed how the sport looked, who it reached, and who could see themselves in it.
Lyn St. James
Lyn St. James didn’t take the typical path to IndyCar—and that’s exactly what makes her story stand out. She didn’t grow up on the fast track to open-wheel racing. Instead, she built her career the hard way—through sports cars, endurance racing, and years of grinding for opportunities. By the time she reached IndyCar, she already had a résumé most drivers would envy.
We’re talking class wins at the 24 Hours of Daytona, a GTO class victory at the 12 Hours of Sebring in 1990, and experience racing everywhere from Le Mans to the Nürburgring. She wasn’t just participating—she was competing at a high level across the world.
And she had speed to match. In 1985, she became the first woman to break 200 mph on a closed course, hitting over 204 mph at Talladega. She didn’t stop there either—she reset the women’s closed-course speed record multiple times, eventually pushing it past 212 mph. At a time when opportunities for women were limited, she was proving outright pace.
Then came Indy. In 1992, at 45 years old, she qualified for the Indianapolis 500 and made immediate history—becoming the first woman to win Rookie of the Year. Not only that, she held the record as the oldest Rookie of the Year for three decades.
That moment wasn’t just symbolic—it showed that experience, persistence, and talent could still break through, even later in a career. Her IndyCar run wasn’t long—just a handful of starts—but that wasn’t really the point. By then, she had already built a career across multiple disciplines, something very few drivers—male or female—could match.
And her impact didn’t stop when she got out of the car. In 1994, she founded the Women in the Winner’s Circle Foundation, helping support and develop female racers. She’s also been a motivational speaker, mentor, and leader in the sport, serving in roles with NASCAR and beyond.
She’s been recognized everywhere—from the Florida Sports Hall of Fame to being named one of Sports Illustrated’s Top 100 Women Athletes of the Century—but her legacy goes deeper than awards. Lyn St. James didn’t just race. She helped build a path for others to follow.
Desiré Wilson
Desiré Wilson’s career is one of those stories that feels almost unreal—and somehow still underrated. She started racing in South Africa as a kid, finishing second in a national midget car competition at just 12 years old. From there, she worked her way up through Formula Vee and Formula Ford, eventually winning the South African Formula Ford Championship twice before heading to Europe.
That’s where things really took off. By the late ’70s, she was racing in Formula Ford 2000 and sports cars, building experience on some of the toughest tracks in the world. Then came her move into Formula One machinery—or at least the closest thing to it outside the world championship. In the Aurora F1 Championship, she made history.
At Brands Hatch in 1980, she won the Evening News Trophy, becoming the first and only woman to ever win a Formula One race (albeit in a non-championship series). That wasn’t a symbolic win. That was against a competitive field, in equal machinery.
And that wasn’t even her only success that year. She also won both the Monza 1000km and Silverstone 6 Hours, becoming the first woman to win outright in FIA World Championship events. Not class wins—overall wins. At that point, a Formula One breakthrough felt close.
She tested with Williams’ machinery and attracted interest from teams like Tyrrell. At her home Grand Prix in South Africa (a non-championship race during the FISA–FOCA dispute), she ran as high as sixth before retiring. It was enough to impress Ken Tyrrell, who wanted to bring her into F1 full-time. But like a lot of drivers on this list, funding once again got in the way.
The opportunity slipped, and the Formula One seat never fully materialized. She continued racing across sports cars and endurance events, including Le Mans, where she scored a strong 7th-place finish in a Porsche 956. She also made attempts at IndyCar in the early ’80s, showing speed but struggling with reliability and bad timing, especially during her Indy 500 qualifying efforts.
Still, she kept coming back. Even after a serious crash that broke her leg, she was back racing within weeks. That kind of toughness shows up again and again in her career. What makes Wilson stand out isn’t just that she competed—it’s how close she came to breaking through at the very top level, and what she accomplished along the way.
To this day, she remains:
- The only woman licensed to race both IndyCars and Formula One machinery
- The only woman to win a Formula One race (of any kind)
- One of the very few to win outright in FIA World Championship endurance racing
Her name might not come up as often as it should, but her résumé speaks for itself.
Feature Image Credit: ESPN
Edited by Reo Lane.
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