More Inclusive Motorsport

As long as we're rebooting car culture, include more women, too.

A weekly newsletter by Ryan K. ZumMallen | @zoomy575m

Happy Race Day, especially to this cat who controls racecars with its mind.

I just want to take a moment to recognize two bold actions that F1 icon Lewis Hamilton took this weekend.

First, he raised a fist on the top stop of the podium, a revolutionary act that lent additional heft to the pre-race demonstrations he’d helped organize.

Second, he invited Mercedes trackside engineer Stephanie Travers to hoist the 1st place trophy, making her the first Black woman to stand on the winner’s podium:

fiawim @fiawim

On behalf of the @MercedesAMGF1 trophy was collected by #womaninmotorsport.🏆 Stephanie Travers is Zimbabwean chemical engineer. 25-year-old Stephanie is the trackside engineer @LewisHamilton. Stephanie was selected from 7000 applicants from the world in 2019. Congratulations!

Hamilton then posted about her to his 18 million Instagram followers, elevating the moment from footnote to global triumph.

The Black Lives Matter movement has dragged motorsport into the present day, but Hamilton has almost single-handedly done the heavy lifting for F1, the most popular motorsport in the world. It’s truly an astonishing chapter in his legacy.

Bringing Travers into the spotlight also brought attention to the many women who do the important work, often invisibly or in the shadows, that make this all possible.

I’ve noticed lately that my links are leaning more heavily toward content created by women in the automotive field. I almost made mention of it last week but decided to see if anyone pointed it out first. (No one did.)

I don’t know whether this is a coincidence, or whether their work just resonates in this time of crisis. What I suspect is that their work has always been outstanding, but my specific efforts to seek out women voices over the past year of running this newsletter has made them exponentially more visible to me personally. Now I see their influence everywhere. Pretty cool how that works.

That is to say, highlighting the work of women, and especially women of color, even if there aren’t immediate effects, will normalize celebrating their accomplishments, including them as integral pieces to the puzzle, and helping create a more equitable environment for them to compete and succeed.

Stop pretending they’re invisible. Open more doors. Bring down barriers. Maybe that’s what Hamilton did this weekend! We don’t know yet. But it’s fun to imagine.

Congratulations, Stephanie.

Culture

Ford employees call for the automaker to stop building police vehicles. Journalist Aaron Foley brings a really unique and enriching perspective to the situation.

Ford also unveiled the revived 2021 Bronco this week. It’s a good excuse to revisit the legacy of McKinley Thompson Jr., the first Black auto designer in America and creator of the original Bronco.

A veritable Hall of Fame of classic cars rolled into a Malibu meet over the weekend. Meanwhile the exotic rally Fuel Run will be held in August.

Listen, I’m not qualified to judge people, nor am I interested in doing so. But I will say we are clearly not over COVID, and if we aren’t going to hold the Rose Parade in January, returning to car events right now may be misguided. Please be safe, folks.

The reporter Hannah Elliott, as she has done so many times, has written the definitive piece on Petrolicious founder Afshin Behnia, who stepped down as CEO after his racist posts on social media came to light.

Reminder to stop making assumptions:

Elizabeth Blackstock @eliz_blackstock

one of the dudes in my sports lit class was trying to casually mansplain Le Mans to me and my professor slid in and was like "Elizabeth wrote her thesis about Le Mans!" a hero

Oh look, the Millennial Enthusiast Starter Pack.

Here’s the case for COVID-19 turning into a boom time for enthusiast vehicles. Essentially, we stop viewing cars as tools and start viewing them as toys. Personally I think approx. 1 billion things have to happen before that, but it’s nice to dream.

Loved reading about this pristine 1972 Corolla Sprinter Trueno with vacuum-sealed tires so original they still had the sticker on them:

larry_chen_foto

I've never seen anything like this before. @bigmikemuniz who is known as "the Corolla guy" fully restored this 1972 Toyota Corolla Sprinter Trueno and he found a set of brand new old stock original tires with the sticker intact. These were vacuum sealed back in 1972 in Japan by Toyota for whatever reason. Every single part on this car is brand new or fully restored. This is basically a brand new 50 year old car. He doesn't let the car roll on these tires, when they are not on the car they get deflated and vacuum sealed again for the next show. We shot an almost hour long @thehoonigans Autofocus episode on this car. Also in case you were wondering this car is not for sale, and it's getting donated to the Toyota museum in Japan when Mike is not around anymore. Absolutely insane.

@team_wildcards #wild⭐️cards #hoonigan #hooniganautofocus #autofocuslarrychen #autofocus #toyota #toyotausa #corolla #sprintertrueno #toyotacorolla @toyotausa #lifeofchen #sirplease

July 12, 2020

Budding designers! Submit your style for this year’s BMW M4 racecar and it could be painted onto the actual car this season. Deadline is August 5.

Video Reel

The proper way to hydrate, according to drifter Becky Evans:

queenb

Thirst trap 💦😂

July 13, 2020

Our friends at Oilstain Lab are finally nearing completion of their incredible Half-11 project, apparently to be unveiled this weekend! Teaser video here.

Race Results

Hamilton and Mercedes took 1-2 in the Styrian Grand Prix, while Red Bull went 3-4 and Ferrari teammates Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel knocked each other out. Highlights here:

Leclerc’s girlfriend Charlotte Siné foreshadowed the accident with his teammate back in May. Someone even added this weekend’s footage to it!

Congrats to Jesus for being compared to Lewis Hamilton:

Tom Bellingham @TommyWTF1

I've heard people say they hate Hamilton because he thinks he's Jesus. After that session, I dunno I think he might be.

McLaren ace Lando Norris again exhibited last-lap heroics, jumping two spots to finish a thrilling P5.

Unfortunately I haven’t had time yet to catch up with the IndyCar action from Road America (my favorite track!) last weekend, but here are the highlights from Race 1 and Race 2 I’ll be watching soon.

Auction Block

The BMW E30 M3 is still on fire. This one is bidding at $120,000 with a week to go.

The writer and YouTuber Doug Demuro launched an auction site of his own to challenge Bring A Trailer. It’s called Cars And Bids, and the initial round of vehicles is already very impressive. A little competition never hurt anybody!

And Finally…

Someone took a Nissan 350Z, molded it into a quasi-Porsche 935, and the result is… oddly great? Fair play!

Drive hard and be safe. Black Lives Matter.

Want your event included? Shoot me a note with subject line “Race Day” at ryan@carrarabooks.com.

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