I’m a girl-dad, and NOTHING has brought me more joy and sense of purpose than being a father to my daughter. The privilege of seeing her grow into a strong, confident, self-reliant woman has been all of the biggest rewards in my life wrapped into one. But now that she’s out in the world (kicking ass, btw) I deeply miss the clarity, sense of purpose, and of being a part of something much more important than me.

Born and raised in the car capital of the world (LA), I was always into motorcycles, cars, and racing, but my life went in other directions. However as the pandemic waned I found myself back on a racetrack after too many decades celebrating my 65th – alone. With time to ponder, my ponder noticed of the 100+ track day participants less than a handful were women. Huh! I wonder… and that’s when it hit me. I realized something that had been hiding in plain sight my entire life:

racing is the ONLY
major worldwide sport
where men and women
compete head-to-head

Let that sink in.

Every other sport – basketball, tennis, golf, skiing, track, soccer – all of them – are segregated by gender. Only in racing can a woman be the actual best, without qualifier, without adjectives. Not the best female basketball or soccer or sprinter or skier, but… The. Best. Period. 

As I’ve observed little girl’s (and women’s) faces when they discover a racer is a woman, it’s clear it’s a much bigger deal than I even thought.

Granted it took me 6.5 decades to realize the earth travels around the sun, gravity is a wave, and racing is the most important sport – bar none – for gender equality, but now that my eyes have been opened I’m all about this women in racing thing.

Somebody! Do something!

Soon after the realization shock (not the wave-gravity thing – that’s still total craziness) I saw a potential to be of service again. Maybe I could help other girls in a sport I’ve always loved and now realize is more important than I ever understood.

But before I got carried away with my new La Manchian quest, I needed to investigate. I began interviewing women in racing and was not only moved by their stories (they’re the most friendly badasses ever, btw), I was also shocked by how little they knew of each other, and stunned to learn how little *I* actually understood of what it is to be a woman in this world. (I thought I knew, but I also thought I knew gravity. Strike two.)

That was it. I was 110% in. But how?

I thought about the women of Iceland who in 1975 took a day off to protest gender discrimination. One single day. Iceland – the entire country – crashed. Ground to a halt. The women had calmly but forcefully demonstrated how fundamental they were in every aspect of society and Iceland quickly became a global leader in gender equality.

So how can I help women in and out of motorsport band together like their savagely subtle Icelandic warrior sisters?

If I could just help women unite, get women to follow women in motorsports on social media – a simple no-cost discovery clickathon – that would revolutionize the motorsports sponsorship world. Followers=sponsors=$, and money is racing’s lifeblood. So why don’t they? 

As I discovered in the interviews, women racers mostly don’t know about each other. And women at large rarely follow racing at all (except F1), and – like all the general public – they don’t know women in racing exist. (Neither do men btw, but women are the focus here. Besides wherever women go, men will follow.)

My simple idea for a small corner of the solution: start by building a hub just for women in motorsports. 

• A place where the general public can be overwhelmed (as I was) by the sheer number of women in racing around the world. (I double-dare you to not be surprised by the endless pages of GRRL! profiles!)
• A place where racers of every discipline can easily find and learn about each other. 
• A place where young girls (of every age) can find women in the kind of racing that’s sparked their passion. 
• A place for sponsors to zero in on possibles for their programs without endlessly scrolling through social media, hoping.
• And a place for fans to finally be able to name more than one female racer (who retired almost a decade ago).

Women’s sports are exploding, and it’s thanks to women (Iceland lives!). But there’s no reason those same female fans of female sports shouldn’t be amped about the badass women in motorsports. Especially when they’re racing with and beating men. The only reason – I believe – they’re not is they have no idea the racers exist. But we – yes, you and I – can change that. 

Race Like a GRRL! as you see it is the prototype. There’s much more to come. If you like what I’m doing, and believe in the GRRL! mission, I’d love your support. (I’ve listed the best ways to help below.) 

True equality in racing is coming faster than most can fathom. Girls are flooding racing in the grassroots. There’s a tidal wave coming that will revolutionize motorsports. I want to speed it up to run at the speed of women.