Who was the first woman to drive a Championship car at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway? Most people believe it was Janet Guthrie, who was the first woman to qualify and compete in the Indianapolis 500. But the first woman who drove a race car around the track was Paula Murphy.
Paula was born in 1928 in Ohio. Her family moved to Southern California in the 1950s where in 1956, she was invited by Jean Calvin, an automotive journalist and driver, to attend her first race. In 1959, she won her class in an Alfa Romeo at a Sports Car Club of America race. Shortly after that, SCCA national champion Scooter Patrick let her drive a modified Porsche. She went on to teach at Dan Gurney’s racing school and caught the attention of Andry Granatelli, who at the time was the most famous name in auto racing.
She left her job as an engineering aid at the Marquardt Corporation working on the Saturn rocket project to become a test driver for Granatelli. She preferred to call her role with Granatelli as a “performance evaluation driver” as she tested the performance of tires, gasoline, and sports cars. Her testing job grew into a career.
Driving for Granatelli’s STP oil-additive brand, Paula set 365 stock car records for Granatelli and Studebaker at the Bonneville Salt Flats in 1963 including one at 162.29 mph. In setting this record, she broke the land speed record established by Dorothy Leavitt in Great Britain in 1906 at 96 mph driving a six-cylinder Napier.
Later in 1963, Murphy along with two co-drivers set border-to-border cross-country records from Los Angeles to New York City and broke the north-south record while driving a Tijuana-Vancouver-Tijuana Course.
She showed up at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on a cold November day in 1963. She was there with Andy Granatelli to test some tires for Goodyear. With Eddie Sachs as her coach, and Jim Hurtubise and Andy Granatelli looking on, she climbed in the number 6 Novi Studebaker for the test drive.
Granatelli and Jim Hurtubise placed bets about whether she could get the racer off of pit road without stalling it—a feat that some male novices were unable to do. She talked about the experience, “They push you off and you have to let the clutch out right away and give it the gas immediately. It’s tricky because the clutch is heavy and the gas pedal is really a bar that wraps around your foot.” Despite the doubts, Murphy left the pits without stalling. She then drove three laps around the track in the STP Novi. She had some trouble shifting and explained, “There are only two gears and you shift with your left hand. I had to use both hands.”
Despite the weather, about which she commented, “It was a lot warmer in the cockpit than standing around waiting to go,” she enjoyed her drive around the fabled track. At the end of the three lap tire test, Murphy commented, “What a ball. I’d like to stay out there all day.”
After the run, Murphy posed for photographs while in the cockpit of the Novi. It was during the days that women had to be perfectly coiffed, even if they were in a racecar. There are videos of Murphy applying lipstick and fixing with her hair. The chassis of the STP Studebaker Novi is now in the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum.
Granatelli commented to Hurtubise, “Herk, I never have this much trouble with you. I don’t have to hand you a purse, a comb and lipstick. But this driver sure beats you on looks.”
After a busy and successful 1963, Paula went on a tour driving a 1964 Avanti R-2. The car read “Paula Murphy World’s fastest Woman on Wheels.” On the rear quarter panel, it read 161.29 M.P.H. This record didn’t stand long. In 1964, she returned to the Bonneville flats where she became the first woman to drive a jet dragster and set a new record at 236.37 mph in Walt Arfons’ jet car, the “Avenger.” Walt Arfons, who pioneered jet-propelled cars in 1963 as well as the parachute systems often used to help stop them, built the car.
After the tire test at IMS, Murphy went on to set many firsts. She was the first woman licensed to drive a nitromethane-fueled car. She was one of the first women to obtain an NHRA license. She was one of the top Funny Car match racers of the 1960s and 1970s driving an STP Funny Car in an era when few drivers had sponsorship of any kind. She stopped Funny Car competition in 1973 after a rocket-powered dragster’s engine failed when she was going 254 mph and crashed at the Sears Point Raceway (now Sonoma Raceway) breaking her neck.
In 1974, she was selected to represent the United States in the first Women’s Grand Prix race. And in 1976, she drove Richard Petty’s No. 43 Doge stock car at the Talladega Speedway where she set a new World Women’s Closed Course Speed Record at 172.336 mph.