The 1977 Britannica yearbook characterizes Janet Guthrie as "...a former physicist who worked as a research engineer..." and lists among her many accomplishments "...passed the first series of tests for the U.S. scientist-astronaut program... flew a plane at 16...edited a book on genetics..."
As well as her obvious academic capability, Janet was an experienced racer; by 1976 she had 13 years of experience racing cars, focussed primarily on road courses, such as Sebring and Watkins Glen.
In 1976, 1977, and 1978, she tried her hand at NASCAR, with Kelly Girl sponsorship. This was the time of the ERA, and women's rights movements were just getting off the ground. Many felt her presence, and that of other women who tried their hand at the time, was more a social statement than a legitimate racing effort. In spite of all this, although she did not win, she usually qualified well, and was a competitive and respected racer at the time.
The car shown here represents the Laguna she drove in the 1977 Firecracker 400, in which race incidentally, two other women were qualified - Lella Lombardi, and Christina Beckers, both well-respected racers from Europe.
I built this one 'way back in 1983, and it probably was my first experience with Fred Cady's pioneering decal sheets. The kit was built from the then-current Hawaiian Tropic "Cannonball Run" MPC Laguna kit. Who remembers, or tried to build, one of MPC's early kits? Although the bodies were generally excellent, they had tried to use a "universal" chassis/rollcage for everything from the Brooks Daytona 500 wingcar, to Coo Coo's Monte Carlo, to the early '80's "Southern Stocker" series. As such, they were good mid-Seventies kits, but needed a lot of modification to bring them up to the standards of the recently -issued Monogram kits of the day.
Worse, just gettin' the body to sit down properly on the chassis often meant a lot of chopping and lowering of the rollcage, and wheelbase adjusting. This kit required addition of the Petty bar, and a couple other pieces, as well as scrapping the tire/wheel combo, and substituting a set from the AMT stockers that had been released in '82/'83. This, of course, entailed narrowing the rear axle, and eyeballing in the front suspension.. Jeez, I was patient back then...
Paint, even 15 years ago, came from my favourite source, Canadian Tire touch-up paint; the green metallic was a 1977 Ford Jade Green.
Fred Cady's decals are multiple-layered, you have to apply each colour separately. That means the "Kelly Girl" is built up by first layin' down the white letters, then the black edging on top. Unless you trim them real close, this can be a difficult process, but results are excellent, once completed. Once all the decals were on I let it sit a few days, then clearcoated it. Musta used Testor's Glosscote, 'cause I don't think Tamiya had their paints out at that time...
The info in this article came from a write-up I did for the Group 25 Newsletter back in 1984. I remember displaying the model that fall at Toledo and having Fred comment he'd never actually seen it built up before... (Come to think of it I've never seen another build-up of this one, even since...)
I don't know where Janet Guthrie is now, or what she's doing - she's out of motorsports, I believe, and somewhat bitter; I remember some interviews a few years back when she and Lynn St. James were talking of how hard it was back then to gain acceptance as females in this sport. Look around the current crop of active and upcoming professional drivers - it hasn't gotten any better.
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