Women on Wheels: Spotlight on Sara Christian
Quick question: Who was the first woman to drive for NASCAR?
If you answered “Sara Christian” you either paid attention to the title of this post, or you really know your racing history.
Inducted into the Georgia Automobile Racing Hall of Fame in 2004, Christian was only part of NASCAR in 1949 and 1950, but there are a lot of key events associated with her name.
To start, she won the title Woman Driver of the Year from the United States Drivers Association in 1949. That same year, she drove in NASCAR’s first race at Charlotte Speedway on June 19th 1949, after placing 13th in the qualification race, driving a #71 Ford that her husband, Frank Christian, owned. She let fellow racer Bob Flock drive it for part of the race, after the engine in his own car died on the 38th lap. The Ford overheated, but Flock finished in 14th place.
Three weeks later, Sara’s competitors in the second race at the Daytona Beach Road Course included Louise Smith and Bob Flock’s sister Ethel Mobley. She finished 18th of 28, but her presence marked the first time three women drove in the same race, and the first time a married couple competed in a NASCAR race. (Her husband Frank finished sixth, in his only start.)
Two months after that, Christan faced Mobley and Smith again, and that race - the fourth at Langhorn Speedway, became the LAST race to include three drivers. It was also the first time a woman achieved a top-ten finish, and the winner of the race, Curtis Turner, invited Sara to share the victory lane.
In her last race, the only one she entered in 1950, Sara placed 14th at Hamburg Speedway in New York.
Sara Christian died in 1980.
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