Qualifying - It was a man thing.

Last night I got lucky. No, I didn't win a drive in the latest Oracle sponsored Red Bull F1 car, I was fortunate to catch one of the award winning 30 for 30 documentaries made by ESPN about notable sporting figures and events. These shows have included documentaries on such figures as Lance Armstrong (Controversial), Wayne Gretzky (The Greatest), Diego Maradona (The Genius, but I can never forgive his hand of God) and events like the 1995 Rugby World Cup in South Africa (Nelson Mandela - 16th Man) and the 100 meters final at the 1988 summer Olympics in Atlanta (Ben Johnson's annulled Gold) to name but a few.

However last nights inspiring but also sad episode entitled "Qualifying" was about Janet Guthrie the first female racing driver to qualify and race at the Indianapolis 500.

It was so inspiring to see how she took on the might of a male dominated sport. How she not only raced, but more importantly competed at preceding events with some of the then leading drivers to prove that she was capable of driving a race car; how she showed in those preceding races that she was worthy of being given a chance to enter the qualifying session for the Indy500; how she not only qualified for the Indy500 but then raced effectively one handed during the 500 mile race due to breaking her wrist in a tennis match just two days before; how she finished 9th in 1978 in what is the the greatest motor race in America beating previous champions and achieving something many drivers would fail to do - finish in the top 10. She even managed to change the iconic announcement of "gentlemen start your engines" by ensuring a female mechanic started her car. Trailblazer.

Inspiring, yes. But why so sad? Having managed to finish in 9th place at the Indy500 you would've though that her racing career would have accelerated leaving many competitors behind, instead it came to an abrupt halt. Instead of racing weekend after weekend Janet ended up racing single races during the season due to lack of funds and lack of sponsorship, surprising with so much media exposure. At one point during her career Janet was not only driver but also had to become team owner, manager and commercial sponsorship seeker. During one of her interviews she later went on to say that anyone else finishing top ten in the Indy500 would've been inundated with sponsors and she would've gone on to win races with more competitive equipment brought about by better sponsorship. Something which didn't happen due to the male domination that existed at the time. Imagine if she would've won the race.

I haven't given the story true justice, I would recommend highly watching it. It shows how one person took on the rest of the racing world and paved the way for many others to follow, sound familiar?. Today many female drivers race in the Indy car series and at the Indy500 thanks to the pioneering effort of Janet Guthrie something replicated not only in car racing but in many other walks of life and business; the race to equality is ever evolving.

This year Oracle are proud sponsors of Red Bull Racing Honda, helping to push the boundaries of performance both on and off the track with the supply of Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) to optimize the way data is used across its business.