The GT World Challenge, which was held at Sonoma Raceway this year, is a sports car racing series organized by SRO Motorsports Group. The event was open to the public including SVHS students on April 6th. However, Sonoma raceway employees Susan Lucas-Conwell and Brandy Falconer visited SVHS’s College and Career Center to meet with girls who are interested in motorsports. They discussed the event by displaying a video from Michelle Della Penna, founder of the Della Penna Foundation.
The Della Penna Foundation is focused on inspiring women to join motorsports and opening up opportunities in the male-dominated field. Because motorsports are such a male-centric community, Della Penna focuses on reimagining social norms, trying to change the stereotypical face of the traditionally male-dominated sport.
To reach out to a larger range of people, Della Penna invited any girls from SVHS, as well as other schools, to the GT World Challenge event free of charge. The girls toured the event and met multiple women involved in Motorsports. They met two drivers, Hannah Grisham and Hannah Greenemeier, Stefi Bau, world motocross champion and founder of Init Sports for Girls, an Indy car racer, multiple people in media, communications, hospitality, and many more. They also were able to watch the races in one of the suites above the track.
The main objective of meeting these women in motorsports was to give examples of the various options for jobs in this sport. To be involved in motorsports doesn’t only mean you have to be racing the car. Racing requires a whole team of people behind the scenes that make motorsport
ts possible.
For example, those who worked in the media department at Sonoma Raceway and the guests from SRO, had many people in front of the computer controlling cameras, social media, and editing. They weren’t working on the racetrack, but were making contributions to the race, making sure information and videos were available to the people who were watching remotely.
Sonoma Raceway hosts big events each year, including NASCAR, car shows, GT World Challenge, charity events, plus many more sponsored events, some from Ferrari, Toyota, and McLaren. The raceway has jobs in areas such as marketing, management, ticket salespersons, mechanics, social media organizers, camera operators, and hospitality.
Because of the diverse number of jobs included in motorsports, the Della Penna Foundation strives to publicize the immense amount of opportunities that motorsports provides to women across the nation.
