Katherine Legge: The Last, So Far

I didn't set out to name my heroine after Katherine Legge (Kate Reilly came to me as Kate, and later I specified her full name as Katherine), but I did steal one of Legge's career accomplishments for my fictional driver's resume. (Sorry/not sorry?)

Legge's early career was definitely on an open-wheel trajectory. She started in karts, then moved to the British Formula Ford Championship, British Formula Renault, British Formula 3, and British and North American Formula Renault 2000. Along the way, she was the first woman to achieve a pole position in Formula Ford, she set a new lap record on her way to a pole in Formula Renault, and she was the first woman to be named a "Rising Star" by the British Racing Drivers Club.

In 2005, she joined the Toyota Atlantics Championship where she had a breakout year, winning three races—including her first race ever in Atlantics, which made her the first woman to win a major open-wheel race. Plus she finished on the podium five times and placed third in the championship as a rookie. In 2006, she moved up to ChampCar where she was the first woman to compete in the series full time and placed sixth in her first ever oval race.

I have to believe it was the reunification of IndyCar that left Legge without an open-wheel ride in 2008, but she kept racing anyway, spending the next three years as an Audi factory works driver racing DTM (in Germany). By 2012, it was back to the U.S. for a season in IndyCar with Dragon Racing and her first start in the Indy 500. Her only other Indy start was in 2013 with Schmidt Peterson Motorsports. In 2014, she raced in the new Formula E series.

Legge has been linked to a new open-wheel team for the last two years...which has never actually materialized. Grace Autorsport is/was to be an all-female endeavor (or at least as much as possible), and there was a lot of enthusiasm around it, but there were reports of trouble securing a car in 2016, and after that it seems to have faded away. Not that Legge was sitting around.

Legge said she continuously asks herself if her maniacal racing focus “is worth it” and “what am I doing this for?”

So far the answers remain “yes,” and “it’s in my blood.”
(from Pressdog's interview with Katherine in 2013)

When she couldn't find open-wheel rides, she kept busy with sportscars, spending three years as a driver for the Panoz DeltaWing and just this year signing with Michael Shank Racing to drive an Acura in the IMSA Weathertech series. She also keeps busy promoting females in racing, as the STEM ambassador for Girl Scouts and as a member of the Women in Motorsport Commission of the FiA (Federation Internationale de l'Automobile).

I've always liked Legge. I met her once at Road Atlanta during a Petit Le Mans weekend, and she was quiet, genuine, and positive. My impression (and that of others I know, as well) is that she's an introvert with a mission to do the thing she loves—I can relate to that, even if mine isn't the same as hers. Ultimately, Legge is a class act, and I think plenty of fans would love to see her back in the 500 again.

(Photo from katherinelegge.com.)

Pippa Mann: The One in the Pink Car

Pippa Mann grew up in Britain racing carts and then moved to open-wheel cars in Europe, becoming the first female driver to score points and start a race from pole position in the World Series by Renault. She moved to the United States in 2009 to race in Indy Lights, the feeder series to IndyCar, and in 2010 she became one of only two women to win a race in that series.

In addition, a statistic I know she's especially proud of, she became the only woman in any racing series to capture a pole position at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The same year, she finished fifth in the Indy Lights championship and was voted Most Popular Driver for the series.

She qualified for the Indy 500 for the first time in 2011, becoming the eighth woman in history, and the first British woman, to do so. Since 2011, she's started the race four more times (2013-2016), and this year, she'll make her sixth attempt. She's officially on record as the second-fastest female in history at IMS, with a top qualifying speed just under 230 mph.

The Indy 500 is the focus of Pippa's racing season, but she also makes the occasional appearance for Dale Coyne Racing on other ovals. In addition, in 2017, she's started racing Lamborghinis in the Super Trofeo series, and she helped found an all-female karting team, Team Empower.

In the interest of full disclosure, I know Pippa, and she's been invaluable to me as a source for my books. So I'm biased, for sure, but she's also a hell of an inspiration. You see, Pippa loves racing—loves racing in the Indy 500—so much that she works 50 weeks a year to pull together the money from sponsors to spend 2 weeks with her car on track. ALL YEAR. Plus, as if that level of fundraising wasn't enough, she's taken on more.

In 2014, she connected with the Susan G. Komen Foundation as an unpaid partner. Then she managed to convince her paying sponsors to make their logos really small, in order to have Komen on the car. Then she got partners and friends to donate goods that she could sell/auction to raise funds for Komen. In the past two years, the campaign has earned more than $135,000 for Komen.

What I find even more interesting is Pippa's experience with pink—because I went through the same transition in recent years. You see, as a female in a male world, growing up, Pippa eschewed pink, so as not to seem "girly" (we all know that usually means "weak," right?). And then along came Komen and the need for a pink car. So she took a deep breath and embraced it. And I think she came to love it (as I have). Now, she's finding that a lot of sponsors and fans LIKE to be associated with the female and the female cause on track...so the pink has turned into an asset.

"It's kind of cool that all those little girls who are fans now not only have a girl to cheer for in this year's Indy 500, but also can cheer for a girl in a pink car!"
(from my own interview with Pippa in 2015)

Most of all, what's inspiring about Pippa isn't just her struggle to get a car on track or to raise money for Komen or to proudly wear pink. It's not how well and much she interacts with fans on social media. It's not even the fact that she's an admitted book nerd! It's that she's unfailingly positive. She posts positive messages every morning, and I've never heard her say a bad word about anyone. She knows that positive attitudes attract people, and besides, she seems to truly take every day she gets to be involved with racecars as a gift and a privilege. We could all learn from her.

P.S. Go check out her eBay auction for the cool stuff and experiences on offer—especially the Turn the Cockpit Pink item!—and help her raise even more money for the Susan G. Komen foundation this year!

(Top photo from pippamann.com.)

Bia: Finally Female Brazilian Talent in the 500

Her full name is Ana Beatriz Caselato Gomes de Figueiredo. Aka, Ana Beatriz, Bia Figueiredo, or just "Bia." Technically, she was the sixth woman to take the green flag for the Indy 500—because she qualified higher than Simona de Silvestro, who I profiled last week. But I've tackled Bia seventh, since she finished lower than Simona that year.

Bia grew up in São Paulo and started racing karts at the age of eight, after reportedly begging her father for three years to let her race—she was an admitted tomboy and played soccer, volleyball, and tennis, in addition to riding horses and taking ballet and theater classes. But at the age of 15, she chose racing. At 18, she started competing in Formula Renault, where, two years later, she was the first woman in the world to win a race, which she did twice, as well as scoring two pole positions.

A year later (2006), she became the first woman to win a pole position in the main class of Formula 3 racing. The same year, she graduated with a degree in business from a university in São Paulo. In 2008 and 2009, Bia drove in IndyLights for Sam Schmidt Racing, winning two races and reaching the podium (the first woman to do so) on multiple occasions. She received the Firestone Rising Star Award in 2008 and the Most Popular Driver Award in 2009.

Her successes earned her two races in IndyCar in 2010 with Dreyer & Reinbold Racing (DRR): in São Paulo and in Indy, where she qualified and finished 21st. But perhaps a bigger highlight for her that year was her win that December in Felipe Massa's annual go-kart race, "Stars' Challenge," which saw her go from eleventh to first, beating the likes of Massa, Reubens Barrichello, and Tony Kanaan.

She ran her only full IndyCar season in 2011, again with DRR, missing only one race after breaking her hand in the season opener. In 2012, she signed with Andretti Racing to run two races, and in 2013, she raced six times with Dale Coyne Racing. To date, that's been the extent of her IndyCar career, encompassing four starts in the 500, and decent results. In 2015, she moved to stock car racing in Brazil, where she remains.

"[Being] a 'feminine' female driver helped me get more attention from the media, sponsors and new opportunities that are targeting women. Yet inside the track gender is irrelevant, and I don’t feel any different from a male driver. We are all aggressive and share the same goal of winning the race."
(redshoemovement.com)

The story of her disappearance from the IndyCar scene is the same one we've heard before: money. She's taken a practical, but not extreme approach to gender in motorsport—using it, but not running wild—citing sponsorship by a cosmetics company and a gasoline company as some of the diverse backers she's attracted in years past.

Bia's got obvious talent, and it's hard to blame her for going where the money and a full-season's ride are. It's just a shame that's not in the United States and IndyCar.

(Photo from biaracing.com.)

Simona de Silvestro: A Serious Racer

Swiss driver Simona de Silvestro was chronologically the sixth (or seventh, it's kind of a tie) woman to take the Indy 500's green flag, in 2010. That same year, she won Indy 500 Rookie of the Year honors for her 14th place finish. That 14th would remain her best finish in the five years she competed in the 500.

She'd made herself known in the U.S. racing world between 2006 and 2009, securing five podium finishes in Formula BMW USA, winning the Long Beach race in the Toyota Atlantic series, and finishing the 2009 season third overall, with four race wins. After moving to IndyCar in 2010, she posted the fastest lap at the São Paulo race (2011) and scored her first podium in 2013.

But it was some of her struggles that endeared her to many race fans (and perhaps teams). In 2010, she suffered burns to her right hand in a fiery crash at Texas Motor Speedway. In 2011, she suffered more burns in a practice crash for the Indy 500. Despite those injuries, she didn't miss a race until she suffered a concussion in a crash later in 2011. To (literally) add insult to injury that season, she missed a Sonoma race in August because a customs official was suspicious about her frequent trips to different countries—and didn't believe she was really a professional racing driver.

After all of those trials, de Silvestro spent 2012 struggling with a woefully underpowered Lotus engine, before joining KV Racing in 2013 and finishing second at the Grand Prix of Houston. That made her only the third woman, after Sarah Fisher and Danica Patrick, to record a podium finish in IndyCar history.

Throughout all of the ups and downs, de Silvestro was a pro. She was focused and as fast as she could possibly be, and she generated near universal respect in the paddock. She didn't bring the controversy or the drama of some of the other women who've raced the 500. She put her head down and built a career driving.

"Gender doesn’t matter when you’re going 225 km/h into a turn."
(simonadesilvestro.com)

Unfortunately for IndyCar fans, de Silvestro hasn't returned to the Series or the 500 since 2015. But fortunately for her, she's found other racing opportunities. In 2014, she was a test driver with the Sauber Formula 1 team, though sadly, contract disputes cut short her chance to inch closer to F1—and by some accounts, she was the most talented woman in position to do so.

In 2016, she raced Formula E cars, and in 2017, she's starting the first of three contracted years racing in Australian Supercars. Once again, money/sponsorship is the issue that keeps promising drivers (of both genders) out of the cockpit. But at only 29 now, Simona has years of racing ahead, so perhaps we'll see her back in an open-wheel car someday!

(Photo from simonadesilvestro.com.)

Milka Duno: #4 and The First Hispanic Woman

Venezuelan Milka Duno, the fourth woman to take the green flag in the Indy 500, is almost a throwback to Janet Guthrie and Lyn St. James, in that she came to racing later in life—at 24. Before that, she was in school, racking up an undergraduate degree and four (FOUR!) master's degrees, in Organizational Development, Naval Architecture, Maritime Business, and Marine Biology. She also worked as a naval engineer for a time.

In addition, she's a former model, and her voluptuous looks earned her a lot of attention in the paddock. So did not always being the fastest driver, especially in IndyCar racing. But she was always well sponsored—by CITGO, a Venezuelan-owned American oil refiner—so she got a lot of opportunities that equally (or more) talented drivers didn't get.

That sounds harsh, so let me be clear: the woman is smart and she can drive. Duno won races and placed well in Venezuelan series championships (GT and Porsche Supercup) before coming to America, and once here, she won a Ferrari Challenge race and the Panoz GT Series championship. She went on to win races in the American Le Mans Series and the Grand Am Series—the first woman to do so—in which she shared the cars with another driver. From 2007 to 2010, she ran partial IndyCar seasons, competing in 43 races overall and qualifying for the Indy 500 three times.

"I started the season, as I always do, with the goal doing my absolute best—not as a female driver—but as a driver. The point is to always try and do the best that you can do. By doing that, many other things happen along the way that are very special and rewarding."
(womenfitness.com)

Between 2010 and 2014, Duno drove some races in lower-level NASCAR series, and since then, she's focused her efforts on her Milka Way program, whose mission is to encourage children to "reach for the stars" and achieve academic excellence. In 2014, she was elected to the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) Women & Motor Sport Commission (WMC).

A lot of people have slammed Duno for being slow and blocking other drivers (including Danica, after one memorable practice session at Mid Ohio). Some have made her the punchline to jokes (myself included). But I think we've got to give her some credit. She found sponsorship that would let her chase her dreams. Who can blame her for that? The way the racing business works these days is that money is often more important than talent—you've got to have some talent, but then you've got to come with money, whether it's your own or a sponsor's. And there are plenty of really excellent drivers languishing at home because they can't find sponsorship money, like Duno did. Is that her fault? Nope.

So I say kudos to Milka Duno for discovering her passion and taking it as far as she could. For trying everything and trying her best. It's a good reminder that the point is often the journey, not just the destination.

(Photo from milkaduno.com)

Danica Patrick: The Name Everyone Knows

The fourth woman to race in the Indy 500 has been just as influential as the previous three. Probably more so, in some ways, along with being the most controversial. But let's start with the basics.

Danica Patrick started the Indianapolis 500 seven times and holds the record for the highest starting position by a woman (fourth) and the highest finish (third). She was also the first woman to lead laps in the iconic race, which she did in front of a crowd roaring its approval in 2005. Beyond Indy, where she always seemed to do well, to date she's also the only woman ever to win an IndyCar race.

After racing in IndyCar from 2005-2011, Danica moved to NASCAR in 2012, where she's still competing. Along the way, she capitalized on her growing popularity and started building a brand. She's been featured in a lot of high-profile advertisements for her sponsors (such as Go Daddy), she's posted in minimal clothing for Maxim, and she's dressed to the nines to attend a variety of awards shows.

Today, she's got an enormous social media following, and she's continuing to build her empire, including a wine label, a line of exercise wear, and a workout plan and cookbook coming next year. While her on-track results in NASCAR have been short of spectacular—barring her pole position at her first Daytona 500, which was amazing, given it was her first race in the series—she's gotten lots and lots of coverage as (often) the only woman in the field.

And that's where a lot of the controversy comes in.

"Do I use being a girl to my advantage? I use everything I can to my advantage," she says. "Maybe back in the day you didn't need to be the greatest looking [athlete] to be on TV and you didn't need to speak the best, but in this day and age, I think you need to be the package... Do I get more attention than a lot of people who at times do better than me?" That would be yes, Danica suggests. "But it doesn't come without its costs, that's for sure. It doesn't come without its criticisms."
(espnW.com)

Danica takes a lot of criticism about posing in a bikini, about not performing on the track, about getting "too much" media attention, and more. But I think that underneath it all is a shrewd strategy to make as much hay as possible while the (media) sun shines. As she said above (it's a great article from 2012), she'll use everything she can to her advantage. That may make her less of a "pure racer" than some of the women I'm profiling in this series. But I'm not going to fault her for it, that's for sure.

(Photo from danicapatrick.com)

Sarah Fisher: The Most Starts at Indy

As the second woman to race at Indy, Lyn St. James, made her final start in the Indy 500 in 2000, Sarah Fisher made her debut. At just 19, Fisher was the youngest woman to compete in the 500, and she still holds the record for the number of total Indy 500 starts (9).

She holds other records beyond the Indy 500: the first woman win a pole position for a major open-wheel race (Kentucky Speedway, 2002), the track speed record holder there (221.390 mph), and the first woman to stand on the podium in the series (3rd, Kentucky Speedway, 2000). She also holds the record for the fastest woman at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (229.439 mph).

For all that she came along third to the Indy 500, Fisher was every bit as pioneering as Janet Guthrie and Lyn St. James before her. Where she differs is in coming to racing as a career, not a hobby—while both Guthrie and St. James turned racing into a career, they stepped into the racecar later in life.

Fisher started racing at five years old, winning her first (of many) karting championship at 11. She was the first woman to run a full season in IndyCar and holds the record for the most starts of any female in IndyCar Series history. But the bottom line on Fisher seems to be that she grew up a racer, wrenching on cars in her father's garage, and being female was almost incidental. As has every female IndyCar competitor, she's gotten lots of attention and questions about being a female in the business. With every reply, you can almost imagine a shrug, as if to say, "what's the big deal?"

"I love this sport; it's a family sport, in my opinion," Fisher said. "It's been my whole life, so why would I not bring my family into it? If they want to be involved in it, that's tremendous and it would be a compliment. But at the same time, I don't want them to do it because I did. Because it's a very dedicated thing you do, and you have to put your whole heart into it to be successful with it."
(espnW.com)

She started transitioning to her next role before she'd hung up her helmet, launching Sarah Fisher Racing in 2008, becoming the first (and youngest) female owner/driver in IndyCar Series history and the second female owner/driver in the Indy 500 after Janet Guthrie. In 2011, she became the first female team owner to win a race in the IndyCar Series.

Unfortunately, she shuttered her team in 2016 and turned her attention to a new venture with her husband (former tire changer and later crew chief Andy O'Gara, who she once ran over during a pit stop): Speedway Indoor Karting, a brand new facility near IMS. But no one has ruled out a return to racing. Given her popularity with IndyCar fans—she was voted most popular driver three times—a lot of us are crossing our fingers.

(photo from Sarah Fisher's Facebook page)

Kiss The Bricks Release Countdown: Week 2 Giveaway!

I'm so excited about the release of my 5th book, Kiss The Bricks, that I'm doing 5 weeks of 5 giveaways each week! Lucky you!

This Week's Prizes
This week is for writers and readers. For thinkers who like the feel of pen on paper and want to make sure they capture their thoughts.

• Grand prize: two notebooks (one large and one more portable) for recording your thoughts, a print copy (slightly used) of my 2nd mystery (Braking Points), an advance copy of my 3rd mystery (Avoidable Contact), a book to record who you've loaned your books to, and a bag from Left Coast Crime 2016 (the Great Cactus Caper).
• Runner-up prizes: assorted caps and a commemorative tile from the Monterey Sports Car Championships in 2006 (ALMS race at Laguna Seca).

How to win? 

By 12 midnight on Wednesday, April 12, do one of the following:

• Comment on this post.
• Comment or share my Facebook or Twitter posts.

I'll announce and contact the winners by the end of each week. And if you don't win this week, there are three more weeks of prizes ahead, so stay tuned!

Kiss The Bricks Release Countdown: Week 1 Giveaway!

I'm so excited about the release of my 5th book, Kiss The Bricks, that I'm doing 5 weeks of 5 giveaways each week! Lucky you!

This Week's Prizes
In honor of the Grand Prix of Long Beach (happening next weekend, also the site of my 4th book, Red Flags), this week features a Long Beach and racing theme.

• Grand prize: Long Beach day pack, Long Beach cap, personal cooler, IndyCar Nation seat pad (for those hard stands), a rain poncho (just in case), sunscreen and other track essentials, and an advance copy of my 3rd book, Avoidable Contact, to read between on-track sessions.
• Runner-up prizes: assorted caps and a commemorative tile from the Generac 500 in 2006 (ALMS race at Road America).

How to win? 

By 12 midnight on Wednesday, April 5, do one of the following:

• Comment on this post.
• Comment or share my Facebook or Twitter posts.

I'll announce and contact the winners by the end of each week. And if you don't win this week, there are four more weeks of prizes ahead, so stay tuned!

My Indy 500 Adventure

I still can't believe everything I got to do in the past week that I spent in Indianapolis. It was a dream trip, and I came home with exactly the kind of insider understanding I need to have to write a book about Kate Reilly tackling the Indy 500. I won't claim to have all the details yet, but I have the general idea!

Here are the highlights, with more details and photos below:

• Book events: speaking at one high school, two libraries, and one bookstore
• Talking books with racing driver Pippa Mann (right, at one of the libraries)
• A hot lap around the speedway (up to 120 mph)
• Walking the track's front straight and pit lane before dawn on race day
• Working for ESPN in the pits during the race
• Seeing friends and eating outstanding gluten free waffles and pizza

Book Events

I made lots of new racing friends and met quite a few readers also. And it turns out, when you invite a racing driver to a book talk—especially when it's a local favorite and the only woman in the field—you increase your typical audience by tenfold. 

Lucky for me, Pippa Mann is a self-proclaimed "book nerd," and was happy to come talk to the audience about helping me with the details of my book. She also told everyone about her Get Involved campaign to raise money for the Susan G. Komen Foundation and the pink car that she drove in the race (to an outstanding 18th place finish!).

A Hot Lap Around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway

The track is big. BIG. Two and a half miles, which only take about 40 seconds during the race, but which took at least a minute in a street car. Yes, it was over too soon, but with the street car in the hands of a professional racing driver, I got a sense of the racing line.

Other funny note: I knew our driver, Martin Plowman (aka, Plowey), and as a result, he spent most of the lap skootched sideways to look at me, with only one hand on the wheel, and barely looking at the track. As he hit 120 on the straights. But hey, he's a pro, that was a Sunday drive for him!

Pre-Dawn on Race Day

We got there early with friends who are part of the media. And as my friend Tony DiZinno put it, "Ironically, it’s the quiet moments of peace and reflection – more than the noise of 33 cars and 350,000 of your closest, screaming friends – that make you appreciate this place most. You feel the soul of the place most on race morning, early, pre-5 a.m., out on the course before the gates open to the public and you walk on the pavement, a track where so much history has been written."

We were out there at 4:30 a.m. on race day, and it is definitely a magic time, to think of some much to come that day, and so much that's come before. My favorite part of every race weekend is being there in the days and hours before the race, feeling the adrenaline and tension ramp up, seeing the crowds appear, and it was more true at Indy this year with the size of the crowd and the epic nature of the race than ever before. (It even made up for getting up the night before to get there!)

The 100th Running of the Indianapolis 500

I was in the pits, on official ESPN business (full ESPN team at top, pit reporting team below). I had a radio in each ear and a clipboard and pen in my hands. I tried to keep up with when 10 different cars stopped and what adjustments they made...although, thankfully, since I was covering the last 10 starters in the field, when I missed most of that information for most cars, it wasn't a big deal. I started to learn when to pay attention, and I sent at least one piece of useful information to the folks doing the actual broadcast. 

Mostly, I had fun. I saw in detail what happened throughout the race, and I gained a better understanding of the flow and changes that happen during the 500. I also had 10 teams' radio transmissions in one ear, so I got about as good a sense of what drivers and teams are saying and dealing with during a race as possible. 

The whole week, two thoughts kept running through my mind:

1. I can't believe I get to do this.
2. I hope I can write something worthy of these experiences.

I owe a massive thank you to a few people in particular: Steve and Liz, Tony, Patsy, Patti, Pippa, Meesh, Carolyn, and Jon. You all rock! I'm going to go away and write for three months, but after that...see you at Sonoma?!

Find Me in Indy

Next week, I'm headed to Indianapolis for a combination of book promotion, book research, and fun. I'm starting to make a list of everyone I've said "I'll see you there!" to, in the hopes of meeting so many social media friends face-to-face, but hopefully you'll all help me out by trying to find me, too.

Here's my schedule for the week...and I hope to see you somewhere along the way!

Wednesday, May 25
11 a.m.  Pike High School, Indianapolis, IN
6:30 p.m.    Irvington Branch, Indianapolis Public Library, Indianapolis, IN

Thursday, May 26
11 a.m.  Carmel Clay Public Library, Carmel, IN
**Indy 500 driver Pippa Mann will join me!**

Friday, May 27
Carb Day at Indianapolis Motor Speedway

Saturday, May 28
3 p.m.  IndyReads Books, Indianapolis, IN

Sunday, May 29
The 100th Running of the Indy 500

And if you're not in Indianapolis next week, you can always follow me on social media: Facebook and Twitter. I'll be posting lots of photos and updates!

The Month of May

The title of this post means different things to different people. To normal people, it's nothing special. A description, nothing more. To racing fans--IndyCar fans in particular--it means the buildup and the excitement of "the greatest spectacle in racing." The Indy 500.

Me? I mean both. My month starts and ends with book events, and lucky for me, it also ends with the Indy 500. So for this month, I'll be talking about a variety of opportunities I'm going to get to talk about my book, but I'm also going to be talking a lot about a very special car that's going to be on the track for the great race.

For the third year, Pippa Mann (above with me) will be driving the pink #63 car for the Susan G. Komen foundation in the race and racing money for the foundation throughout the month. Her goal? $100,000. All month, she's going to be offering special opportunities and merchandise to fans and supporters to help meet that goal...such as putting a loved-one's name in the cockpit with Pippa as she runs the race.

That means, all month, in addition to talking about my new book, I'm also going to be urging everyone I know to get involved and support Pippa's efforts. I hope you'll join me, and I hope you'll find me somewhere along my journeys!

May 7, Phoenix, AZ, 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.: CozyCon at The Poisoned Pen bookstore

May 11, Berkeley, CA, 7 p.m.: Literary Salon (book talk and signing) (RSVP for directions)

May 15, South Pasadena, CA, 2 p.m.: Sisters in Crime, Los Angeles meeting, reading from Red Flags

May 22, Irvine, CA, 3 p.m.: Sisters in Crime, Orange County, speaking about writing, racing, and research

May 25, Indianapolis, IN, 6 p.m.: Irvington Branch, Indianapolis Public Library

May 28, Indianapolis, IN, 3 p.m.: IndyReads Bookstore

May 29, Indianapolis, IN: The Indy 500, where I'll be cheering for the pink car, driven by Pippa Mann

RED FLAGS Cover Reveal!

The book is done, the summary is written, and the cover is designed. Here are the details to tide you over until April 2016!

RED FLAGS

Professional racecar driver Kate Reilly arrives in Long Beach, California, to promote the upcoming Grand Prix, not expecting to identify a dead body or solve another murder—especially when the victim’s a relative she didn’t even like. Her new sponsor and the race organizers apply pressure, wanting to keep racing’s image clean, and Kate reluctantly agrees to investigate.

From Sony Studios to Venice Beach, from Rodeo Drive to the Hollywood Hills, Kate plunges into the Southern California scene. She parties with movie stars, “takes meetings,” and shops with rich housewives, all while trying to uncover a motive for murder. At the same time, she’s negotiating the next steps in her professional racing career, including testing a new racecar on an oval track.

In the flurry of excitement, neither Kate’s murder inquiries nor her personal life run smoothly. She discovers more about the disreputable members of her father’s family than she expected or wanted to know, and her temper frays. She publicly juggles two attractive men, drawing intense and unwanted attention from paparazzi. And worse, this ballooning media exposure generates national commentary about her career choices, talent, and femininity.

The Long Beach race weekend begins with Kate constantly on the go, fielding questions, involved in three separate racing series, and closing in on a killer. Red flags warn her of danger in the racecar, but off-track, Kate finds it hard to heed the signs and stay out of a killer’s grasp.

Saving Lives

The racing world lost a great talent, a good friend, and, by all accounts, an amazing human being this week. Justin Wilson will be profoundly missed by even those, like myself, who'd never met him. A race fan commented on social media that if there were any photos of him not smiling, they must have been Photoshopped, because it simply didn't happen.

I certainly have feelings about the danger of racing, the danger of racing open-cockpit cars in particular, and the weird state of being a fan of racing. But Doug Patterson (an excellent photographer and social media friend of mine) put it best: "I love this sport for the greatness and awesomeness it can bring out in competitors and fans. I hate this sport for the unbearable price it on occasion demands."

But I want to talk about what felt to me like the cherry on top of my sundae of regret that I'd never meet JW or see the further impact he had in the racing world. The capstone on the story of what a decent, generous human being he was. The fact that by donating his organs, which he'd chosen to do and his wife approved, he saved the lives of six other people.

That's generosity and decency in action.

So to Justin Wilson, to Natasha Richardson (Liam Neeson's late wife), and all of the other non-famous, generous departed souls out there who've allowed others to live when they could not ... thank you.

In my opinion, one of the best ways to honor the lives of those who gave so much is to commit to being an organ donor. I've been registered since I had the choice, and I urge you all to register also. Find out how to sign up for your state.

What Do I Do at a Race?

Lots of people ask me that, and they're not usually too impressed when I say I wander around a lot. So, from my visit to the IndyCar race at the Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California, last weekend, here's an explanation in photos. Here's me ...

Watching crews working on cars (this one is Josef Newgarden's).

Seeing cars roll up to the fuel truck to top off before qualifying.

Watching qualifying from Pit Lane means a lot of watching the photographer scrum around the driver who's just about to go out for three laps of fury.

Seeing and sometimes meeting a lot of different racers, including John Force, 16-time NHRA champion (that's drag racing, and he's a legend, maybe the greatest of all time).

Meeting other great people involved in the sport, including these two who run IndyCar's Holmatro Safety Team, responsible for attending to drivers in the case of an accident/injury. They do a lot of good work.

Getting a great view (into Turn 1, from the end of Pit Lane) of the start of the race. You can't quite see it, but the speed trap (red square on outside of track) says the cars are going 214 m.p.h. there.

Getting an up-close view of Pippa in the cockpit of the #18.

Getting incredible action shots of the Dayle Coyne Racing crew servicing Pippa's car during a pit stop. (Click on the photo to see the fuel flying and the intensity on the middle guy's face!)

And even seeing what happens after the race, as drivers debrief with crew and team owners.

Excitement and Apprehension

Sunday is the 99th running of the Indianapolis 500, the Greatest Spectacle in Racing. I made it to the 500 for the first time last year, and I'd hoped to attend this year, but didn't manage it. So I'm eagerly awaiting the race on Sunday, planning to be in front of my TV for every bit of action and to have Twitter open to chat with the friends I'd otherwise see at the track.

I'm obviously excited about the race—particularly about seeing Pippa Mann driving the pink Susan G. Komen car around, carrying a friend's name in the cockpit.

But I'm also apprehensive. This is one of the fastest races in the world, with cars consistently averaging in the high 220 m.p.h. a lap and touching 230 sometimes on the straights.

Which makes it exciting. And dangerous.

There are new aerodynamic kits on the cars this year, which probably contributed to three of them going airborne last week in practice. Cars flying = not what's intended.

Driving that fast with other cars around you means sometimes you can't recover when things go wrong, as Pippa found out last week when she spun trying to avoid someone.

And when parts break, as they occasionally do, sometimes there's a lot of damage. On Monday, the quick action of the safety crew seems to have saved James Hinchcliffe's life when a suspension piece on his car broke and sent him into the wall. The impact apparently measured 125 Gs.

It's astonishing anyone can recover from an impact that big, so kudos to all the safety workers, safety engineers, helmet makers, soft-barrier makers, and so on. And that gives a viewer (and more than one driver's family member, I'm sure) more confidence headed into the biggest race on the calendar for many.

But so much can go wrong, that while I'm excited, I'm also apprehensive in a way that I'm not when I watch the 24 Hours of Le Mans, for instance (coming up in three weeks!). I know this is the safest era of racing. One statistic tossed around on social media was as many as 25 practice crashes during one year in the late '80s. Compared to five this year.

But it's still a dangerous, dangerous sport. So I'll be watching closely on Sunday. But I'll also be crossing my fingers that nothing goes really wrong.

5 Questions with Pippa Mann, Revisited

Racing driver Pippa Mann will return to the Indianapolis 500 this year for the fourth time, and it’ll be her second time “going pink.” That’s right, she’s returning with her pink racecar, supporting—and supported by—the Susan G. Komen foundation.

Pippa’s starting a big campaign aimed at rounding up more support … but not for her own funding, though she scrambles as much as any racecar driver for that. No, she’s aiming to get us all involved with the mission to end breast cancer forever. Along the way, she’ll celebrate the fighters and survivors by carrying their colors into battle on the racetrack.

I’m going to #GetInvolved, and I hope you will also. To kick things off, here are five questions Pippa answered last year before the “greatest spectacle in racing.”

Tammy: Why do you love to race?

Pippa: I love the adrenaline, the feeling of speed, of controlling that powerful car underneath me. I'm competitive, so I love beating the boys on their own terms, too. Much like the horse riding I started with, it's one of the few sports where we get to play together and compete as equals. I love that about motor sport.

What's your racing goal or dream?

Haha, this is easy! Winning the Indy 500 one day!

But I personally have a second goal, pertaining to the Indy 500, that I feel very strongly about. Currently I am the only female pole winner ever at IMS, which I achieved in Indy Lights in 2010. In a race, so much can go wrong, so much is dependent on everything else around you. In qualifying, it's just you and the car your engineer has managed to give you—there are still all sorts of factors that come into play, but so many fewer than on race day. One day I want to repeat my feat from Indy Lights in an IndyCar at IMS. I want to be on pole for the Indy 500.

Aren't racing and the fight against breast cancer a strange combination?

You might think, but here's a different perspective: The Indy 500 reaches millions of people. Literally, millions. Millions here in the U.S., millions across the world. There are around half a million at the track itself when you combine race day and carb day attendance together, before we even get into the people who come out for qualifying weekend. The parade through downtown Indy on the Saturday before the race is the third largest parade in the U.S., after the Rose Bowl parade and the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade, and it's also televised nationally.

The potential reach, to hopefully connect with people via this pink car—this entire pink program—and to raise awareness, is massive. Don't think of this as a motor race. Think of it as a national platform at one of the biggest, most prestigious sporting events of the year, with a female athlete to help spread the word. Then it's a campaign on this same, amazing national platform, to try and raise funding by those who want to get involved in a bigger way, too.

Why is this pink car so important this year?

When I was a teenager, who just started racing, I never wanted pink anywhere as a part of my racing program. I didn't want to be perceived as "the girl" on track, I wanted to be perceived as good, someone who the other drivers either respected—or given karting was, ahem, occasionally something of a contact sport—even someone they feared and knew not to mess with. Pink didn't really fit into that vibe.

That was an attitude that took me a long time to grow out of, and the first time my thoughts about it really changed was actually due to Sarah Fisher again. My first year in the U.S., in 2009, I vividly remember her car at Homestead, when they turned her entire program pink during breast cancer awareness month for Susan G. Komen. I had never seen that before, and it stuck with me.

Now here I am, five years later, with my own pink Susan G. Komen IndyCar. This time, instead of running it for breast cancer awareness month, we're running it at the Indy 500. It's a program I am incredibly proud to have put together, and I am proud to be associated with such a great organization and with a cause that means so much to me. We are using our program to raise awareness and funding [through #GetInvolved], and my helmet is changing color for the first time in over 10 years to match our program.

Then there's the completely secondary reason why this program is kind of cool, and this is something I have only grown into admitting over the past few years.

Let's face it, 99% of little girls do like pink. I have worked with so many young karters, and met so many little girls who are race fans out at the tracks over the previous five years. They are always so pleased to be able to cheer for me when I'm driving, and so sad when I'm not. Completely aside from the big reasons why I want to run this car, to me, it's kind of cool that all those little girls who are fans now not only have a girl to cheer for in this year's Indy 500, but also can cheer for a girl in a pink car!

Tell us how different it is to say "my race is no longer about me"?

I'm a racing driver, and we have a bad habit of thinking of ourselves first and foremost nearly all of the time. So yes, it is pretty weird not only to say that, but also to feel it, and to know it deep inside, too. I'm not out there racing for just me and my team this year, and this car means so much more than racing a car with just a standard logo on the side.

This isn't even really about racing anymore. It's about using this race, and the entire Indy 500 event, as a platform for a campaign to raise awareness and funding for a disease that one in eight women in the U.S. are diagnosed with. Every time I say “one in eight,” I am reminded how scary that statistic is. My family has been touched too, but we're not the anomaly, we're the rule. That's why this is not about me or my family personally. It's about everyone who has been affected or touched in whatever way. This is much, much bigger, and way more important than me.

_____________

Follow Pippa at @pippamann and find out more at PippaMann.com.

Photo credits: Chris Owens (more).

So Many Races

And so little time.

At this time of year, racing seasons are winding down or just done. IndyCar's been done for a month, and the United SportsCar Championship wrapped up over the weekend at Petit Le Mans. NASCAR is into its playoff Chase, and Formula 1 ... they still have a few races, but the silly season is in full effect.

(Silly season = when drivers and teams start to swap for the next year/season, even if the current one isn't over yet.)

This is also the time when series start publishing the next year's racing schedule. It's also when a fan's thoughts turn to "what races will I see in person next year?" So yeah, that's what I'm doing.

It's a lot more difficult now that I'm following and planning to write about both sportscar racing and IndyCar racing. It used to be that I could look at the ALMS (then) schedule and select what races I'd attend from the 12 options.

But now there's IndyCar to think about. And now that I've written a couple books, there are more races to possibly attend due to promotional tie-ins. Or to attend just because I love the tracks and the events.

Petit Le Mans is one of those. I skipped it this year, for the first time in three years, and I missed being there. I probably needed a year's break from the cross-country haul, but I tell you, if that race ever ends up on the WEC schedule (so that all of the Le Mans competitor teams race), I'll be there again.

And then there are the races to attend because I should check out the track—either they're new classics, said to be fantastic, and/or they're places I might want to write about someday. Like Circuit of the Americas in Austin. Like Bristol, in Tennessee. And Le Mans.

Of course, the funds and the free time to attend races aren't unlimited, so I have to make choices. I have to tell myself there will be racing for many years to come, so I need to pace myself! And turn the frustration or sadness over not being at a race into energy to make plans for next year. And motivation to write!

So tell me, do you know where you'll be next year? Where will I see you at the races?