Indy 500: Pippa Mann’s absence ends a historic run

By Asher Fair | Aug 15, 2020

Pippa Mann, Clauson-Marshall Racing, IndyCar, Indy 500 (Photo by Clive Rose/Getty Images) /

Pippa Mann will not compete in the 104th running of the Indy 500, ending a historic streak of women competing in the “Greatest Spectacle in Racing”.

There were doubts about whether Pippa Mann would be able to compete in this year’s running of the Indianapolis 500 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway back in January. That was well before the coronavirus pandemic hit the United States and delayed the 2020 IndyCar season itself as well as the Indy 500’s scheduled date from Sunday, May 24 to Sunday, August 23.

As many well know, the financial hits taken by many businesses and individuals have been devastating. Those hits left IndyCar scrambling just to land enough entries to preserve the 33-car tradition of the “Greatest Spectacle in Racing”.

Unfortunately, Mann will not be one of those 33 drivers who attempts to qualify for the 104th running of the 200-lap race around the four-turn, 2.5-mile (4.023-kilometer) oval in Speedway, Indiana.

More from IndyCar

As a result, this year’s Indy 500 is the first without a woman on the entry list in nearly three decades, as this hasn’t happened since the 75th running back in 1991.

It is also slated to be the first Indy 500 without a woman in the field of the third millennium. The 33-car field hasn’t been completely made up of men since the 83rd running of the race back in 1999. Mann herself has compete in the Indy 500 on seven occasions, doing so in 2011, from 2013 through 2017 and then again last year. She failed to qualify for the race in 2018.

Lyn St. James made her Indy 500 debut in 1992 and successfully qualified for the race for six straight years before failing to do so in 1998 and 1999. She returned to the race for the final time in 2000, which is when Sarah Fisher made her Indy 500 debut.

Fisher competed in the race eight more times from 2001 through 2010, only not doing so in 2005 and 2006. But in 2005, Danica Patrick kept the streak of women in the field alive by making her debut, and she competed in the race each year through 2011 before leaving for NASCAR. She returned in 2018 before retiring from professional racing.

Patrick’s Indy 500 years also saw the debuts of Milka Duno, Simona de Silvestro and Ana Beatriz. Duno competed in the race from 2007 through 2009 before failing to qualify in 2010 while de Silvestro competed from 2010 through 2013 and then again in 2015. Beatriz competed in it from 2010 through 2013.

Katherine Legge made her Indy 500 debut in 2012 and competed in the race again in 2013. She is the ninth and most recent female to make her Indy 500 debut.

Next. Top 10 Indianapolis 500 drivers of all-time. dark

Prior to the arrival of St. James, Janet Guthrie was the only woman who had competed in the race. She did so from 1977 through 1979 before failing to qualify in 1980. Desiré Wilson attempted to qualify each year from 1982 through 1984, but she failed to do so each time, while Amber Furst was denied her entry in 1983 due to lack of IndyCar experience.