This week’s segment from our #SpeedbowlDocSeries comes from Part 3, a profile of the first woman to ever qualify for a feature event, Rae Ann Williams. This is one of our favorite stories. When it comes to female drivers, most people will think of Emma Coates as the first woman who raced with the men. And while Emma had a longer racing career at the bowl, during our initial research we came across an article from 1980 that reported Rae Williams was the first female to qualify for a feature event, racing in the Super Stocks (which evolved into today’s Late Model division). Amazingly, we were able to find Rae Ann. She lives in Florida, and we coordinated an interview when she made a trip back to Connecticut. She was a great interview, reliving the days back at the Speedbowl. It’s an interesting piece, considering that these days women race amongst the men in several divisions at several tracks & touring series, but back in 1980, that wasn’t the case. And this segment goes into detail about the struggles Rae Ann went through back then. This also includes interviews from others who remember Rae Ann’s career at the Speedbowl like Michael Lovetere, Jay Stuart, Don Fowler, Bob Freeman and Steve Kennedy.
