Women only make up 4% of top talent, according to the More than Equal Initiative, an organization founded to develop the first female Formula One world champion. As a result, female drivers are often few and far between in motorsport. In “Getting on track: Michele Abbate ‘brakes’ barriers in racing,” host Elaine Jiang talks with Abbate about her journey as a professional driver and being the only woman in her class.

Abbate is a four-time U.S. road racing champion and, in 2015, became the first woman to win the Lindley Bothwell Driver of the Year award in the award’s 66-year history. She currently races in the professional driving category Trans Am TA2: a road racing series that travels across America. 

Additionally, Abbate founded GRR Enterprises and its racing team of the same name with her husband to help support her racing and manage the sponsorships that fund her career.

She is currently recovering from various injuries, including a broken ankle and fractured back, following a crash due to a mechanical brake failure where she went into the walls of the Road America track at 80 mph.

The music in this episode was created by Rachel Alcazar.