Ladies Class Drama…
I'm exhuasted.
L class every year gets put on the chopping block by someone undeducated, lacking data. Usually a man seeking to take away womens autonomy in the sport.
Every year we have to fight this and its exhausting.
Here's some data, the pro solo finale in 2023 had a 25% participation from L class. Show me another form of motorsport that has an event with participation from women that high. (that isn't restricted to women only) I will wait.
Solo Nationals L class numbers are rising.
2021 - 113
2022 - 123
2023 - 158
As a woman who chooses to regularly run open and regularly run ladies I need to make sure this is clear to the men who keep arguing that its a "cash grab" or "trophy grab" to run L. We run these classes because the camaradarie is 1000% better. We don't want to hear men's locker room talk. We dont want to be told we're aggressive, caustic or a bitch for being direct. What we do want is to be able to run across grid or impound and hug our competitors who did well, we want to support our competitors who are sad that they had a bad day. We want to spend time with our cars that makes our hearts sing.
The only time I remotley had the same level of camaradarie in open that I have in L is the one time I ran SSM at Charlotte. Eveyone walked around and wished eachother luck before we started and when I passed AJ on my last run for my first open trophy, he ran over to the scales to hug me and tell me how proud he was of me. This was a one time thing out of the many times I've ran open.
Edit- I did have this level of camaraderie in open one other time XA at spring nats in 2023 I think the reason I forgot about this was because there were more women in the class than men.
Almost every single time I run L this level of sportsmanship and camaradarie happens. Especially in the recent years. The push Women on Track has made to make an open welcoming environment has only made it better and better. I know I have learned a lot from it. I have not alwasy been the face of sportsmanship but we all learn and grow.
Women are fully capable at looking at the rules and classing within our subset of classes and choosing to run there or not. We don't need you to hold our hand. We will ask if we need help or guidance. We have our own brains, our own emotions, our own opinons allow us to use them. Let us have our autonomy.
Every time this conversation opens up you're taking away our autonomy. Which is a huge problem that we women face in any male dominated industry or sport or even autonomy over our bodies in general. Frankly we're all tired of having to fight for it.
You open up wounds that never fully get a chance to heal. If you have any constructive conversation I'm all for it, howver, don't lead the conversation with imflammatory statements then come crying to me you were repeadtedly told you were wrong and act like a victim when you started it by wanting to axe our autonomy and our classes.
I'm all for "how do we make it better?". If that is your question ask that. Lets discuss that, but make sure you have some data to back up your claims.
I remember reading posts saying that if contingency goes away L classes will go away. Our contingency is smaller than ever and our classes are at the highest participation level I've seen since I started in 2008. We WANT these classes. We choose to run there. Why do you so badly want to take away our choice? Why does the existence of my class effect you so much? How does it hurt YOU?
If the way someone else experiences fun and joy bothers you in any way I think perhaps that is something worth self reflecting on. It seems really weird to me that someone elses happiness would bother you in our sport.
