News, Culture and NPR for Central & Northern Michigan
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
91.7FM Alpena and WCML-TV Channel 6 Alpena are off the air. Click here to learn more.

Detroit-based racing team qualifies for Indianapolis 500 over the weekend

File:2007 Indianapolis 500 - Starting field formation before start.jpg by The359 is licensed with CC BY-SA 3.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0

A Detroit-based racing team featuring mostly women qualified for the Indianapolis 500 over the weekend.

The Paretta Autosport team is the first to feature women from its driver to its crew.

It draws technical support from Roger Penske who started an initiative to increase diversity in racing.

But Penske’s cars, including former Indy 500 winner Will Power and Paretta’s veteran driver Simona De Silvestro struggled during qualifying and will start at the back of the 33-car field.

Both cars did far better in practice with the set-ups they’ll use during the actual 500, however and could make a charge to the front on race day.