First Lady of Dirt

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A01=Bill Poehler
African American biography
African American studies
Author_Bill Poehler
auto racing
automobile racing
Black race car drivers
Black women in sports
Can-Am series
car racing
Category=DNBS
Category=SMFA
Cheryl Glass
Cheryl Linn Glass
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_sports-fitness
first woman driver
groundbreaking women in sports
Indianapolis 500
Indy cars
motorsports
motorsports biography
race car
race car drivers
racing
racing biography
Skagit Speedway
social justice
sports biography
USAC Silver Crown
women drivers
women in sports
women racers

Product details

  • ISBN 9781538184059
  • Weight: 508g
  • Dimensions: 159 x 236mm
  • Publication Date: 06 Feb 2024
  • Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
  • Publication City/Country: US
  • Product Form: Hardback
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The incredible, little-known story of the first successful Black woman in the sport of auto racing in the United States.

Early in her career, Cheryl Glass looked like a lock to become the first Black woman to compete in the Indianapolis 500. From racing quarter midget cars at ten years old to Indy Lights in her twenties, Cheryl was on her way towards a winning career in auto racing.

In The First Lady of Dirt: The Triumphs and Tragedy of Racing Pioneer Cheryl Glass, Bill Poehler tells Cheryl’s full story for the first time. He recounts how Cheryl rapidly became the first successful Black woman in the sport, yet frequently encountered racist and sexist taunts from other drivers and fans throughout her career. While appearing to have it all—talent, ambition, looks—she faced many challenges on and off the track and her life soon spun out of control.

Featuring exclusive interviews with Cheryl’s mother, friends, and competitors, The First Lady of Dirt takes you behind the scenes and in the driver’s seat of Cheryl’s life. Poehler, an amateur racer himself, places the reader at the track, smelling the dirt and fumes, hearing the roaring engines and crashing metal, and feeling Cheryl’s joy and pain. It’s the inspiring story of a racing pioneer and a tragic tale of the pressures that are often hidden from public view until it’s too late.

Bill Poehler is an award-winning journalist who has spent his career as a reporter at the Salem Statesman Journal, part of the USA Today network in Salem, Oregon. His work has appeared in such newspapers as USA Today, Washington Times, The Indianapolis Star, The Detroit Free Press, Des Moines Register, The Tennessean, Cincinnati Enquirer and Reno Gazette-Journal as well as on Yahoo.com, MSNBC, Oregon Public Broadcasting, KGW TV, and KOIN TV. Poehler has won awards from the Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association, the Best of Gannett, and from the Oregon Athletic Coaches Association for his writing and contributions as a journalist. He is the author of The Brown Bullet: Rajo Jack’s Drive to Integrate Auto Racing.

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