If you read this space regularly, you’ll recall being introduced to a young race driver named Hallie Deegan, who’s now moving into NASCAR’s Camping World Truck Series. More than just about any sport you can name, automobile racing stands as a leveler of gender inequality. It’s not just guys who know how to set up a car and drive fast. Yet another case study exists in the personage of Courtney Crone, 20, who’s just won the Gorsline Scholarship Award, presented by the Gorsline Company of Rochester, New York, which markets special high-risk insurance products for the motorsport industry. She was in line for a Team USA Scholarship to race Formula Ford in the United Kingdom, and additionally received a Women’s Motorsports Foundation Project Podium scholarship. A native of Corona, California, she also won the VMB Driver Development Scholarship shoot-out in 2017 and 2018 and drove Steve Brisentine’s Formula Speed 2.0 in the Formula Car Challenge Series for two seasons.
The image by Kathy Rose shows Crone being recognized by company chief Jim Gorsline at Sebring last month. Incredibly, 2021 marks her 17th year in motorsport, where she now drives an LMP3 fielded by Forty7 Motorsport in the IMSA Prototype Challenge after stints in both dirt and pavement Midgets. This is the first year since 2016 that Gorsline has presented the scholarship, whose prior winners include both Danica Patrick and Katherine Legge. Crone says one potential goal is a ride in IndyCar, which would be very wise to find her a competitive ride and sponsorship after losing Kyle Larson and apparently, Santino Ferrucci to NASCAR.
Jim Donnelly On Wheels 