It all started in May 2014, when British racing driver Pippa Mann decided to wear a pink helmet and firesuit for the Indianapolis 500, in partnership with breast cancer foundation Susan G. Komen. Even her car was wrapped in pink with white accents. It was all to support a good cause—at first. But it quickly became something bigger, as Mann learned that her distinguished presence on the track gave other women, and especially young girls, someone to cheer for and identify with.
“I started asking the question of myself: If I believe men and women are equal, and I believe we race as equals, am I not allowed to be a woman and be equal?” Mann says.
And so from then on, the pink helmet stuck around—and so did allowing herself to be recognized as a woman on the track.
Mark J. Rebilas/USA TODAY Sports
In 2020, Mann took over from founder Lynn Kehoe as the president and CEO of Shift Up Now, an organization working to provide support and funding for women in motorsports, from F1 feeder series to IndyCar to endurance racing. Mann grew up racing in the U.K., competing in various Formula Renault series before becoming the first woman to race in and score a point in World Series by Renault in ’07, the same circuit that F1 stars Daniel Ricciardo, Kevin Magnussen and Sebastien Vettel, among others, came out of. She knows firsthand how important financial support is to a racing career—as of ’21, women receive roughly 1% of that marketing sponsorship money. Since taking over at Shift Up Now, Mann has helped spearhead putting about half a million dollars into the organization’s women athletes and their sponsors.
To anyone outside of the racing world, this is a huge sum of money. But in a pay-to-play environment like motorsports, it’s not, and Shift Up Now still has far to go.
“It’s not necessarily a results-based sport. You have to have the money. And that’s because it's just so expensive to run a season,” says Ashley Freiberg, the first woman to win a professional race at the Daytona International Speedway and the first woman to win an overall North American Porsche GT3 Cup race. “Especially with the advancements in technology and everything, a season, even in the lower levels, you’re over half a million, if not at a million.”
Freiberg, also a full-time real estate agent, is a five-time karting champion and a two-time Skip Barber Series Champion, among many other accolades. Even if you’re up front and winning races, she says, it’s all about understanding how to bring value back to sponsors if you want to keep racing. (She is supported by Yokohama Tires, who have been in her corner since 2013.)
But with that reality comes a difficult cycle: Without a sponsor, drivers can’t get a seat. And without a seat, how can they prove they’re worth the investment?
That’s where Shift Up Now comes in, along with other funding like scholarships. Another athlete, Hannah Grisham, has gotten support from the insurance company Hagerty—funding she secured through Shift Up Now—and it is the main reason she’s been able to be in a car at all the past few years, she says.
Under Mann’s leadership, Shift Up Now has not only helped women secure corporate sponsorships, but has also expanded to create its own foundation, aimed at providing tangible grants and financial support to its athletes. Erin Vogel, a former board member, accepted a new role as president in early June. With her help and experience working in real estate management, Mann hopes the foundation and the support Shift Up Now provides will continue to grow.
Vogel didn’t start racing until her 30s. It all seemed very unapproachable, she says, especially seeing all the judgment that women in the space often receive. And again, the biggest barrier of all is the finances.
“Even once you get past that whole I feel like an outsider [and have] confidence … and you’re there and you’re ready to do it, if you don’t have the money to do it, you’re probably not going to be able to,” Vogel says.
Courtesy of Halson Pitman
She met Mann at Thunderhill Raceway in 2018, where Vogel was competing (and would go on to win her class) in NASA 25 Hours of Thunderhill. She had heard about Shift Up Now and its plan to run a few all-women teams, and she wanted to join. Mann has raced three consecutive years in the ADAC Total 24-hour race (which takes place at the Nordschleife, a track known as the “Green Hell”) as part of project “Girls Only,” which includes a driving lineup, engineers and crew entirely made up of women. Alongside three very accomplished drivers—two who compete in the W Series and one who is local to the track—Mann, as the extra driver, recorded the fastest lap on the team.
It’s one of her proudest moments as a driver. The other is the 2019 Indy 500, when she was part of the Clauson-Marshall Racing team and drove for the father of her late friend, Bryan Clauson, who had died in a racing accident three years before. And she drove in a Driven2SaveLives car, which is a campaign in honor of Clauson’s memory. When talking about it, she says, “It’s very hard not to get emotional.”
In a sport that is so financially demanding, it’s remarkable that Mann dedicates so much of her time to Shift Up Now and other causes. She’s coaching, driving and managing an organization, all at once, and any time she’s not on a track she’s not earning money. Most days, she says, her phone is out of battery by noon.
“She’s seen it all, been down in the trenches … and it’s amazing to see her efficiency and what she gets done. Day in and day out,” says Sabré Cook, the only American driver to compete in the W Series in 2021 and the first woman to race in the Porsche Deluxe Carrera Cup North America.
So why does Mann do it? It’s necessary. An organization like Shift Up Now, she says, wasn’t there when she needed it, coming up in the sport 20-plus years ago. Without money to support talented drivers, the sport loses them. And though the money conversation is relevant for all athletes in racing, regardless of gender, Mann is concentrating on what’s in front of her. She wants to see some more pink helmets flying around racetracks.
“I’m focused on trying to change the tiny little corner of the world that I inhabit,” she says. “This is not the Pippa Mann show. This is not about me. … It’s about making a difference for women in our sport.”
