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Our Fans<br />
Look Out for Women Drivers<br />
Kathy Petty sets the pace on a different kind of track<br />
During NASCAR season, a<br />
Daimler<strong>Chrysler</strong> test driver<br />
named “Petty” gets a lot of<br />
attention. With the most famous<br />
name in racing, you’re bound to get<br />
a few <strong>com</strong>ments.<br />
“Since I drive cars for a living,<br />
sometimes people tease me about my<br />
name,” says test track veteran Kathy<br />
Petty (no relation to the NASCAR<br />
clan). “I tell them, ‘I’m a Petty, but I<br />
don’t drive like one.’”<br />
Maybe … maybe not. Kathy Petty,<br />
mother of seven, likes to tear up a<br />
six-lane highway at over 140 miles<br />
per hour and take a vehicle to the<br />
limit with the throttle wide open,<br />
weaving through roads riddled with<br />
hazards. It’s her job.<br />
On any given day at Chelsea<br />
Proving Grounds, outside Detroit,<br />
you’ll find Petty somewhere on the<br />
3,800-acre facility’s 47 miles of<br />
asphalt, 36 miles of concrete or<br />
12 miles of gravel road, putting<br />
another <strong>Chrysler</strong> Group vehicle to<br />
the test. She rates vehicles on speed,<br />
endurance, power and a full range<br />
of quality “musts,” with trials that<br />
run the gamut from chassis qualifying<br />
exams to high-speed performance<br />
checks.<br />
“Before I applied, I never thought<br />
about having a job like this — but<br />
it turned out to be a great fit,” says<br />
Petty, a <strong>UAW</strong> Local 1284 member<br />
who joined Daimler<strong>Chrysler</strong> 12<br />
years ago. At the time, she was a<br />
single mother with five daughters<br />
and two sons ranging in age from<br />
12 to 23.<br />
Chelsea Proving Grounds paved<br />
the road for women drivers from the<br />
time it opened in 1954. That year,<br />
driver Betty Skelton set the Women’s<br />
Closed Track World Record at the<br />
proving grounds, clocking 143.44<br />
miles per hour in a Dodge. And the<br />
Proving Grounds stayed ahead of its<br />
time, hiring the facility’s first woman<br />
engineer in 1965.<br />
“Around here, we know those<br />
Test driver Kathy Petty tears up the<br />
track at Chelsea Proving Grounds.<br />
‘women drivers’ remarks aren’t true,”<br />
jokes Petty, whose fastest speed on the<br />
Proving Grounds happens to be 143<br />
miles per hour — the same world<br />
record pace recorded by pioneer<br />
Skelton. “In fact,” she adds, “I’ve<br />
never had an accident or injury. In<br />
more than 10 years, driving hundreds<br />
of miles a week, I think that says<br />
something about the cars we make.” ■<br />
— S.C. Biemesderfer<br />
10 www.uawdcx.<strong>com</strong>
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