In this last year, we experienced the passing of a legend. Denise McCluggage, an auto racing driver, journalist, photographer, skier, and pioneer, died at the age of 88. The paths that Denise paved for women in the auto industry everywhere should be appreciated and remembered, as well the wonderful woman Denise was.
Denise was raised in Kansas before moving to California as a young adult. She developed a love for cars at a very early age. When she was six, she asked Santa for a Baby Austin 7, and she got her driver’s license at the early age of 14. She began her journalism career writing for The San Francisco Chronicle but quickly moved on to being a sports writer for New York Herald Tribune. She covered skiing, parachuting, and a few other extreme sports, but what really lit her fire was racing.
She completed and placed in a number of races up and down the East Coast, making a name for herself as a woman to be feared. She became the first woman to win the feature sports-car event at Thompson Raceway in Connecticut, with a Porsche RS. Her trademark was a white helmet with pink dots. Eventually, she began racing all over the world, including the 1000-km race at the Nürburgring and the Monte Carlo Rally.
In 1958, She co-founded a biweekly newspaper about racing called The Competition Press with Don Stewart and Tom Swantek. It would eventually evolve into today’s Autoweek. She was involved with the publication for the rest of her life.
She is remembered fondly as fearless and brilliant. McCluggage had several books published and was respected in the racing and auto industry, not only as a writer, but as a member. Her life was legendary by all accounts and she helped inspire women in the auto industry everywhere!
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