ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (WFLA) – With the start of Women’s History Month and the 2023 NTT INDYCAR Series season this week, Chip Ganassi Racing and PNC Bank are embarking on a second season of their ‘Women in Motorsports’ internship program.
“I think it’s created a lot of different ways to think about our process, how we can do things better,” CGR driver and six-time INDYCAR Series champion Scott Dixon said. “I would say last year was a complete success. I think the only downside was that we wished that we had more of them.”
CGR announced their group of 2023 interns, Hailey Hein (Mechanics), Nicole Goodman (IT), and Raegen Moody (Engineering), who are all current college students that will work with the race team over the course of two months, starting May 30.
As part of this internship, they will get to travel with the team to several races throughout the season. One of their mentors will be Anne Chatten, a gearbox mechanic for CGR, who was pleased with how the first year went and is looking forward to year two.
“I think it was extremely successful given the fact that we found some really amazing talent to help support us at the race track and at the shop,” Chatten said. “It was really important for us to be able to tap into that again to use it to our team benefit, but also to give these women an opportunity to be exposed to motor racing, something that’s not the average.”
Chatten has been working in motorsports for more than two decades as a transmission mechanic and knows firsthand the value of creating this pathway for other women.
“When I started in this business, it wasn’t cool to be a woman,” Chatten said. “I did everything I could to just blend in and not draw attention to myself. And now, diversity is becoming more celebrated and people are much more welcoming of it. I feel super privileged that I get to be here at Ganassi and partner with PNC to be a part of that.”
