By Brian Baker, Principal Historian
Lucy O’Reilly Schell was a successful rally racer, the first woman to compete in a Grand Prix race and the first woman to own Grand Prix and Indianapolis 500 racing teams. Just before WWII, Schell, an American heiress living in Paris, set her sights on Grand Prix racing. The Germans did not see Schell as a threat, yet the diminutive Jewish multi-millionaire racer proved that they underestimated her.