Myles Rowe can have ‘Hamilton-like’ effect on IndyCar

F1

Groundbreaking African-American Myles Rowe is lighting up the US junior single-seater scene, but his mentor Rod Reid says more help is needed to improve diversity in IndyCar

2 Myles Rowe IndyCar USFPro2000

Rowe has hugely impressed since joining Force Indy

IndyCar

Author

James Elson

If you haven’t heard the name Myles Rowe yet, it’s likely you will soon. The young Atlanta, Georgia-native is blazing a blinding trail on several fronts in motor sport.

Not only does he share his hero Lewis Hamilton’s prodigious pace, dominating his US F3-equivalent USFPro2000 series, he’s also breaking racial barriers: Rowe was the first African-American to win an IndyCar-sanctioned race, and has claimed another eight victories since.

So profound is the impression Rowe is making, that some believe he can initiate a “cultural shift” in its audience, replicating the Hamilton effect in IndyCar – but racial barriers are still prevalent on the road ahead for under-represented minorities in racing.

That’s according to Rod Reid, who runs IndyCar’s Force Indy project, the ground-breaking initiative which is enabling people from ethnic-minority backgrounds to work and develop on US single-seater ladder.

5 Myles Rowe IndyCar USFPro2000

Rowe (second in picture) has asserted himself with three wins out of four in USFPro2000 this season

USFPro2000

Rowe’s recent progress has been meteoric – having been plucked from obscurity by IndyCar owner Roger Penske’s Race for Equality and Change programme and placed in the Force Indy team, he won a race in his first season of USF2000 (equivalent to F4), narrowly missed out on the title in the second and is now blazing a trail in Indy’s F3 equivalent, winning three of the first four rounds and finishing third in the other.

Rowe’s progress has brought unprecedented attention to IndyCar’s lower levels, and Reid believes it’s simply a matter of time before the softly spoken driver from Atlanta, Georgia hits the top – and initiates further change with it similar to Hamilton and other leading black athletes.

“Myles has that charisma and confidence – not arrogance” Rod Reid

“I think he could have what I would call the ‘Tiger Woods effect’,” Reid tells Motor Sport. “Tiger wasn’t the first black man to play professional level of golf. But he changed it – not only as a winner, but just his style and everything he brought to the to the sport. I think we’re gonna see that in Myles.

“Myles has that charisma and confidence – not arrogance – that is just very natural.

“When you meet him you go, ‘Oh, my God’. He’s got that magnetic smile, but when he puts the helmet on, he gets the job done. You can tell this young man is very serious.”

As a result of considerable talent combined with a winning determination, Reid isn’t afraid to make his own predictions for Rowe’s progress.

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“I’m gonna go out on a limb and say when he gets to IndyCar, I think he’s going to bring an audience that has not looked at motor sports before, both black and white. Just because of who he is, and in a way Willie T Ribbs was not able to do because of the challenges of the time – a lot of people don’t know about Wille, in the black community in particular.

“Along with the support that Myles is getting from us, I think we can actually start to make a cultural shift in the black community.”

Despite this impossible-to-ignore talent, Rowe can’t bring about the change entirely by himself. Reid believes that more action needs to come from within the IndyCar paddock.

In spite of Penske’s ‘Race…’ initiative, he asserts people from ethnic minority backgrounds still face significant challenges to get into top level US motor sport, and that some teams aren’t prepared to take on the fundamental changes to make it happen.

“I know that there have been efforts on the part of IndyCar to talk to teams about their diversity – there’s no specific diversity initiative on the team side [currently], but I didn’t get a sense that there was a lot of interest.

Myles Rowe USF2000 driver

Dicing for the win with Sam Sikes (car 19) at Barber in 2022

USF2000

“But there is a consciousness out there, this is an important thing. Certainly Jimmy McMillan, chief diversity officer at IMS, he’s preaching all the time about the positive aspect of it.”

Reid says that over in Formula 1, Lewis Hamilton’s push for more diversity in motor sport has had effects both good and bad on IndyCar.

The Hamilton Commission, set up by the Mercedes driver in 2020, put forward ten recommendations to help increase diversity in racing. In response, the Extreme E series, which features a team owned by Hamilton, has announced the ‘Racing for All’ programme which allowed young black mechanic Jacob Alexander to work as a mechanic in the championship.

F1 is already diversifying its own workforce, but not put forward any solid plans to aid diversity within competing teams – though its all-female Formula Academy series is due to start in April.

While Reid thinks IndyCar should be commended for Force Indy and its all-female team Paretta Autosport (not confirmed hwoever for any races this season yet due to a lack of a partner team), he believes this may have created a slightly self-congratulatory, false sense of security for teams in their own diversity efforts.

“People are very much aware of Hamilton Commission. But what follows on is people thinking, ‘Hey we’ve done better than F1.’

“I would say it’s probably more just by the sheer fact of efforts like Force Indy, Paretta and what Roger Penske has done with the ‘Race for Equality and Change’ in heightening the awareness.

“I have had a couple of teams specifically call me and say, ‘Hey, we’d like to consider an African American.’

4 Myles Rowe IndyCar USFPro2000

Reid believes Rowe can have a huge influence on IndyCar’s audience

USFPro2000

“And my comment is: ‘Are you willing to develop a mechanic?’ Because if you’re not, you’re going to continue to say ‘I can’t find them’.

“I know a lot of young people that I think could be candidates, but you’ve got to be willing to develop them.”

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Reid says his own activities with Force Indy reflect the action that needs to be taken, but also the positive rewards that can be reaped as a result.

“The thing that troubles me is that it seems to me teams want to have an African American that is like this stellar mechanic.

“When you hire your first mechanic, you’re probably hiring somebody that still needs development, they still need to understand your process and your approach. We can’t expect that a person right out of school is going to know everything and be that perfect employee.

“I myself hired Derrick Morris from the City Garage [in Indianapolis], he was working on police vehicles, and he’s now an incredible chief mechanic. I’m not seeing evidence of [other] people taking a chance.”

However, Reid’s own not-for-profit motor sport education organisation, NXG Youth Motor Sports, still has plenty of talent coming through at its Indianapolis and Detroit bases which he sees promising a bright future.

Force Indy

The Force Indy team is giving people of ethnic-minority background a chance in racing, but says other teams must do more

Force Indy

“We’ve introduced two new people to motor sports [recently]: a young kid named BJ Shaw as well as Violet Townsend and Dystany Spurlock. Dystany is the first African-American female to run in the Skip Barber series, and had two top-10 finishes in her first two races.”

Rather than make token gestures, Rod Reid wants wholesale change.

“What I’ll say that it is very inexpensive to show that you’re not a racist – just parade a few people around [but] I went into this to win some races and to build a workforce that I think is much needed in sport. I still would love to, you know, one day predominantly black team at Indy.”

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