Firestone Racing Wins Schwitzer Award | Adams Becomes First Female Recipient

Firestone’s Cara Adams, Brett Schilling and Phil Severyn were awarded the 53rd Louis Schwitzer Award on Friday, May 17 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the innovation of the Firestone Firehawk Indy 500 race tire. The award is given to those who have an impact on innovation and engineering excellence at the Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge.

Firestone chief engineer Adams is the first female to be a part of a recipient group for the award.

“I am really proud to be able to add women to the list of innovators at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway,” Adams said. “We have an amazing group of women that are working with the Indianapolis 500.”

Andy Granatelli won the first Louis Schwitzer Award in 1967 for his work on the gas turbine engine. Other recipients of the award include Dan Gurney twice for his work on a low-cost racing engine and the Eagle chassis, Parnelli Jones for the Parnelli chassis and Dr. Robert Hubbard and James Downing for their work on the HANS Device.

Adams, the daughter of a science teacher and granddaughter of a NASA engineer, has been with Firestone since 2003. She said her role as a trailblazer for women is important for the future of women in motorsports.

“I think what we’re able to do as female engineers here in racing is to show other young women and girls and boys alike that if we can do this, so can you,” she said. “I think to be able to be in this role and to talk about how cool science is and to be a role model to some of these young girls is just fantastic to me.”

This is the second time Firestone has won the Louis Schwitzer Award, which is presented by BorgWarner and the Indiana section of the Society of Automotive Engineers. Firestone also won the award in 2013 for its work on the Firestone Firehawk Indy 500 race tire, which Adams said is a testament to Firestone’s continued innovation at IMS.

Firestone spent this offseason working to add more grip to the front of the cars. The Firestone team held two tests during the offseason, and it led to a tire that has helped the NTT IndyCar Series continue to improve the on-track performance ahead of the 103rd running of the Indianapolis 500.

During the Month of May, Firestone will produce more than 5,000 tires for on-track action at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, just a small fraction of the more than 26,000 Firestone Firehawk tires they will build for the entire NTT IndyCar Series season.