NORMA LEE "DUSTY" BRANDEL - 09/29/1937 - 02/27/2022
We tend to have a tendency to look at those female participants who are drivers, crew members and even team owners. There is one woman who infiltrated this masculinity-focused sport as a writer when women weren’t allowed anywhere near a media center, much less a garage area or pit road. That would be Norma “Dusty” Brandel. She was a lifelong resident and dedicated member of the Burbank community. Norma embarked on her remarkable career in motorsports journalism in 1955 as a writer for the Hollywood Citizen News, covering car races all over Southern California for a bevy of local news outlets, through to the COVID shut-down and graced the sport with her knowledge of both open- and closed-wheel motorsports and her enthusiastic support for all facets of the sport. When she was encouraged to use a "gender-neutral" name to avoid the roadblocks that existed for female journalists at the time, the name "Dusty" was born. Brandel received the American Auto Racing Writers and Broadcasters Association (AARWBA) Angelo Angelopolous Award in 2001 and joined NASCAR’s Hall of Fame as the seventh recipient of NASCAR’s Squier-Hall Award for NASCAR Media
Excellence in 2018. Dusty Brandel blazed the path for future female motorsports journalists and photojournalists, and served as president and executive officer of American Auto Racing Writers and Broadcasters Association. Promoting benefits for all journalists was one of her passions and it was her personal dedication to inclusion for all in the sport that made her even work outstanding. In her AARWBA duties, it was Dusty Brandel’s dedication to the First Amendment that opened doors for all of the group’s members. The annual banquet for AARWBA’s All America Team, culled from all aspects of the sport, together with the group’s Indianapolis 500 breakfast the day before each race, that set AARWBA apart from other professional organizations in racing. Brandel recognized that networking opportunities helped elevate the sport for all. She was the first woman to be permitted in the media center at the Indianapolis 500 in 1971. In 1972 she was the first woman to receive a press credential to report from inside a professional NASCAR garage area, coming at Ontario Motor Speedway Known for her fabulous hats and her flowing red hair, it was easy to know when Brandel entered any room. Former NASCAR chairman Brian France noted, “Though she was a pioneer for female journalists, that fact soon became just a footnote in an exemplary career – her journalistic talents and her dedication throughout a more than six-decade career far transcended gender.” Dusty passed away at home on February 27, 2022.