On April 27, Judy (Kondratieff) Ganley lost her valiant battle with cancer. Perhaps best known in recent years, as the wife of Kiwi Formula One driver Howden Ganley, Judy was an accomplished racer in her own right, with decades of team management experience to go with it.
An excellent student in school, Judy attended prestigious Stanford University before taking up sports car racing in the mid-1960s with the SCCA. She successfully raced both Sprites and Mini-Coopers until 1971 in the San Francisco Region. Among her accomplishments were being voted Woman Racer of the Year by the California Motorsports Press Association and finishing 1st in class and 19th overall with co-drivers Janet Guthrie and Rosemary Smith in the 1970 Sebring 12 Hours.
After retiring from driving, she accepted an invitation from Patty McLaren and traveled to Europe to attend the GPs with the McLaren F1 Team. Before long, Judy was assisting with timing/scoring where she exhibited an amazing ability to accurately time up to 20 cars with a single stopwatch. With her reputation as a timer growing, Judy embarked on a long career providing administrative support to major racing teams. These included (Chris) Amon Engines Ltd; the Matra Le Mans program (1972); BRM F1, Williams F1, Gulf in the Sports Car World Championships; Gelo Racing; and Vern Schuppan’s Can-Am team (1980).
Along the way, Judy became involved with racecar engineering and between 1984 and 1987 she assisted various Group C teams with technical advice along with timing and lap charting. She returned to Le Mans several more times in the 1980s performing her flawless timing duties for several teams and co-managed one of the Schuppan Porsche 1962s in 1990. Besides her on-track advice, Judy gained considerable experience in aerodynamics and was involved in several wind-tunnel programs.
For recreation, Judy enjoyed golf, horseback riding and fly-fishing. Having traveled the world and made countless friends along the way, Judy’s zest for life, sense of humor and charm will be missed by the ones closest to her as well as anyone who had the good fortune to make her acquaintance.
by Gary Horstkorta
