- [Announcer] You'll see our pacecar right now, in fact.

Pacecar accelerates to the head of the field.

- [Dotti] We've raced up and down the East Coast, in to Canada, West Coast, so we had a really good time with it.

We've done some auto crossing too, prior to racing.

- [Announcer] Waiting for the field to assemble.

- [Dotti] And when we met, we both loved cars, so we had that common bond immediately.

We've been married 40 years.

- [Announcer] Looking for a green flag, we have a start!

(upbeat music) (car engine revving) My name is Dotti Bechtol, and I am a racer, a member of the Board of Directors of the Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix, and the treasurer.

- [John] My name is John Bechtol.

I am the chair of the Competition Committee for the Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix, and I'm also the Competition Director for the Schenley Park race.

(engine revving) - [Dotti] Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix was founded about 37 years ago, and our mission is to take care of individuals and their families that are dealing with autism, as well as emotional and intellectual disabilities in this region.

In the second year, 1984, we began volunteering ourselves.

And we had done a lot of car events before starting to race in 1999, but as we were doing the patron parking one year, I'd say, I need to do this.

And Dotti would say no, no, it's a little too dangerous, we're not gonna do that.

After several years of this, I finally said look, I need to race.

I want to race in Pittsburgh.

And she said, "Well, if you feel "that strongly about it, I'll do it too."

Didn't want him to have all the fun.

(engine revving) Well, unfortunately there are not a lot of women that race.

I'd love to see more women get into it.

I have a ball with it.

Unless I take my helmet off, you really don't know that I'm a woman driving.

And I think it creates a very level playing field for women, because it's a sport that requires skill, and requires physical and emotional energy.

And you can match that of a man, because it's not lifting weights, we're driving a car.

Our car is a 1972 Alfa Romeo Spider.

Two-liter engine, five-speed transmission.

I don't think we've had any car longer than we've had this one.

Yeah.

We've had a lot of cars, and this is the longest.

Yeah.

(engine revving) The first place was a race in the rain at Lime Rock, Connecticut.

When I was in the lead, and got punted off the track by somebody.

And the guy who punted me was in second place.

So, when Dotti drove by and waved, knowing that I wasn't going to finish and she was, I thought, well isn't that nice?

No, no, I waved to be sure he was okay.

And once I knew he waved back, I thought, I can go win this now and I did.

- [Announcer] First call, the Alfa Romeo course is going up.

- [John] The race in Schenley Park is the longest-running street race for vintage cars in the US.

There are some street races, but they're rarely vintage races, so ours is the longest-running and we hope with the city's permission and our good driving, we keep doing that for years to come.

(engine revving) It's a great hobby to do together.

You know, we enjoy each other's company.

We do sometimes end up in the same race, so we're competing against each other.

I try to remember that, that would be very expensive if we lost control of our emotions and hit each other.

But the really nice thing about it is, we've never had to say, "Do you want to go to this race?"

or, I haven't had to plead with her, to say "Well, look, I went to this for you, "now let me go to the race."

We just go together, and it's been very nice.

(soft upbeat music)