Race queen
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A race queen is a Japanese term for a type of promotional model found as part of a pit crew in certain kinds of motor racing, such as F1 races.
The first usage of promotional models in motorraces was during the late 1960s, when model Rosa Ogawa (小川ローザ) was bought in to represent the race winners, it was where the term race queen was coined, prior to that women in motorraces were most wives and girlfriends of drivers and personells, with the exception of some of them being drivers. In 1983, when the sun tan lotion company, Hawaiian Tropic sponsored the 24 hours of Le Mans, the company bought over its models from the United States to appear on racetracks before to race has started wearing bikinis bearing the company name. A year later, that practice was imported over to Japan for the Suzuka 8 Hours motorcycle race, as with the high popularity of these girls, it brought in a lot of interests in them as well as a celebrity culture for them which created a demand for them in a lot of events.
Outside of Japan, the term is also used in Korea, China, and other Asian nations. Their official job is to hold an umbrella over the driver while his car is being worked on. However, in reality, their function is simply to make motor racing seem sexier while promoting the teams and their sponsors. They generally wear some sort of revealing costume (minidress, swimsuit, hot pants, or the like), as well as pantyhose and high heels or knee high boots. The Korean term for a race queen is a "racing girl" (레이싱걸).
In Japan, unlike many campaign girls in other countries, they have a higher profile and is regarded as aidoru varying by the motor sport event they appear in. There is a magazine dedicated to them called [Gals Paradise]. As with the career span for them is in their late twenties, demand for them wane with age, some of them go on to become models or even actresses, based on their popularity but those who are unable to leverage their career into something larger sometimes slowly "decline" into AV work, marriage and eventual obscurity, though it is not unusual not unusual for some of them to have a background as a AV Idol. But for some, especially in non Asian and Japanese countries, it is not unusual for them to use the profession to supplement their college studies and it isn't unusual for race teams to recruit them from the crowds rather than the traditional method of using agencies. In DTM events as with some other events, organisers has started to recruit male models as promotional models.
Race queens who operates in prestigous events and with a large fanbase can also be found at automobile shows purely to draw crowds, where they are nearly as important an attraction as the cars or electronics products that they are promoting.
Famous models (as individuals or groups)
(Listed with event they are likely to be seen at)- Hawaiian Tropic Girls - 24 Hours of Le Mans
- Kazumi Kondo - D1 Grand Prix, formerly in JGTC
- Reiko Nagase - Fititous race queen from the Ridge Racer series
- Soma Akane - Popular RQ in Japan and Taiwan
See also
External links
- [link] (Japanese Language)
- [link] (English Language)
- [Picture Galleries]
- [Japanese page about the first race queen, Rosa Ogawa]
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