Wednesday, July 1, 2026 | 2 a.m.
Growing up successful Maui, immoderate of Shianne Fontanilla’s earliest memories are of her begetter excitedly taking her on to resistance races connected the land astir each weekend, wherever she experienced the thrill of roaring engines and accelerated cars.
Cars person ever been portion of her life, and present they’re important to her future.
Fontanilla, a caller postgraduate of the College of Southern Nevada, is starring a increasing assemblage of section women choosing to participate the car repair manufacture — a tract inactive dominated by men.
She was honored Tuesday by the Las Vegas Grand Prix with 2 escaped tickets to this year’s contention successful November. Fontanilla, 26, said moving connected cars wasn’t ever a passionateness of hers, but she would ever ticker her dada tinker with immoderate vehicles they had astatine the time. When Fontanilla moved to Las Vegas astir 5 years ago, her archetypal extremity was to participate the aesculapian field.
But successful 2024, she recovered a spark of involvement successful her dad’s aged hobby and traded studying the anatomy of the quality assemblage for the anatomy of a car.
Scott Bennett, a programme manager of the section of applied technologies astatine CSN, explained that CSN offers a two-year maestro technician grade programme that teaches students everything from information successful the automotive store to the interior workings of each portion connected a vehicle. It’s 1 of the largest grade programs of its benignant successful the West, according to the college.
Once students person completed each of their coursework, they postgraduate with an subordinate grade and tin participate the tract with skills successful diagnosing and repairing issues with vehicles. Students are besides expected to walk the Automotive Service Excellence certification exams, which are administered by the National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence.
The nonprofit aims to “improve the prime of conveyance repair and work by investigating and certifying automotive professionals,” according to its website, covering much than 50 areas, including collision repair, hybrid and electrical vehicles, and harm investigation and estimating. Over a 4th of a cardinal radical clasp ASE certifications and enactment successful “every portion of the proscription industry.”
After knowing Fontanilla for 2 years and teaching her successful a fewer classes, Bennett described her arsenic a pupil successful 2 words: passionate and dedicated.
Her peers astatine CSN picture Fontanilla arsenic having an “outstanding world performance, hands-on method skills and a passionateness for automotive technology” with “sharp diagnostic abilities, enactment ethic and (a) determination to maestro analyzable conveyance systems.”
“I ever archer each my students, if you tin amusement up connected clip each time and enactment hard, you tin succeed, and I spot that retired of Shianne,” Bennett said. “You conscionable person to enactment hard astatine thing you bash to go successful, and watching her and the antithetic classes … I spot that arsenic acold arsenic moving hard, showing up connected clip each time prepared to work.”
Though the beingness of women is increasing successful automotive fields, there’s inactive a important spread successful the fig of women and men employed. Women marque up astir 50% of the full U.S. workforce, but lone astir a 4th of the automotive industry, including manufacturing and work roles, according to information shared by the Global Girls Development Foundation.
That fig is adjacent little for the automotive repair and work industry, with astir 12% of jobs successful that tract being held by women. In car racing, women correspond astir 7% to 13% of drivers, engineers and method enactment roles.
Bennett joined CSN’s ranks arsenic a technician astir a decennary agone but would lone occasionally spot 1 pistillate pupil successful his classes — if astatine all. Now, that’s jumped to astir 3 to 4 students per people helium teaches, showing an accrued involvement and entree to the tract for women.
Shianne Fontanilla, 2nd from left, and Lori Nelson, elder vice president of assemblage affairs for the Las Vegas Grand Prix, airs with an oversized mockup of a summons (for 2) to the Formula 1 Heineken Las Vegas Grand Prix 2026, successful solemnisation of Women successful Automotive Day, during a ceremonial successful the Grand Prix Plaza’s Legacy of Formula 1 Room Tuesday, June 30, 2026. Also pictured are Cody the Coyote, the College of Southern Nevada (CSN) mascot, and Scott Bennett, programme manager of the section of applied technologies and proscription technologies astatine CSN. Fontanilla precocious graduated from the Master Technician Associate of Applied Science programme astatine CSN. Photo by: Steve Marcus
That could beryllium owed to much practice and encouragement from different women, Fontanilla explained. On societal media platforms similar Instagram and TikTok, pistillate mechanics are starting to station abbreviated videos of their enactment and experiences successful the automotive industry. Fontanilla said those posts connection a amended glimpse into the occupation and amusement women that they tin bash this enactment arsenic well.
Many organizations person joined the effort to get much women into automotive careers, including Formula One.
In November 2022, Formula One announced the instauration of F1 Academy, the female-only single-seater racing title bid that focuses connected processing and grooming young drivers for higher levels of competition. The inaugural play was successful 2023, and Formula One brought it to the Las Vegas Grand Prix for the archetypal clip during its 2025 race.
The racing enactment supports assorted initiatives for women done the F1 Academy, specified arsenic hosting in-person events and virtual workshops to prosecute with much young girls and observe up-and-coming talent.
More women are taking an involvement successful roles extracurricular of the driver’s pit arsenic well, according to immoderate Las Vegas Grand Prix officials. Silvia Bellot, vice president of sporting and contention operations, said successful September 2025 that F1 had seen a “big, large increase” successful women funny successful becoming contention marshals, who assistance with way operations passim contention events.
In 2025, astir 26% of the registered contention marshals identified arsenic women — a 15% summation from the twelvemonth prior, Bellot said.
That’s wherefore the enactment honored Fontanilla connected Tuesday successful the tone of Women successful Automotive Day, which celebrates the contributions of women crossed the automotive manufacture and highlights upcoming leaders who are considered to beryllium advancing the profession.
“Your occurrence is specified a large communicative for different women who are considering a vocation successful this field, and we clasp that successful the highest respect astatine the Las Vegas Grand Prix,” Lori Nelson-Kraft, elder vice president of firm affairs astatine the Las Vegas Grand Prix, told Fontanilla connected Tuesday. “We are truthful focused connected the adjacent procreation of females successful our athletics ... we observe women successful the automotive industry, truthful we privation to congratulate you for each your hard work.”
In a astonishment ceremonial wrong Grand Prix Plaza, Fontanilla — surrounded by her girlfriend, their lad and CSN unit and students — was fixed 2 escaped tickets to the Sphere Zone for the 2026 Las Vegas Grand Prix. Race activities instrumentality spot Nov. 19-21.
Fontanilla said she’s looking to proceed her grooming and amended her automotive skills present that she’s graduated from CSN. Now, she’ll adjacent person a Formula One contention to look guardant to — 1 wherever her woman volition articulation her.
As for different women successful the automotive industry, Fontanilla stressed that having courageousness and a thrust to win volition assistance anyone spell far.
“It’s precise challenging with this tract being precise antheral ascendant but seeing my occurrence successful classes and successful the labs; seeing much women being enrolled, it truly encouraged maine to decorativeness and beryllium a relation exemplary for different women successful this field,” Fontanilla said. “Don’t beryllium acrophobic knowing that it is precise antheral dominated. Show them what you’re susceptible of; they’ll larn to benignant of, like, backmost disconnected and amusement you immoderate respect. Don’t beryllium acrophobic and conscionable travel your dreams.”
English (US)·