Lyn St. James Biography - "be A Nice Lady", Begins Racing Career, Wakeup Call, Then Indy, Chronology, Selected Writings By St. James:
race woman american professional
1947-
American race car driver
At age 45, when many athletes are retired or over the hill, Lyn St. James was blazing a trail. St. James, one of the few women in professional automobile racing, was a rookie of the year at that age, finishing 11th at the 1992 Indianapolis 500 among 33 competitors. She became the second woman to race at Indy and competed in that event a total of seven times.
St. James became the first woman to win a solo North American professional road race at Watkins Glen, New York, in 1985. In 1996 she acquired her own team, Lyn St. James racing. When she switched from road racers to Indy cars in 1988, she became the first woman to compete full-time on the Indy circuit.
St. James, whose career thrived despite occasional problems finding a sponsor and frequent crashes in races, retired in 2001 to write a book, Ride of Your Life. Auto racing, she says, can cross gender lines. She has worked as a columnist, motivational speaker and television commentator.
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Maxine Cornwall had not intended to raise her daughter, Evelyn, in Willoughby, Ohio, for the gritty, male-oriented world of car racing. But, ironically, she instilled a love of cars in her daughter. Cornwall, a polio victim, found an automobile empowering. Mother and daughter would take long weekend drives. Evelyn Cornwall, who later changed her name to Lyn St. James to make it more marketable, cr…
St. James began competing in local Sports Car Club of America events in 1973. She experienced a bad beginning in racing, having spun into a pond at Palm Beach International Raceway with a Ford Pinto that was her street car, and escaped from her car about eight seconds before it sank. She rebounded to win Florida regional championships in 1976 and 1977. In her first pro season, 1979, she finished e…
St. James's career received a jolt in 1991 when Ford sharply curtailed its road racing involvement and dropped her as a driver. "St. James had to shop around for rides," Sports Illustrated said. After attending self-awareness seminars, she declared she would drive in the Indianapolis 500. Janet Guthrie, the only other woman to race at Indy to this point, first entered in 1977.…
Lyn St. James's Car Owner's Manual for Women. New York: Penguin, 1984.
St. James, who lives in Daytona Beach, Florida, wrote her second book, Ride of your Life, in 2001, upon retiring from Indy car racing. She is a frequent public speaker. St. James offers a course for up-and-coming drivers that addresses business strategies and handling the media as much as it does driving skil…
Olney, Ross R. Lyn St. James: Driven to be First. Minneapolis: Lerner, 1997. Stewart, Mark. Lyn St. James. New York: Children's Press, 1996. Sports Illustrated (May 3, 1993). "93. Lyn St. James, Auto Racing." Sports Illustrated for Women, 100 Greatest Female Athletes. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/siforwomen/top_100/93/, (November 29, 1999). "About Lyn." Lyn S…
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