Despite lots of progress in diversity, there are still some professions in which women are enormously underrepresented. One of them is automobile racing. Although there aren’t any restrictions against female drivers, and women may even be more physically suited to the sport, there have been very few women racing drivers.
One exception, and one of the first, is Lyn St. James, who turns 77 today. She was born in Ohio, in the US, in 1947. When she was born, her first name was Carol, but her family changed it to Evelyn soon afterward, and she herself shortened it to Lyn. “Lyn St. James” is the name she uses professionally, but she adopted the “St. James” from the name of an actress (Susan Saint James) — her birth name was Cornwall, and her married name was Carusso until they divorced. And at that point she did legally change her full name to Lyn St. James.
She started racing in 1973, entering a sports car in an amateur race sponsored by the Sports Car Club of America. She was pretty successful, and turned professional sometime in the late 1970s. By 1978 she was competing in the 12 Hours of Sebring endurance race for the Autodyne team. She returned to that race every year until 1990, when she won (for the second time) for the Roush Racing team. She also competed in the 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance race twice, but the team failed to finish.
St. James’ most prominent racing experience was in open-wheel racing cars that competed in the US in the “IndyCar” series culminating in the Indianapolis 500 race. She was the first woman to qualify for the Indianapolis 500, and the first woman to win their Rookie of the Year award. She was also, at 45, the oldest to win the award. She was the first woman to top 200 MPH on a race track, and set a closed-course speed record of 227.32 MPH.
She was invited to meet with three different US Presidents, and was named one of the Top 100 Women Athletes of the Century by Sports Illustrated magazine. In 1994 she founded the Women in the Winner’s Circle foundation, and after retiring from racing in 2001, she became a motivational speaker. You can hire her today, and check out more information about her at her website. But be quick; she’s not easy to keep up with.
