In 1985, Lyn St. James became the first woman to break the 200-mph barrier on an oval, when she drove a Ford Mustang Probe (GT Prototype race car) to an average lap speed of 204.223 mph at Alabama International Motor Speedway.
In October 1988 at the Talladega Motor Speedway in the new shape Ford Thunderbird built by Bill Elliott Racing, Lyn set a women's closed-course world record of 212.577 mph.
Ron Kimball photo
Lyn's record setting Thunderbird will be on display at the Blackhawk Automotive Museum during the weekend.
Lyn - qualified on the outside of the second row for the 1994 Indy 500.
Lyn later went on to race in the Indianapolis 500 seven times and became the first woman to win the Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year award in 1992. In 1995 during Indy 500 qualifying she established a world record on closed-course for women reaching 225.722 mph, setting 31 international and national closed circuit speed records.
Lyn at the 1995 Indy 500
Lyn has two GTO 1 class wins at the 24 Hours of Daytona, and one GTO Class win at the 12 Hours of Sebring. She has competed in endurance racing in Europe including the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and the 24 Hours of N?rburgring,
Lyn at the 1989 Le Mans 24 Hours in the Spice SE89C Ford
Lyn has raced in a number of different cars such as Aston Martin, Ferrari, Mazda & Porsche, but the majority of her career and racing success was in Fords, or Ford powered race cars. So, in 2001 when Ford Motor Company and Edsel Ford II celebrated 100 Years of Ford Racing, Lyn was one of the all-star line up of Ford drivers that included; Sir Jackie Stewart, Dan Gurney, Parnelli Jones, Carroll Shelby, Junior Johnson, and George Folmer.
Since retiring from the top ranks of American racing, Lyn St. James has been an advocate, mentor and coach for women in all sports and is also a much sought after motivational speaker for corporations and organizations such as General Dynamics, HSBC, GM, Ford, and 20th Century Fox.
