{"id":498803,"date":"2020-07-07T11:33:03","date_gmt":"2020-07-07T18:33:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportscardigest.com\/\/?p=108094"},"modified":"2024-02-22T04:10:42","modified_gmt":"2024-02-22T04:10:42","slug":"amelia-island-to-honor-lyn-st-james-in-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/amelia-island-to-honor-lyn-st-james-in-2021\/","title":{"rendered":"Amelia Island Concours (2021) – To Honor Lyn St. James"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Lyn St. James – At Prerace introductions.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Racer, writer, broadcaster, entrepreneur and motivational speaker Lyn St. James is the Honoree of the 26th annual Amelia Island Concours d\u2019Elegance scheduled for March 4-7, 2021.<\/p>\n

Lyn\u2019s life is a high speed motorsports adventure. Her racing career began in a Ford Pinto — her daily driver — in the 1970s and had its grand finale more than two decades later in a special commemorative ceremony on the \u201cyard of bricks\u201d at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.<\/p>\n

Her first titles were a pair of regional south Florida road racing championships. She moved up quickly racing a Corvette at Sebring, Palm Beach and Daytona. A brave class victory in the punishing 1979 24 Hours of the Nurburgring racing an AMC Spirit AMX sponsored by BF Goodrich is an exotic and sometimes overlooked line on Lyn\u2019s deep resume. By then corporate America liked what they were seeing and hearing from the racer from Willoughby, OH.<\/p>\n

She graduated to the pro ranks in the 1980s as a Ford factory racer. In 1984 Autoweek magazine named her Rookie of the Year in IMSA\u2019s GTO class. A year later she won IMSA\u2019s Norelco Driver of the Year award. That was a very good year: an IMSA GTO victory came in August 1985 at Road America in the Lowenbrau Classic. A month later, on one of her favorite tracks, the full Grand Prix course at Watkins Glen, Lyn scored an unprecedented and still unequalled solo IMSA GTO class victory in the Serengeti Drivers New York 500 racing a Roush Mustang. The eighties also saw two class victories in the 24 Hours of Daytona.<\/p>\n

For Lyn the eighties were fast and productive. In 1988 she set a closed course speed record for women at 212.577 mph in a Bill Elliott-built Thunderbird. That was just one of 21 national and international speed records Lyn authored. She earned another page in the record books with an Indy 500 qualifying lap of 227.32 mph that stood as a record for women until Sarah Fisher\u2019s lap of 229.675 mph qualifying for the 2002 \u201c500.”<\/p>\n

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Lyn St. James behind the wheel of the JCPenney sponsored Lola during the Indy 500. Photo: Lyn St. James.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In 1989 she entered the 24 Hours of Le Mans driving a Ford-powered Spice. Another classic race course and even though her car retired on Sunday morning Lyn logged a lot of seat time. She returned to the classic French 24 Hours in 1991 with two-time World Sports Car Championship race winner Desir\u00e9 Wilson and Cathy Muller, but their Cosworth-powered Spice prototype lasted just 47 laps In 1990, Lyn earned yet another GTO class win in another famous classic endurance race, the 12 Hours of Sebring, with a Mercury Cougar XR-7.<\/p>\n

Lyn gives a thumbs up after qualifying for the Indy 500 in 1992. Photo courtesy of Lyn St. James.
\nIt was a visit to the Indy 500 with her mother in 1966 that revealed Lyn\u2019s passion for motorsport. Her Indy 500 career began with a surprise test at Memphis Motorsports Park in a Dick Simon Racing Lola. Things began to move quickly. Lyn\u2019s commercial, marketing and persuasive skills brought JCPenney to her Indy rookie program.<\/p>\n

On Memorial Day 1992, Lyn raced her JCPenney sponsored Lola\/Chevy — the Spirit of the American Woman — to eleventh place, becoming the first woman to win Indy\u2019s prestigious Rookie of the Year award.<\/p>\n