Motor Racing : Lyn St. James Has Her Sights Set on Chance to Race at Indianapolis

Lyn St. James has driven at 212.577 m.p.h. on the high banks at Talladega, has won in her class in the 24 Hours of Daytona, driving with Bill Elliott and Tom Gloy, was the first woman to win a professional road race driving solo and recently fulfilled a lifetime goal of racing in the 24 Hours of LeMans.

Now she wants the Indianapolis 500.

“I know I don’t have much open-wheel experience to draw from, but I had a good Trans-Am season last year and I know what it’s like to go over 200 so I feel I’m ready to get some time in an Indy car,” she said after returning from France.

“LeMans was everything I had hoped for and more. I think the experience I had this year will help out a lot. Now I want to go back next year and finish.

“The track is very long (8.4 miles) and difficult to learn, but going 220 on the straightway was almost relaxing because there wasn’t heavy traffic. The record runs helped, too, because those speeds weren’t new to me.”

St. James drove a DurAlt FC/Spice-Cosworth with Ray Bell and car owner-designer Gordon Spice. The car, which St. James drove for a little more than five hours, dropped out after 16 hours with engine problems.

She was in a 1989 Ford Thunderbird Super Coupe when she broke her own woman’s national closed-course record of 212.577 m.p.h. last October at Talladega, Ala. That broke the 204.223 record she had set in 1985 in a Ford Probe GTP.

“They got me at 232 going down the straightaway,” she said. “I don’t think they go much faster than that at Indy, if they go that fast.”

Despite a racing career that began in 1975 when she drove her husband’s Pinto into a lake during her first race at Palm Beach, Fla., (they are no longer married), Lyn had never driven an Indy car until Dick Simon gave her a chance last fall.

“I wanted to find out if I would be intimidated, or overwhelmed, but it really did feel good,” she said. “I felt more comfortable after a few laps than I did after two days in the T-Bird at Talladega.”

St. James got her chance when Simon was testing his Lola-Cosworth at Memphis the day after the Miami Grand Prix, final Indy car race of 1988. Didier Theys had finished third in the race.

“Lyn did a super job,” Simon said. “Much better than Janet (Guthrie) did in her first ride. I was very impressed.”

Simon was Guthrie’s coach when she became the first woman driver in the Indianapolis 500 in 1977.

“Lyn took her time, gradually worked her way up to speed and was very respectful of the equipment,” Simon said. “She drove a couple of hundred miles and before she was through she was very quick.”

St. James’ long-range plans to get to Indy include 2,000 miles of testing before she tries to qualify. Toward that end, she is cutting back on her duties as spokeswoman and consumer adviser for Ford Motor Co., a position she has had since 1981.

“I was on the road 260 days last year,” she said. “I almost forgot what my home in Ft. Lauderdale (Fla.) looked like. I had to convince Ford how serious I was about my racing career, that I needed more time to race.”

This season, St. James is running the full 15-race Trans-Am schedule in a new Mustang. She finished fourth in the season opener at Long Beach and was fifth at Dallas.

In 1986, she was involved in one of the most frightening accidents ever seen at Riverside International Raceway during the Times/Ford Grand Prix of Endurance.

After being clipped in the rear by a Corvette driven by Doc Bundy, St. James’ GT Probe spun into the wall in the first turn at more than 140 m.p.h. and burst into flames. She crawled out with no more than a sore back and temporary loss of the use of her left arm, which she regained through intense therapy.

The following February she came back to win her fourth IMSA GTO race at Daytona with Elliott and Gloy.

“I would like to help Ford win the manufacturer’s championship this season, but in the back of my mind I’m thinking about Indy,” she said. “I guess I’ve really thought about it since the first time I saw the race when I was 16.

“I lived in Willoughby, Ohio, at the time and went to Indy with a bunch of friends. Women weren’t even allowed in Gasoline Alley then and when I saw A. J. Foyt I handed him a piece of paper through the fence for his autograph.”

Twenty years later, St. James was A. J.’s co-driver at the Daytona 24 hour race in a Aston Martin Nimrod.

“I reminded him of that when we raced together and he just laughed, but I couldn’t help but think how far I’d come, and how far women had come in racing.”

If all goes according to plan, she will be racing against A. J. in 1990 or 1991 at the Indianapolis 500.

SPEEDWAY CYCLES--The suspension of Shawn Moran from all world championship events for racing while under the influence of alcohol last month in Denmark has been upheld by the American Motorcyclist Assn. It will prevent Moran, 1983 world long-track champion from Apple Valley, from riding in the Overseas Final of the world individual runoffs Saturday night in Belle Vue, England, which is Moran’s home track in the British Speedway League.

Moran had appealed the ruling, claiming the penalty was too severe for the offense, but it was rejected by the AMA. Rick Miller, another British League rider from Reseda, will replace Moran in the Overseas Final, joining Sam Ermolenko of Cypress, Ronnie Correy of Fullerton and Lance King of Fountain Valley as the United States’ representatives in the world meet. The World Final will be Sept. 2 in Munich.

Speedway racing is enjoying a booming back this year from a lapse in interest. Last Friday night’s attendance of 9,200 at the Orange County Fairgrounds was the first sellout at the Costa Mesa track since 1981, when Bruce Penhall of Balboa returned home to ride after winning his first world championship. . . . Racing will continue tonight at Ascot Park, Friday night at Costa Mesa, Saturday night at Victorville’s Speedway USA and Wednesday night at Glen Helen Park in San Bernardino.

OFF ROAD--The SCORE closed course world championships, which have been held at Riverside for the past 16 years, will be held this year at Phoenix International Raceway. The Sept. 9-10 event will be contested completely inside the track. . . . Danny Cau, former operations director for the High Desert Racing Assn., has bought the HDRA from Edna Lott, widow of its late founder, Walt Lott, and Riverside businessman Tom Spiel. Cau will replace Mrs. Lott, who is retiring, as president. He said he plans no operational changes in the Las Vegas-based desert racing organization.

The 12th annual SCORE Off-Road Equipment Show, which will run this weekend at Anaheim Convention Center, will feature appearances by racing champions Ivan Stewart, Dave Shoppe and Rod Hall.

STOCK CARS--The fifth round of the Toyota Super Production series for unlimited international stock cars is scheduled for this weekend at Willow Springs Raceway with Ed Ash looking for a second consecutive victory in his red Corvette. Also on the Saturday-Sunday program will be Cal Club-sponsored Sports Car Club of America regional championship races.

NASCAR’s Southwest Tour, with Dan Press holding a 195-point edge over Mike Chase after winning his fourth race last Saturday night at Saugus, moves to Madera Speedway Saturday night for the Budweiser 100.

Winston Racing Series programs will run Sunday night at Ascot Park and Saturday night at Orange Show Speedway and Cajon Speedway. Street stocks run Friday night at Ventura Raceway.

SPRINT CARS--The Parnelli Jones Firestone series returns to Ascot Park for a 30-lap California Racing Assn. main event Saturday night with Jerry Meyer holding a 169-point lead over former CRA champion Brad Noffsinger, who won his fifth main event last Saturday night at Santa Maria.

Lealand McSpadden, who was making his first start last week after having broken his right shoulder in an accident April 8 at Ascot, had his left shoulder bruised in a first-turn skirmish with pole-sitter Clark Drake. McSpadden hopes to return for the July 1 50-lap race at Ascot.

MIDGETS--The United States Auto Club’s Jolly Rancher western regional series for full and three-quarter midgets moves to Saugus Speedway for races on the paved one-third mile flat oval Saturday night. Also on the show will be street stocks and a destruction derby.

MOTOCROSS--Ron Lechien of El Cajon won both motos riding a Kawasaki in the United States 500cc Grand Prix last Sunday at Hollister Hills, frustrating European riders once again. World champion Eric Geboers of Belgium finished second, ahead of Jeff Leisk of Australia.

Multi-champion Rick Johnson hopes to test his broken wrist this weekend in an invitational at Mammoth Mountain, where he is entered in the 125, 250 and 500cc events. The Honda rider has been out since March 5 when he crashed during practice at Gainesville, Fla.

GREAT AMERICAN RACE--More than 100 vintage racing machines--from a 1902 Mors Grand Prix racer from France to a 1940 Jaguar SS-100--will take off Monday in the seventh annual Interstate Great American Race which will end July 7 at Disneyland in Anaheim. Wayne Stanfield of Tustin, the 1987 winner in a 1916 Mitchell, is one of the favorites to win the $50,000 first prize for the team that runs closest to its prescribed schedule on the final two days from Phoenix to San Diego to Disneyland. Also entered is Jim Stocker of San Bernardino, winner of the pre-1916 class last year in a 1914 Ford Runabout.

LAND SPEED--At least seven members of the newly organized 300 m.p.h. chapter of the 200 MPH Club are expected to be on hand for the first meeting Sunday at Anacapa View in Simi Valley. Expected are Don Carr, Bob McGrath, Bob Noice, Bob Summers, Elwin Teague, Don Vesco and Nolan White.

SPORTS CARS--Rocky Moran of Arcadia was selected by team manager Dan Gurney to replace Chris Cord, who has retired because of poor health, on the Toyota GTP team in the International Motor Sports Assn. series.