Thursday, April 21, 2016

Lyn St. James book signing at Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park

Posted by Wayne G.Barber

(THOMPSON, CT) - The 3rd Annual Vintage Motorsports Festival will bring vintage sports car and formula racing back to the quiet corner of Connecticut on June 23-25, 2016. Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park is proud to announce former IndyCar driver and Daytona 24 Hour winner, Lyn St. James, as this year’s Honored Guest. As part of her visit to the historic track, St. James will present as the guest speaker at the Drivers’ Dinner on June 24, 2016 Friday evening, and will also be holding a book signing.

One of the first women to earn national recognition as a race-car driver, St. James has written an need to speed, mechanics and persistence that does not focus simply on that fact. From the time she was a girl, St. James found her way to racing tracks and garages early and often. Her first experience driving at the Palm Beach International Raceway ended in humiliation when her car spun out of control and sank in nearby wetlands. But the rookie kept racing, and by the end of the season she had earned the respect of her peers. Even readers who have no interest in auto racing will be sparked by St. James's simple, genuine descriptions of the experience ("I don't expect anyone who has never driven a race car to understand it completely, but the sky is always bluer, the grass a little greener, and the air a little fresher after you've driven...."). St. James's pursuit of corporate sponsorship (getting a car into a major event like the Indy 500 can cost hundreds of thousands even millions of dollars) is a study in tenacity, confidence and business acumen. With chapter titles such as "Making It Happen" and "You Never Know Till You Ask," the book is intended to inspire, and succeeds. St. James doesn't make an issue of gender beyond citing occasions when others have. At the Indy 2000, when St. James and Sarah Fisher crashed into one another, the event took on historical significance because it was the first time more than one woman had competed in the event. What are the personal and professional ramifications of such accidents? Readers are left only with the unsatisfying "Sarah and I were left to lick our wounds and ponder all the things that might have been." Despite such flat spots, St. James's story, spiked with plenty of folksy advice, makes for an energetic, encouraging rally.

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