Courtesy of NASCAR.com

By Raygan Swan, NASCAR.COM

Known for her breakthrough accomplishments on the race track, Lyn St. James is becoming just as popular and accomplished for the inroads she’s making off the track.

Whether she’s hired to be a motivational speaker or recruiting and developing young female talent through her foundation, St. James is just as busy today as she was when the racing pioneer was turning laps at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

The reality is that her love for cars and the industry didn’t retire in 2001 with her racing career. St. James said her passion for the sport is still very much alive as she continues to reinvent her role and presence in the sport.

Her most recent endeavor as a consumer advisor takes her back to the early part of her career. A female racing sports cars in her late 20s and early 30s, St. James was trying to gain attention in the media. As one can imagine, it was difficult in the male dominated world of motorsports.

“It was in 1980s,” St. James recalled. “I used to go to New York on my own nickel and pound the pavement trying to get women’s magazines to pay attention. But most of my attempts fell on deaf ears because the magazines were full of fashion and beauty tips, nothing about racing or the automotive industry.”

Regardless, St. James would buy stacks of the magazines and cold call the editors and publishers. It was futile until she reached the decision makers at Cosmo.

“I got the publisher to the Miami Grand Prix and with some help with my Ford deal and their campaign to sell cars to women, I was able to land my own column,” she said.

Cosmopolitan magazine, a lifestyle magazine reaching millions of thought-to-be fearless and en vogue women, was publishing one of the country’s first female race car drivers.

It was an “ask the expert” type of monthly feature where St. James was educating women on how to maintain their street cars. Working with her sponsor Ford as a consumer adviser as well as her race experience made her the perfect authority.

“I remember answering one reader’s question about brakes. I explained the brake system. The reader was so excited that she understood what actually happened when she put her foot on the brake,” St. James said. “You learn that information is power for everyone, and over the course of time you can learn anything you want. It’s not all that hard.”

She maintained her Cosmopolitan column for more than two years before turning her focus to IndyCars. Still, she always educated herself on the new technologies in the automotive industry.

And today she has a new outlet: Accelerate with Lyn St. James — a syndicated automotive video program targeted to women, which will make its debut in January and be available to various broadcasters.

Statistics say women can account for about 50 percent of vehicle purchases and for 80 percent of auto maintenance and repairs, which means it is typically the female in the house taking the car to the shop.

“But still they are not proactive about maintenance which is what we hope to cover,” said St James, who will use a format of two-minute segments covering driving safely, auto maintenance and ownership. She’ll also give viewers a sense of what it’s like to be behind the wheel competing in some of the most famous motorsports events in the world.

And even though she is a famous race car driver who has won races at places like Watkins Glen International and Road America, St. James herself has been a victim of female stereotypes in the automotive industry.

“I have so much fun with that because I can play dumb with the best of them,” she said. “Once, my air conditioning went out and this guy was not treating me so well at the dealership, giving me the run-around. I just needed Freon. I didn’t need a new system. Then he looked at me strangely and noticed who I was. His whole demeanor changed after that, which is a sad story.”

So with just a little bit of knowledge, women might be able to avoid such situations — situations that further the stereotype that women don’t know anything about cars.

“We’ve heard this so often that women are buying into it, but there is nothing in a man’s DNA that says he knows anymore than a woman does about cars,” St. James said. “Like I said, knowledge is power and if you have information, you can save yourself some money and it builds your confidence as a consumer.”

When St. James did sales training for Ford about how to deal with women buyers, she learned that women would practically pull any man off the street to accompany them, in fear they would get ripped off if they were alone.

“Buying and taking care of a car is the second most expensive thing we have behind our house, so you have to know as much about the process as anything else,” she said.

Another issue she feels strongly about is texting while driving. This summer, St. James signed Oprah Winfrey’s No Phone Zone — a pledge not to text while driving.

“I say to anybody that I can drive 230 mph with 32 other cars and I can multitask and I can process information quickly, but not even I text while driving. I minimize phone use in the car altogether. If I am having a conversation, I pull over,” St. James said.

All of these are principles St. James learned as a young woman. Her mother taught her how to drive just before she turned 15.

“My mom had polio, so for her, a car was the most critical part of her life. It needed to work. She relied on it because she couldn’t walk very far so it was more than just transportation,” St. James said. “And if I wanted to take the family car out when I was young, I also had to check the oil and fill it up with gas.”

St. James said she realizes that being able to differentiate the smells of radiator fluid and engine oil is not the norm in today’s society, but her hope is that women will simply take a small initiative toward the basics.

“Next time you’re at the dealership, they might be surprised when you start talking about tread depth and the difference in synthetic oil,” she said.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.

[News & Picture Source]