Racer.com – ST. JAMES: Saluting the trailblazers

Excerpted from Racer.com, Lyn St. James offers her salute to the women who blazed a trail in motorsports:

March is annually recognized as Women’s History Month; an opportunity to highlight the contributions of women to events in history and contemporary society. It is celebrated in the United States, Australia, and the United Kingdom, with International Women’s Day falling on March 8. This year will have extra significance, with a woman as Vice President in Washington DC.

For me, it it’s all the more special because it’s a great time to celebrate the women in motorsports whose shoulders we stand on, as well as for the current and future women successfully competing on racetracks all over the world. You may recognize some of the names, but many will be new and might surprise you.

First, let’s take a look at some of the women who did so much before women were considered able to do such things:

Women have been competing in motorized vehicles since the beginning of the sport – Camille du Gast competed in the 1901 Paris to Berlin, finishing 33rd out of 122 participants, and then was banned from racing by the Automobile Club de France after she competed in the Paris to Madrid in 1903, on the grounds of ‘feminine excitability’!

To read the complete story, please visit Racer.com.