New exhibit celebrates history of women in racing

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- "Women in the Winner's Circle," a traveling exhibit on the history of women in racing, is now open at the Daytona 500 Experience.

The Daytona 500 Experience is the first venue to host this unique exhibit that recognizes the past history, the growing achievements and the future growth of women in racing and will be on display through March.

Racing legend Lyn St. James, founder of the Women in the Winner's Circle Foundation, joined forces with the Henry Ford museum of Dearborn, Mich., to create the exhibit.

"It's the perfect venue to launch the exhibit," St. James said. "It's everything I envisioned it to be."

Featured in the exhibit are informational panels, photographs, three race cars and personal artifacts that illustrate the history of women in motorsports, which dates as far as 1903.

Accomplishments of women drivers from five different eras are recognized in the exhibit, which has three cars on display -- a replica of Louise Smith's No. 94 Coupe, the 1989 Ford Thunderbird that St. James drove to set closed course speed records at Talladega Superspeedway with a speed of 212.577 mph, and Kara Kendrick's TQ Midget which was restored by her brother, NASCAR driver Kenny Hendrick.

Artifacts include Jutta Kleinschmidt's helmet, shoes and gloves from her win in the 2001 Paris Dakar Rally, sports-car and open-wheel legend Desire Wilson's helmet, shoes and trophy, and a race suit worn by Sarah Fisher in the IndyCar Series.

An interactive kiosk is set up so that visitors to the exhibit can read in-depth biographies and see additional photos of the drivers, along with a glossary of racing terms, a list of driving schools and sanctioning bodies.

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