Book
Review:
Ride of Your Life - A Race Car Driver's
Journey
by Lyn St. James
ISBN: 0-7868-6866-X
I’m not a big fan of biographies – most of
them seem to be to stroke the ego of the
subject so when I picked up famed racerchick
Lyn St. James’ book “Ride of Your Life”, I
approached it with apprehension. In turn, I
was pleasantly surprised to how enjoyable this
read was. What this book is not is a
chronological account of her life, not a
propaganda piece but instead it is snapshots
of her life that had meaning -- the celebrated
and the humbling. It’s her story on racing in
the Indy 500 – the positive and the negative
with surprising candor and honesty. Along the
way she entertains the reader with some
flashbacks of other racing experiences. Her
frankness of the lessons learned applies to
life, not just racing in a refreshing balance.
I was always a fan of Lyn St James but mostly
because of her gender. Don’t get me wrong I
just didn’t know much about her and never took
the time to learn more. It was reading about
her Driver Development Program I decided to
get to know more about this female racing
pioneer. After reading this book I can say
that I respect her, cheer her and am forever
in debt for her insight, courage and love of
life that makes her my mentor as well as the
mentor of many others. Not only will the
reader learn about Lyn but her tidbits on the
business of racing give a better insight into
the sport. Her human side, her love of racing,
her devotion to friends and family make her
much more than a racer but someone I would be
be honored to call friend. Cheers Lyn and
thank you.
Nika: What made you decide to write
this book Lyn?
Lyn St. James: I was inspired to
write the book after I read "The Hungry Ocean"
by Linda Greenlawn. Her book was her story of
being a fishing boat captain and gave insights
of what it was like, plus lots of the details
about the business, along with being an
interesting book to read. I felt if I could do
a book about racing along the same lines that
I would be motivated to do a book.
Nika: What was the biggest challenge in
writing this book?
Lyn St. James: The biggest challenge
has been dealing with the marketing and PR
necessary to promote the book. The actual
writing was fun, therapeutic, time consuming,
hard work. Working with the editor and
deciding what to include was a learning
process that I enjoyed.
Nika: Why would you recommend this
book?
Lyn St. James: I would recommend
people reading the book for a number of
reasons. First, I think it's a good read.
Second, you'll learn about the sport of racing
and I think enjoy and appreciate it more.
You'll also learn about the people in racing
and how hard we have to work. Third, I hope it
inspires people to pursue their dreams no
matter how unrealistic it may appear to them.
We thank seven time Indy 500 driver, Lyn St.
James for taking the time to speak with us. As
for her book “Ride of Your Life”, It’ll be one
of the best summer reads you can find and I do
hope you enjoy it as much as this racerchick
did.
Nika
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