Lauren Fix - Racing Extra!

Lauren J. Fix

Like many 16-year olds, Lauren got her driver's license on her birthday. But she didn't stop there. Within a year she had her racing license as well, and began running in SCCA Solo II and Road Racing in the Western New York Region. She took to the sport immediately, becoming the points leader five years straight - 1982 to 1987.

In the process, she won numerous races, awards and holds track records at her "home track" - Watkins Glen in upstate New York. Two years later she began racing with SVRA Vintage Racing Group, where she started another winning streak. Four years in a row, she has won her class - 6H Group.

Excerpt by Rafer Guzman

News Staff Reporter

In the garage sits the blue, 475-horse-power '66 Mustang that Ms. Fix has driven in more than 40 races at speeds up to 160 mph. "I'm really a female motorhead," Ms. Fix says, laughing without disturbing her carefully coiffed hair.

She bought her first car, a 1970 Camaro when was only 15.

"I asked my dad if he'd loan me money," Ms. Fix recalls, "and he said: 'Uh-uh. If you want it, go get it.' " Ms. Fix has lived by those words ever since. She began racing as soon as she was old enough to drive.

"She tore apart a Mustang and rebuilt it with a hot engine," Jonas recalls. "She started to race it and won all kinds of trophies on it."

"When I started racing, it was like, 'Where's your boyfriend?' " Ms. Fix says, laughing. "Now it's just like I'm one of the guys."

Ms. Fix had an accident-free racing record until two years ago. Racing in Connecticut, she strayed onto a grassy area off the track.

"Grass is like ice at top speeds. I wound up going over the tire wall and hanging upside down." Friends rushed to her belly-up Mustang, expecting the worst. Ms. Fix was un-harmed.

"I was swearing, so they knew I was OK."

These days, Ms. Fix enters mostly vintage races, in which the drivers compete in classic -. and very costly - race cars.

One of Ms. Fix's role models is Lyn St. James - the second woman to race at Indianapolis - but she has no intentions of getting behind the wheel of an Indy car. "Lyn St. James get out there, and every year, and every year somebody pegs her and she winds up wounded," she says.

"You can get hurt in racing. That's why, with two little kids, I've gone vintage."