GPWizard F1 Forum
Other Sports => Other Sports => Topic started by: cosworth151 on October 12, 2009, 01:25:31 PM
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Donna Mae Mims, sports car racing's “Pink Lady,” died at age 82. She was the first woman to win a Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) National Championship. She wore a pink driving suit and painted her cars pink. They carried the motto "Think Pink."
In the late 1950's, she worked for Don Yenko's Chevrolet dealership in Cannonsburg, Pennsylvania. Yenko was famous for building and marketing modified, high performance cars. Mims gained her first success in 1960 in one of Yenko's modified Corvettes. She won the B Production race at the Cumberland National.
In 1963, she won the SCCA H Production National Championship in a pink frogeye Sprite. In her 14 year driving carrer, she drove everything a TR-3 and an MGB to Yenko Stinger Corvairs. She raced in the 12 hours of Sebring and Daytona 24 Hours in a Sunbeam Alpine, co-driven by Janet Guthrie and Suzi Dietrich.
She continued to work as a course marshal at SCCA events until recently. Last year, she was reunited with her Frogeye at Mid Ohio.
In 1972, Mims also drove in the first of Brock Yates' Cannonball Baker Sea-to-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash - The Cannonball Run. She and two other women drove a Cadillac limo. Pink, of course.
Per her wishes, Mims' body was seated behind the steering wheel of a 1979 pink Corvette for visitation hours at the funeral home. More than 60 Vettes will be in her funeral procession.