Donna Mae Mims loved pink, especially if racing for them- pink slips that is. She was also the first woman to win the SCCA national championship and ran in original Cannonball Run race.
Mims died last week, and, as was her wish, was positioned behind the wheel of a pink 1979 Corvette for the public viewing. She was a true hoon and, having lived to the ripe old age of 82, a successful one to boot. We should all be so lucky.
Part of her success derived from turning off the nice part of her brain before every race, as she related to Los Angeles Times columnist Jack Smith in 1969:
I psych myself. I remove all my makeup. I think stern. I bristle. I don’t talk to anybody. You cannot think nice,” she said. “Chivalry is dead on the racetrack. You’re out there only for one thing. To win. Nobody remembers second place.
Most of us would be lucky to even see second place, so it probably would have been best to move right when seeing the Pink Lady in your rearview mirror. One last item- can you tell the make of that car in the photo?
Source [Los Angeles Times]
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