Lyn St. James' Project Podium is Putting Women in the Winner's Circle

Orlando, FL, December 06, 2007 --(PR.com)-- Dec. 6, 2007 10:30 am press conference to be held at PRI Trade Show in the Orlando Convention Center.

Lyn St. James, founder of the Women in the Winner’s Circle Foundation (formerly the Lyn St. James Foundation) announced the first ever endowed scholarship fund for women race car drivers, Project Podium. This industry wide scholarship fund will be available to female race car drivers from all forms of racing, including go karts, quarter midgets, drag racing, sports car racing, oval track racing, etc. Project Podium is unique in that a driver applying for a grant will only be considered eligible if there is proof that funds equal to the scholarship amount have already been raised from sponsorship. Those who apply, qualify, and are approved will receive a grant on a matched fund basis only. One goal behind this program is to help teach drivers how to raise sponsorship funds.

In 1994 Lyn established a driver development program to train up and coming race car drivers. Since its launch, 204 women and 28 men have graduated from the program providing the skills on the track and off the track to be competitive in motor sports. “We focus on physical fitness, mental preparation, business savvy, media training, on-track experience and technical knowledge in our development program,” says Lyn St. James.

Building on the success of this continuing program, she felt it was important to provide financial resources to these talented drivers as well as training.

“After 14 years of doing our driver development program I’ve watched the quality of our attendees improve considerably, especially over the last couple of years. The talent, experience level, age, and potential of the drivers now coming to our program really drove home the importance of these drivers to moving up the ladder of success and reaching the podium at levels where sponsors, team owners, and track promoters are watching. This will not only benefit, the drivers but will benefit the industry as well by attracting more media interest, more fans, and more sponsors as we see more diversity on the motor sports grids around the country. I think the successes of Sarah Fisher, Danica Patrick (both driver development graduates) and other diverse drivers such as Lewis Hamilton, Bill Lester and Juan Pablo Montoya have demonstrated that fact. If we want different results (more diverse drivers on the grid) then we have to do things differently to achieve those results.” - Lyn St. James

Women in the Winner’s Circle Project Podium is proud to acknowledge the following program partners who have signed on to date:

Newman’s Own; Champ Car World Series/Atlantic Championship; Grand Am; NHRA; Racing League/Indy Pro Series; Rolex; Toyota Motorsports; Mazda USA; Mike Helton; and NASCAR Foundation.

Partnerships are available for $10,000/year on a three year basis (2008, 2009, 2010) and are open to any individual, organization, sponsor, race team, and track promoter who is interested in supporting this important cause.

Expected to be present at the press conference are drivers such as: Jessica Brannam (WKA Champion), Jessica Helberg & Alli Owens (NASCAR Drive for Diversity), Caitlin Shaw (USAC Ford Focus), Amber Colvin (WKA & Bandoleros), Amanda Ferguson (Mini Sprint), Jill Canuso, Megan Reitenour (ARCA Trucks), Julia Landauer (Skip Barber Series), Taylor Bonsignore (WKA), Chelsea Schillig (QMA, Legends) just to name a few.

Lyn will be available at the show to provide more information and sign up new partners. For more information contact Lyn St. James 317-244-9790.

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