"Don't Look at Where You Are - Look at Where You're Going."
Practical wisdom from my friend the race car driver, Sissy Owen
To me, Sissy Owen’s words in the title above are another way of saying, “Envision your dream, and you will get there.” But Sissy means what she says. Literally. That’s how she won races.
A recent story about Sissy in Bold Life said that she grew up in Bradenton, Florida, where her older sister raced sailboats and her younger brother raced motorcycles.
She herself told me she always loved cars. She said,
My sister swore I dated guys for the cars they drove. It really jelled with Ryland [her husband], as he is a true car nut. Our second date was a 12-hour race - 12 hours of Sebring. We have been all over the world attending all sorts of races.
In 1975 when she and Ryland purchased the 1971 BMW 2002 (shown above and below) and a 1972 BMW Bavaria, they began to enter Autocross events. “Ryland built our race cars,” she said.
She found racing to be a man’s world, but “there were a couple of women who made it to the top. I raced strictly with men and won a lot.”
In 1988 Sissy attended a racing school hosted by SCCA (Sports Car Club of America) at Savannah International Raceway. In a race there on a rainy cold day Sissy finished second, ahead of Tom Cruise and 28 others. She told Bold Life that when she went to receive her license, the instructor “stared at the bottom of the list of finishers, got about halfway up, and said, ‘You didn’t even finish.’” She told him to look higher on the list.
And once at Road Atlanta (now Michelin Raceway), the second-place finisher came over to congratulate Sissy on her win, but when she took off her helmet and her blond hair fell free, he turned and walked away.
Sissy’s other career was her many years with BMW of North America. I’m thrilled by Sissy’s successful combination of passion and work.
She put it this way to me,
BMWs proved to be the perfect cars for us. You could drive them on the street safely, work on them and race them. And we met other BMW people who are still friends almost 45 years later. We raced for 11 or 12 years. Work eventually got in the way.
Sissy and Ryland are retired, live in Hendersonville and still love cars.
I’m so happy to have introduced you to Sissy Owen. I hope she won’t mind if I stretch her racing wisdom,
Don't look at where you are - look at where you're going.
Yes, it’s good to envision your dream on down the road. But she could also be saying, “If you watch where you’re going, you won’t pass your dream by.”
Don't know much about racing except for my brief stint of being engaged to Bruton Smith (Charlotte Motor Speedway) I do also look where I'm going and certainly never look back except for purposes of experience. The only time I use my rear view mirror is when I'm behind the wheel!
Have a great day Deda
Mary
What a unique, intriguing story and photos! Thanks, Deda.