Roxie Lott

Roxie with Rick Mears and Al Unser in 1986

Roxie Lott was an American driver who was probably most famous for her efforts in the British Formula 3 Championship in 1984.

She was born in Indianapolis in 1961. She attended her first Indy 500 at the age of three, and announced to her mother that she was building a racing car engine when she was six, as soapbox carts were not fast enough for her.

When she was twelve, she began racing in junior Quarter Midget events, in a car her mother bought on hire purchase. While still at school, she spent a lot of time at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, sometimes missing classes to do so. She apparently became friends with both Mario Andretti and Al Unser. When she was there, she helped various teams out, polishing and cleaning cars and doing odd jobs.

She achieved some success as a midget racer. Between 1976 and 1978, she won fifteen races, and went to Grand National meetings twice. After spending some time learning about full-size midget cars, she became more interested in road racing, and enrolled at the Skip Barber driving school. In 1979, she got to race a Formula Ford at Mid-Ohio as part of her training. Her Formula Ford programme took her across the States and as she had to drive herself to the circuits, she soon became burnt out. In 1980, she caught glandular fever and had to take some time out.

At around that time in 1980 or 1981, she travelled to England for the first time, working for Teddy Yip and Theodore Racing. She helped to run the Theodore cars in the Aurora F1 series in the UK, assisting Theodore driver Kevin Cogan. She got a run out in a Formula Ford at Snetterton, run by the team, and finished third.

In 1982, she went on record saying that her biggest ambition was to race in the Indy 500, in an interview with the Indianapolis Star. However, despite her friends in high places and enterprising nature, she struggled for sponsorship. She raced Formula Super Vee again with some assistance from Cam 2 Oils, although the car was not that reliable and her season was also disrupted by a big testing crash. She did more Formula Ford in 1983 with Cam 2, earning a few top-ten finishes.

1984 was meant to be a breakthrough year for Roxie. She returned to England to race in Formula 3, with RD Motorsport. Speaking afterwards to the Indianapolis News, she said that this should have been a good experience, but it was not. She had taken out a loan to pay for her $5,000 drive, only to find that the "team" had seven drivers and two cars, until one driver disappeared with one of the cars and most of the spares, including an engine. She described the car as having "rusted brakes, corroded cables and a work crew off the street."

After a test at Donington, she only got to start one race, the Marlboro International Trophy at Silverstone, in April. This race ended after four laps, when she was unable to continue after a spin. Her pink Ralt RT3 gained some media attention, but by and large, it was not a positive experience for its driver. She was offered further drives by Murray Taylor's team, but she could not raise the necessary cash.

After her British disappointment, it seems to have been increasingly difficult for Roxie to gain sponsorship, and she only raced sporadically. As she was never in a championship long enough to learn the car and understand her opponents, she struggled for pace. In 1986, she managed to score a point in the Formula Super Vee championship in the States, driving for Arciero Racing.

In 1988, after another couple of guest appearances in support races, Roxie called time on her racing career. She was twenty-eight years old. Some sources claim that she tried to take the Indy rookie test, but nothing official says that she did. Her ambition to race in the Indy 500 was put on hold indefinitely.

After turning her back on motorsport, she proved herself in another high-speed arena: flight. She worked as a commercial pilot for several years and racked up enough flight time to be promoted to Captain very quickly. In aviation, she was known as Roxie Lott Strish, having married Larry Strish. She retired after his death in 1995.

Later in life, she gave driving tours of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. She died of ovarian cancer in April 2007, and was mourned by the Indianapolis racing community.

(Image copyright Indianapolis News)