Suzanne Ruth Dietrich ( Bell; 23 December 1926 – 13 June 2015) was an American amateur

sports car racing Sports car racing is a form of motorsport road racing which utilises sports cars that have two seats and enclosed wheels. They may be purpose-built prototypes or grand tourers based on road-going models. Broadly speaking, sports car racing is ...

driver, described as one of the pioneers of female motor racing. A school librarian, Dietrich was introduced into sports car racing by her husband. She spent most of her motor racing career in regional

Sports Car Club of America The Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) is a non-profit American automobile club and sanctioning body supporting road racing, rallying, and autocross in the United States. Formed in 1944, it runs many programs for both amateur and professional r ...

(SCCA) races, however in the late 1960s, she took part in international-standard endurance events at Sebring and

Daytona Daytona refers to the city of Daytona Beach, Florida, or things named after it. Daytona may also refer to: Locations * Daytona Beach Shores, Florida * South Daytona, Florida * The Daytona Beach metropolitan area * Halifax area, also known as Da ...

. During the early years of her career, she typically drove an

MG TC The MG T-Type is a series of body-on-frame open two-seater sports cars that were produced by MG Cars, MG from 1936 to 1955. The series included the MG TA, MG TB, MG TC, MG TD, and MG TF Midget models. The last of these models, the TF, was replac ...

, while later she raced a variety of

Elvas Elvas () is a Portuguese municipality, former episcopal city and frontier fortress of easternmost central Portugal, located in the district of Portalegre in Alentejo. It is situated about east of Lisbon, and about west of the Spanish fortress ...

and

Porsche Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG, usually shortened to Porsche (; see #Pronunciation, below), is a German automobile manufacturer specializing in high-performance sports cars, SUVs and sedans, headquartered in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany ...

Life and career

Born Suzanne Bell in

Toledo, Ohio Toledo ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Lucas County, Ohio, United States. A major Midwestern United States port city, Toledo is the fourth-most populous city in the state of Ohio, after Columbus, Cleveland, and Cincinnati, and according ...

, Dietrich met her husband, Charles 'Chuck' Dietrich in high-school. She began racing in regional

(SCCA) ladies' events in 1953, racing an

. Many of her early successes came at races at the Cumberland Municipal Airport in

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

; she finished second in the ladies race in July 1953 and 1954, before winning the race in 1955. She also enjoyed victories in preliminaries at

Watkins Glen International Watkins Glen International, nicknamed "The Glen", is an automobile race track located in the town of Dix just southwest of the village of Watkins Glen, New York, at the southern tip of Seneca Lake. It was long known around the world as the hom ...

and in SCCA Regional races at

Dunkirk Dunkirk (french: Dunkerque ; vls, label=French Flemish, Duunkerke; nl, Duinkerke(n) ; , ;) is a commune in the department of Nord in northern France.Porsche 356 The Porsche 356 is a sports car that was first produced by Austrian company Porsche Konstruktionen GesmbH (1948–1949), and then by German company Dr. Ing. h. c. F. Porsche GmbH (1950–1965). It was Porsche's first production automobile. E ...

. She raced less frequently from 1962, but in 1966, she entered the

24 Hours of Daytona The 24 Hours of Daytona, also known as the Rolex 24 At Daytona for sponsorship reasons, is a 24-hour sports car endurance race held annually at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida. It is run on the Sports Car Course layou ...

, driving a Sunbeam Alpine with

Janet Guthrie Janet Guthrie (born March 7, 1938) is a retired professional race car driver and the first woman to qualify and compete in both the Indianapolis 500 and the Daytona 500, both in 1977. She had first attempted to enter the Indianapolis 500 in 197 ...

and

Donna Mae Mims Donna Mae Mims (July 1, 1927 – October 6, 2009) was an American race car driver. She was the first woman to win a Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) national championship. Mims won the SCCA Class H championship in 1963. She was known as the "P ...

. The trio finished 32nd and, along with another women's team in the race, became the first women's teams to finish an international-standard 24-hour race. At the same race the following year, racing an

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, Dietrich partnered Mims and the pair finished 24th. After her retirement from racing, she wrote for the ''

Sandusky Register The ''Sandusky Register'' is a daily newspaper serving Sandusky, Ohio, as well as nearby Port Clinton and the Lake Erie Islands (collectively known regionally as Vacationland). History The ''Sandusky Register'' has been in production since 18 ...

'' and remained active as an administrator within the

. She suffered a stroke, and later died, in 2015, aged 88.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dietrich, Suzy 1926 births 2015 deaths American female racing drivers Racing drivers from Ohio Sportspeople from Toledo, Ohio 21st-century American women People from Huron, Ohio