Woman driver

By NADINE WILSON All Woman writer

Monday, March 15, 2010

SHE'S not your typical girly-girl who enjoys sporting skirts and decorating nails, but like many women, Lisa Bowman-Lee gets a thrill from having a bunch of men chasing her. Only, she likes the chase to be on a racetrack.

The 40-year-old who married her childhood sweetheart 18 years ago, entered the male- dominated, testosterone-driven world of professional car racing in 2000, and she is loving every minute of it. The fact that she has racked up 120 trophies and numerous certificates over the years for her award-winning performances, shows that she is a hard catch.

"It's something that definitely takes you out of the female box," she said of what is for her both a hobby and a job. "If you are doing it in a competitive manner, then no man out there is going to consider you a female and slow down to let you by."

Although Bowman-Lee had always been fascinated with car racing as a child, it was her husband Paul, a racing enthusiast, who inadvertently got her to take the plunge into the motor world. The two met as teenagers, and while girls her age were courting at movie theatres and out at shopping malls, she and her hubby bonded over fixing car stereos and alarms.

When a gunman's bullet left him almost paralysed in 1987, she was devastated. More frightening for her, though, was his admission that he wanted to pursue his lifelong dream of car racing, shortly after recovery.

"I was not really having it because after what we went through at such a young age, I decided that was really not something I wanted him to risk," she said. "I was 18 at the time and I was really not about to risk him to something I wasn't sure of."

When he insisted, she finally gave in, but not before doing a bit of test-driving herself as a go-kart driver.

"It came to the point where I said, 'Okay, before I allow you to do something like that, I am going to test it and see what it is like'," she said, while noting that, "It has been a crazy task trying to get me back out of the seat since."

Bowman-Lee became so hooked on racing, that at 25 years old, she hid the fact that she was three months' pregnant with her first child so she wouldn't be prevented from competing at an international meet. As it turned out, she won her race.

But after giving birth, the race car driver took a break to raise her son Matthew and prepare herself for the professional motor-racing world. She didn't enter that world until eight weeks after the birth of her second son, Nicholas, in 2000.

The fact that her family is always there in the stands cheering her on fuels her, and the knowledge that her husband is the only one who fixes her car offers an extra sense of security.

"As a woman, I am truly blessed to have a family like the one I have, and be able to enter into a man's world the way I have and garner respect," she said, explaining that her competitors are her second family.

But even families have their moments and that plays out on the racing track, where everyone is competing for the top position and bragging rights.

"There are various tactics that they try, and yes, sometimes it can be to their own detriment, as well as it can knock you out of a race, which has happened to me in the past; but it has never daunted me," she said. In fact, she welcomes the intimidation tactics.

"When you get on the track, you know you are competing and if you weren't looked at as a competitor, you know you weren't competitive enough, to even be considered," she said.

She remembers one occasion when she was hit in the back by a competitor while going around a bend, only to hit him from behind a few minutes later when he cut suddenly in front of her. The impact cause the car to become airborne for a few seconds. But still, the race car driver was unfazed.

"The car landed heading for a wall, but with quick thinking and experience through the years I pulled the handbrake and stopped the car at once. At that point in time, my first thought was to start the car and get going again, which I did, but something was wrong with the front end, so I had to retire," she said.

It was then that Bowman-Lee realised the magnitude of her fan base as the spectators refused to be settled until she went inside the stand and showed that she was okay.

But above enjoying life in the fast lane, the mother of two relishes every moment with her two sons and her husband whom she speaks very highly of. "I like being mommy and keeping a home for my family," she said, explaining that like every other family they have their rough days, but they allow God's guidance to see them through.

She also enjoys running P&L Racing, an automobile servicing company she and her husband started in 2005. Their business has been hit, like most, by the recession, but her faithful clientele and loyal staff still keep them going.

Operating a business, being a competitive race car driver and raising two sons can definitely drain a lady, and while Bowman-Lee doesn't mind any of the above, the family unwinds by camping out at their favourite riverbank in Clarendon, at least once monthly.

"My family, his (her husband's) family, everybody who can get together, we all pack up baskets and we go and have a big picnic. Sometimes we camp overnight and it is fabulous. We go crabbing, we go fishing; it's fun," she said.

There are days when Bowman-Lee considers retiring from competitive racing, especially now that sponsorship is getting harder to come by, but her sons who have always been convinced that they have "the coolest mom in the world" encourage her to continue.

"They are into cars, they both love cars, and I think I am partially to be blamed for that. God forbid if I had a girl, I don't know what she would be," she said.

To date, Bowman-Lee believes her most prestigious award is the certificate she received this past International Women's Day, which acknowledged her contribution to the society as a woman. But as with all of her successes, she dedicates this achievement to her sons, her parents, her staff, her competitors and her husband who have all contributed to making her the woman she has become.

Did you watch American football's Super Bowl on Sunday?
	Yes, but just for the advertisements
	Yes, just for the game itself
	Yes, for both the game and advertisements
	No, I did not watch the Super Bowl.

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