Linda
Vaughn; Miss Hurst Golden Shifter. The First
Lady of Drag Racing. Trophy queen at just
about every type of automotive competition
including NASCAR, Indy, Formula One, etc.
Linda was the sweetheart of many a race fan
from the mid-60's to the early 1980's when she
relinquished her titled as Miss Hurst Golden
Shifter.
Linda began her career, strangely enough, as a
dental technician, a part-time job she
obtained while in high school. After
graduating high school she began working full
time as a dental technician. She soon got
tired of looking into other people's mouths
and decided to enter a beauty contest and to
her surprise, won. Soon afterwards, in 1961,
she entered another contest, this one put on
by Atlanta Raceway and won that title too.
Along with
her new title of Miss Atlanta Raceway, Linda's
job was to visit various race tracks in the
south such as Charlotte, Darlington and
Daytona in the pace car representing Atlanta
Raceway, displaying her charms amongst her
other duties as race queen.
 After
her reign as Miss Atlanta Raceway was up,
Linda entered another beauty contest, this
time sponsored by Pure Oil Company. She won
that title as well, and assumed the role of
Miss Pure Firebird a position she retained for
3 1/2 years 'til Pure Oil merged with Union
Oil Company.
That merger signaled the end of her career as
Miss Firebird and Linda was suddenly out of a
job. She thought her career as race queen was
over. All was not lost, though. Linda being
the automotive oriented gal that she is,
opened up an issue of Hot Rod Magazine and
noticed an ad from Hurst who were looking for
a new Miss Hurst Golden Shifter.
Linda
decided to enter and won the preliminary at
Atlanta, then the title overall amongst 200
other entries. Thus began Linda's long career
as Miss Hurst and her association with Hurst
Industries.
Linda quickly became a prominent figure [pun
intended] in the drag racing world and to a
lesser extent in other forms of automotive
competition. In
the mid-60's, she along with Don Garlits and
Richard Petty, toured military bases in
Vietnam, giving our boys moral support and
briefly taking their minds off the hell of
war.
Towards the
late 1960's, Linda's services became in such
demand that Hurst had to hire additional
blonde beauties - dubbed the Hurstettes, to
fill in for Linda at various racing events
across the USA. At more prestigious events,
Linda alongside the other two or three
Hurstettes, made their appearance.
In addition
to her duties as Miss Hurst, in the mid-1970's
Linda also was the spokesmodel for Gratiot
Auto Supply appearing in their ads featured in
the many car magazines of the day. She also
starred in Gratiot's television commercials,
which aired in the Detroit area.
Linda's
other TV appearances include a couple of
Hollywood films namely, Gumball Rally[1976]
and Stroker Ace[1983], starring Burt Reynolds.
Later, she was the host of The Exciting World
of Speed and Beauty, which aired on ESPN in
the 1990's.
Not all of
Linda's time at the races was spent as a
trophy queen but as a competitor, as she got
behind the
wheel and competed (albeit briefly) in sports
car competition after receiving her
competition drivers license from the SCCA
after successfully completing the driving
course offered at the Bob Bondurant School of
High Performance Driving.
After
semi-retiring from the automotive scene during
the years of 1983-87, Linda returned to her
first love. She teamed up with Mr. Gasket
Performance Group, a conglomerate of
automotive companies, who now owned Hurst
Industries, and was promoted to Vice
President, Public Relations.
Today,
Linda still makes appearances at many car shows
and automotive races, no longer as race queen
but as a guest of honor, signing autographs and
greeting legions of her fans, many dating back
to the 1960's. In recent history, Linda was
elected to the Drag Racing Hall of Fame and was
chosen the Specialty Equipment Manufacturer's (SEMA)
Person of the Year. |
