Aloha’s Cindi Lux might be one of the biggest motorsport names to come out of the Northwest but she has certainly not forgotten her roots. The 2008 Sports Car Club of America’s Oregon Pro Driver of the Year returns to Portland International Raceway for the 49th Annual Rose Cup on June 12-14.
The Rose Cup, which Lux’s father Dick Hahn won in its inaugural, 1961 running, is the largest amateur/club event west of the Mississippi River and signifies the unofficial first day of summer for local racers. Lux returns to the prestigious event to support her local racing community representing the Viper brand with the No. 12 Lux Performance Group, LLC Viper Competition Coupe. In her career, Lux has won twelve road racing championships, has more than 75 victories and over 150 podium finishes but is yet to place her name next to her father’s on the Rose Cup trophy.
Competing in the SCCA SPEED World Challenge GT the past two seasons has meant that Lux had to watch former rivals add to their reputations in the event which has drawn over 400 competitors across 25 national and over 50 regional classes this year. The recent restructuring of her major marketing partner as well as personal business opportunities have allowed the 1999 American Le Mans Series’ Women’s Global GT Champion to return to the Rose Cup this June with her locally-prepped Viper Competition Coupe. Lux earned her first taste of Rose Cup competition in 1987. Dick Hahn retired from driving before charging wheel-to-wheel with his daughter into PIR’s daunting “Festival Turns”. However, while in the infancy of her career, the ’87 race was still a family affair as Lux took on her brother as well as the 1.967-mile, 12-turn course. Lux was not able to challenge her sibling that day but has since shown her mettle not only in the Rose Cup but across North American motorsports. She has twice won her class in the prestigious June Sprints at Road America, only the second woman to ever do so, has two Piloti Rookie of the Race Awards (’07) in SPEED World Challenge GT and holds the SPEED GT record as the highest finishing (fifth) and highest starting (third) female driver in that professional series’ history. After winning the inaugural championship of the all-female Women’s Global GT Series, Lux earned two Petit Le Mans rides where she took top-five honors in 2000. With the auto industries recent ills scuttling her factory ride for the year with Chrysler, Lux saw the opportunity to return to the event which ignited her entire career; the Rose Cup. For the past five years she has been employed as a Viper factory driver and co-drove the Viper Competition Coupe in the car’s American Le Mans Series premiere (’07). As a proud daughter of the Northwest, Lux has twice been named Oregon’s SCCA Pro Driver of the Year (’99, ’08), was named the 2003 Oregon SCCA National Driver of the Year as well as recipient of the Northwest Pat Piggot Memorial Award in 1992 for the most outstanding driver. Lux is currently assisting Viper by providing an exhibition of the strong-selling Viper Comp. Coupe for potential buyers. For the past four years, Lux is lead instructor at Miller Motorsports Park’s Performance Driving Center in Tooele, Utah.
While the World Challenge branch of Lux Performance Group, LLC has slowed its activities at present, the company Cindi owns with her husband, Fred, has been far from idle. The couple has expanded Lux Performance Group to answer the high demand for customer work. The Aloha-based business chassis upgrades and other improvements to high-end customer cars including work with all SRT and Viper products. Lux’s duties will not be limited to only on-rack activities at the Rose Cup. On Saturday, June 13, she will switch her view from inside looking out to outside looking in. The self-described “auto enthusiast” has been asked to judge the second annual Rose Cup Cruise-In. The Cruise-In, which currently has over 1,000 entries across its 30 classes, will pit cars from every decade since the dawn of the automobile against one another. The concourse-style judging will award 60 trophies to cars from domestic to international, convertible to sedan, sport car to muscle car. Lux will be asked to critique the entries and vote on the best prepared and most significant “ride” in each category. Quotes Cindi Lux: “There is nothing better than coming home to race. There is always a silver lining when things don’t work according to plan. With Chrysler’s difficulties at the moment, it has allowed us to spend a little more time here in the Northwest. I just love running in the Rose Cup race not just because of our family heritage but just how much fun it is.
The Rose Festival Association certainly knows how to promote a sports car race here in Portland and makes this event very fan friendly. I can’t wait to showcase our Viper to the hometown crowd. One thing I am going to have to remember is how to do a ‘rolling start’ at the beginning of the race. I have spent the last two seasons doing standing starts that are unique to World Challenge GT.” Information on Cindi Lux is at www.CindiLux.com
