In Search of LaRuth

As you might imagine, a lot of disparate items stream into my email inbox. In addition to the usual barrage of emails related to articles and magazines and letters to the editor, I also receive a fairly consistent flow of requests for information about cars, drivers and history. While some are more intriguing than others, once in a great while something lands in my inbox that really grabs me. Such was the case with LaRuth.

The email was forwarded to me as part of a thread on the racing history of Austin-Healey 100-6s. A Healey enthusiast named Patton Dickson had been researching the early racing history of the 100-6, when he stumbled across a reference to a LaRuth Bostic, who was shown to have raced one in several races at Riverside in 1957. But what was truly interesting was the fact that not only was LaRuth a woman (still something of a rarity in the 1950s), but that she was an African-American woman—road racing an Austin-Healey in 1957!