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"I died on the operating table twice.":
SportsCar Vintage Racing Association (SVRA) Group 4 sprint champion Susan Patterson



SVRA: 'Savage Suzy' finds life’s light in racing

Friday, 04 November 2016


Mark Dill / Images by Dill, Bob Pengraph

When SportsCar Vintage Racing Association (SVRA) Group 4 sprint champion Susan Patterson says, "Racing is the light of my life," you might think it sounds like sweet sentiment from an impassioned racer. That's until she adds: "I died on the operating table twice."

"Exceptional" is wholly inadequate to describe the life challenges and triumphs of Susan Patterson.
True, it is exceptional that in 2016, her first full year of organized racing competition, the native-born Texan not only earned the SVRA rookie of the year award but moreover the Group 4 sprint racing national points championship. It's just that "exceptional" doesn't do justice to the plain, flat-out over-the-top astonishing fact that the woman still walks the earth.

She has prevailed over three life-threatening health crises where her survival was probably about as likely as a high school kid in a gym hurling a basketball full-court for three successive swish shots. First, in 2003, came her heart condition that necessitated a titanium heart valve replacement. During the procedure the surgeon fought on even after he was certain she had passed. After she was out of danger he told her, "Really, honestly, we lost you for some time. You're a miracle."

In 2009, a different but no less deadly opponent emerged in her body: Stage 4 breast cancer. Extreme surgery was her best chance and a double mastectomy was performed. Again, at one point during the dangerous procedure she dangled over the metaphorical abyss between here and afterward. Coming back from the precipice once more, her prospects improved and appeared increasingly brighter as she approached her fifth cancer-free anniversary.

Then, with six months to that finish line came more troubling news. Her doctors discovered a new, rare, more deadly form of cancer, again in her chest. They gave her 90 days to put her affairs in order. They also offered her the long-shot prospect of massive radiation and chemotherapy, which they admitted was unlikely to produce any benefit and would certainly make life unpleasant. She went for it.

In the meantime, Susan did set about putting her life in order – but not in conventional fashion. Three things popped into her head. She wanted to own a camel, a kangaroo and drive a racecar at 200 miles per hour. Having grown up on a Texas ranch where she and her family converted Volkswagen Beatles into dune buggies and proceeded to speed them beyond the bounds of good judgment, she probably had a better understanding of the racecar idea than the animal ownership.

A woman of tremendous faith, Susan has no doubt that it was more than coincidence that soon after her near-death experience she spotted a camel along the road when she was out driving. Slamming on her brakes, she changed direction and marched to the ranch house to knock on the door and ask to purchase the creature. The owners refused but kindly pointed her in the direction of an exotic animal auction where circumstances led her to purchase not just a came,\l, but also a baby kangaroo.

When asked by members of the exotic animal ownership network what she knew about caring for such animals her answer was simple: "Nothing." People came forward with advice and a new world opened up to her. Her ranch population now includes 13 kangaroos, two camels and also a zebra.

Meanwhile, she pursued her racing ambitions through driving school and renting racecars to prove her mettle to observers in vintage racing through the Montgomery, Texas-based Corinthian Vintage Auto Racing (CVAR) club. She showed pace and promise and came into her own to enter her first full-fledged vintage race at the SVRA vintage racing national championships one year ago.

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A Devin bodied MG TD?




Susan Patterson at the wheel of her "Gold Medallion" 1952 Devin MG TD roadster.


"Savage Suzy" Patterson and her pet, Buckaroo, get comfortable with Susan's new ride for the weekend - a 1964 Triumph Spitfire.