You shouldnt try to mimic an owl, but instead twist in your seat/chair and look, just like the real jockeys do.
To check my six, I place my left shoulder where my right shoulder is/would be (roughly), when sitting normally, and look around the 'headrest'. So I shuffle around in the seat to see what is going on back there.
And Im pretty sure, that adding any kind of a curve to the VR tracking will make you nauseous very fast. Its what really makes VR good, the 1:1 tracking.