Female Driver Makes History at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway

Danica Patrick: The new face of high-speed auto racing!

To the sporting snobs who dismiss auto racing as a simple-minded redneck sport (especially those who’d rather sit around for hours watching pot-bellied men club and chase a little ball over manicured lawns until – with all of the suspense of watching paint dry – they manage to plunk it into a little hole in the ground), I have news for you:

Indy car racing is a sport that requires the steady hands of a surgeon, the daring skill of a jet fighter and the physical stamina of a marathon runner. And, no sport can match the sustained thrill, nail-biting anxiety and death-defying excitement one gets from watching those cars zoom around that track – jockeying for position at an average speed of over 220 mph – for 500 miles!

Now, add to these exhilarating dynamics Danica Patrick – all 5’1”, 100lbs of her in full racing armor – and the world’s most watched sporting event (over 300,000 in the stands) is injected with a level of human interest that transcends sport.

Patrick became an immediate sensation when she qualified for Sunday’s 89th running of the Indianapolis 500 in historic fashion. She was the first female in this male-dominated sport to be amongst the top qualifiers with a legitimate chance to win the race.

(It should be noted, however, that Lyn St. James was to women in auto racing what Jackie Robinson was to blacks in baseball. And, she deserves recognition for toiling against gender stereotypes and male chauvinism in this sport for many years before Patrick even got her driver’s license.)

But what a debut Patrick made: Because, after racing in such dramatic fashion by skillfully navigating through a number of harrowing crashes, leading the race on several occasions (including at lap 190 of 200) and finishing 4th out of 33 of the world’s best drivers, Patrick easily surpassed the media hype surrounding her and demonstrated beyond all reasonable doubt that a woman is equal to any man when it comes to the sport of auto racing.

Patrick takes the lead: I am woman, hear me roarrrrrrrrrr!

So, here’s to Danica Patrick for racing through yet another sexist barrier along the road towards liberating the full potential of women to be all that they can be. And, it’s only a matter of time before this young trailblazer drives her car into the winner’s circle as champion of the Indy 500.

You go girl!

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