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IRL women keeping fast company
Suntrust Indy Challenge preview
Date published: 6/29/2007
BY JIM McCONNELL RICHMOND--From a distance, the racers could be modern-day Charlie's Angels: three highly attractive female private detectives from the hit 1970s television drama. Why, the hair is even perfect: a pretty blonde (Sarah Fisher) flanked by two striking brunettes (Danica Patrick and Milka Duno). There's only one problem: while Farrah Fawcett, Jaclyn Smith and Kate Jackson became icons by marketing their femininity to men around the world, the Indy Racing League's three female drivers aren't about to slip into bikinis for a group photo shoot any time soon. "At the end of the day, what's important to me and my peers is what we do on the track," said Fisher, who will compete in tomorrow's SunTrust Indy Challenge at Richmond International Raceway. It's a common refrain from Fisher, Patrick and Duno. All desperately want to be seen as professional drivers, not some traveling novelty act. Three decades after Janet Guthrie became the first woman to compete in the Indianapolis 500, they're tired of answering the same questions. But like it or not, they're guaranteed to share the spotlight this weekend for reasons that have little to do with their lap times. "It isn't a novelty; they've proven they belong there," three-time series champion Sam Hornish Jr. said. "But they also get more attention because they're female. That's just the way it is." Patrick is particularly consumed with shedding her winless resume. Her sensational 2005 Indy debut, in which she led 19 laps en route to a fourth-place finish, instantly buoyed the IRL's sagging television ratings and touched off a nationwide media blitz that came to be known as "Danicamania." Patrick finished 12th in the IRL standings as a rookie, then cracked the top 10 (ninth) last season. But her career-best third-place effort at Texas earlier this year isn't even the series' all-time best finish by a female. That honor belongs to Fisher, who finished second at Homestead-Miami Speedway in 2001. Less than a year later, the petite Ohio native became the first woman in racing history to earn a pole position when she qualified first at Kentucky Speedway.
Date published: 6/29/2007
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