Honda Indy Team’s Danica Patrick
You pull up to the stop light. An attractive dark-haired woman pulls up next to you in the other lane; driving a Honda S2000 CR. “Nice car, nicer driver” you think to yourself. “But no way is she going to take me off the line”. Wrong-O buddy boy! By the time your foot hits the gas that little Honda is gone for good. “Holy crap”. The above scenario is made up of course, but not far fetched; if the beautiful and talented woman driver is Team Honda’s Danica Patrick. Well-known even by non-motorsports fans; Danica has been taking the IRL (Indy Racing League) Indy Car circuit by storm the last three years.
With a volatile mixture of gritty determination, sharply honed skills and a pinch of panache; Danica burst on the scene as a 22 year-old IRL rookie in 2005, driving for the Rahal-Letterman team, and never looked back. She finished fourth in her first Indy 500 at the fabled brickyard in Indianapolis, Indiana – and ended up in twelfth place in the IRL points standings at season’s end. She was named the Rookie of the Year for both the 2005 Indy Car Series and the 2005 Indianapolis 500.
Since then she has gained the respect of motorsports fans world-wide for her driving prowess in a historically male dominated sport. In 2006 she finished ninth in the points standings; and then went one better in 2007, coming in seventh for the season, after switching teams to Andretti-Green Racing at the start of the 2007 season. She has yet to taste victory in the open-wheel Indy cars, but garnered a second place at the Detroit Indy Grand Prix on the tough Belle Isle road course. Patrick avoided a wreck on the final lap to finish in second, tying her with Sarah Fisher for best women’s finish ever in Indy cars.
Talk to anybody who has known this talented woman for any length of time and you will see that the determined and fiery competitive attitude has been with her since birth. Danica began her racing career in go-karts, becoming National Champion at age 16, then moved to Great Britain and raced in the Formula Ford and Formula Vauxhall developmental open-wheel series. She finished second in England’s Formula Ford Festival, best ever finish by a woman, and in fact, ANY American! The rest is history – with surely more to come.
So if you see that sporty little Honda S2000 pull up next to you at a stoplight sometime soon, and look over and see a 100-pound five foot two female dynamo at the wheel…think twice about your chances at besting her off the line. Not gonna happen!
Danica in an S2000, Danica in an Indy car, Danica in a go-cart, at a stoplight, on TV, in a Motor Trend interview…whatever. This woman has single-handedly renewed my interest in open-wheel racing. Sad, I know – but after the IRL/CART split I really lost interest for a long time, after having followed Indy car racing religiously back in the Al and Bobby Unser / AJ Foyt years. While she was the catalyst and i root for her, it has been a joy to get to know and follow the other talented drivers like Wheldon, Kanaan and Franchitti (NASCAR Dario? Please…). An Indy win is in the offing for this gorgeous, talented, fast-as-lightning superchick! That, I would bet on.
Ditto that cartaddict!