INDY'S WEEKLY ALTERNATIVE NEWSPAPER HIGHLIGHTING ARTS, ENTERTAINMENT AND SOCIAL JUSTICE

Danica makes IRL history

by Lori Lovely
IMS photo by Shawn Payne

Disproving the nay-sayers, 26-year-old Danica Patrick charged into history at the Indy Japan 300 last month by becoming the first woman to win an Indy Racing League race. “It’s going to be one of those things that’s remembered,” she said after the race. “It’s a first, and firsts are in history books.”

Fuel strategy and a directive by Team Penske to their driver Helio Castroneves allowed Patrick to sweep by the Brazilian on the 1.5-mile oval at Twin Ring Motegi to grab the top spot just three laps from the finish of the rain-delayed race. Critics question the validity of her victory over a split field while the Champ Car contingent raced at Long Beach the same weekend.  

Criticism is nothing new to the petite 5-foot-2, 100-pound driver, who, despite that advantage and the support of two good teams behind her, had not won a race in her three years of IRL competition. Currently driving the No. 7 Motorola car for Andretti Green Racing, Patrick has been called motor racing’s version of Anna Kournikova because of her willingness to market her looks in sexy FHM spreads rather than focus on her achievements ... or lack thereof. But the 2005 Indianapolis and series Rookie of the Year has repeatedly shown she has the speed and the chops to hang it out with the series’ top drivers and, in her 50th start, she proved to the world that she’s more than just a cover girl for the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue.

Breaking through the gender barrier

Although her victory in Japan has been called a watershed moment, Patrick considers herself part of a larger trend of barrier-breaking women. “I think we’re showing we’re capable of anything. There’s so much more gender crossover now. I really believe I’m part of a really big picture.”

In the world of motorsports, that picture was being composed three decades ago. Although Andy Granatelli put Paula Murphy in a car for a test at the Speedway in 1963, prior to 1971, officially, women weren’t allowed in the pits or garages at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Female reporters were forced to interview through the fence until Mari McCloskey of Women’s World magazine won equal access for all women in a class-action lawsuit.

It took six more years for a woman to earn her way to the other side of pit wall. Janet Guthrie made history by becoming the first woman to drive in the Indy 500. Her best finish in three starts was ninth.

Since then, you could say women drivers at Indy are “nothing new.”

Lyn St. James competed in the Indy 500 seven times, achieving her best finish (11th) in her rookie year, when she also became the first female Rookie of the Year. An accomplished sports car racer, she was a co-driver on the winning team in the GTO division at the 24 Hours of Daytona in 1987 and 1991.

The third woman to compete at Indy was also the youngest: Sarah Fisher. The former midget and sprint car driver recorded several female firsts by starting the Indianapolis 500 and earning a podium finish at Kentucky Speedway at age 19 in 2000.

The following year, she became the first woman to run the full season, scoring the then-highest finish for a woman at that level with a second place at Homestead-Miami Speedway. She followed that up in 2002 by becoming the first woman in North American motorsports history to start on the pole in a major-league open-wheel race when she set a qualifying record at Kentucky Speedway.

Patrick made a dramatic splash at Indy during her 2005 rookie year. Starting fourth — the highest starting position a female driver has attained at Indianapolis — she became the first woman to lead the race when she took command at the 125-mile mark during the pit stop cycle. Her fourth place finish is the highest for a woman.

Milka Duno is the fifth woman to compete at Indianapolis. The Venezuelan rookie finished 31st in last year’s race.

Racing around the world

Indianapolis isn’t the only race track to witness the power of a woman behind the wheel. Women have been achieving success in all forms of motorsports. Shirley Shahan was the first woman to win a national NHRA event in 1966 at Pomona, Calif., but it was Shirley “Cha Cha” Muldowney — the first woman to receive a license to drive a top fuel dragster — who put women drag racers on the radar. At the same time that Guthrie was facing the hostility of sexism at Indianapolis, Muldowney was overcoming opposition on the straight line. In 1977, Guthrie’s rookie year at Indy, Muldowney won her first of three championships in NHRA Top Fuel.

While Guthrie went on to compete in NASCAR, earning Top Rookie status in NASCAR’s Daytona 500 in 1978, Muldowney continued in NHRA, followed by no less than eight other women who have won major national events in the series’ 57-year history. Peggy Llewellyn is the first black woman to win an NHRA race with her Pro Stock Motorcycle victory in Dallas last year.

South African Desiré Wilson, one of only five women who have competed in Formula One, became the only woman to win an F1 race of any kind when she finished first in a British Aurora F1 race at Brands Hatch in 1981. She failed to qualify for the 1982 Indy 500.

USAC Silver Crown winged sprint car driver Erin Crocker is not only the first woman to win a World of Outlaws race, in 2003 she became the first woman to qualify for the Knoxville Nationals, where she was named Rookie of the Year.

British driver Katherine Legge became the first female to win — in her very first race — in the Champ Car Atlantic series in 2005. She added two more victories that year on her way to third place in the championship. 

“Dreams really do come true”

Reflecting on her breakthrough victory, Patrick credits persistence and hard work. “You work hard, do the best you can and for those times when you don’t win, [this] is paying you back for times it should have happened.”

IRL founder and CEO Tony George extended recognition to the entire Andretti Green Racing team as he acknowledged the much-anticipated win as good news for Patrick and for his series. As for the significance of the event, Brian Barnhart, president of the competition and operations divisions for the IRL and race chief steward, said after the race, “It’s huge. You just saw history.”

Patrick admitted dreaming of the day she might become the first female winner. “I’ve definitely thought about that before and I’ve always hoped and wanted to be that person. It’s probably one of the only [times] I ever really thought of myself as a girl; otherwise, I don’t really think about it a lot. But I did think it would be nice to be the first female to win in history.”

 

Mending the split

IRL and Champ Car World Series have combined

Feb. 22, American open-wheel racing was unified after 12 years of a rancorous battle for ratings, fans, sponsors, direction and supremacy. At long last, the Indy Racing League and the Champ Car World Series have combined to form a single entity under the IndyCar Series banner.

It was a battle with no winners. Especially in recent years, both sides suffered drastically declining TV ratings, radically diminishing fan bases, disappearing sponsorship and deteriorating car counts. Yet, as the years wore on, little hope remained for a merger or some sort of solution to the malaise that beset racing fans confused by the warring factions. Rumors of merger discussions seemed to surface every May, but negotiations repeatedly failed, which is why the last-minute announcement of reunification (less than a week before the first open test at Homestead) caught many within the industry, not to mention fans, by surprise.

IRL founder and CEO Tony George praised the first true union of racing in 30 years, referring to the first open-wheel racing split in 1979, when IndyCar team owners broke ranks with USAC to form Championship Auto Racing Teams. Because of the diversity of its tracks, chassis, engines and drivers, CART became the premier American open-wheel series and even challenged Formula One in technology, respect and popularity. But when Speedway president and non-voting CART board member Tony George’s demand for more input was rebuffed in 1996, he formed the IRL in retaliation.

Using the Indianapolis 500 as leverage to boost the ranks of his newfound oval racing series, George implemented the infamous “25/8” qualifying rule (which guaranteed starting positions in the Indianapolis 500 for 25 IRL regulars, leaving only eight vacant spots open for contention by CART teams). CART responded defiantly by staging the U.S. 500 at Michigan International Speedway on the same day. Heady with a Boston tea party-like atmosphere, the race boasted “the real cars and stars” in direct opposition to the IRL’s vision toward supporting American dirt track oval racers’ dreams of competing in the Indy 500 at budget prices.

The U.S. 500 fueled the flames of a hostile war that deeply divided participants and fans and more than likely contributed to the rise of NASCAR’s popularity. Gradually, however, the fire burned less brightly and the lure of the Indianapolis 500 brought some CART teams back. With rookie Juan Pablo Montoya’s runaway victory for Target Chip Ganassi Racing in 2000 — leading 167 of 200 laps — appearing easy, the boycott was over. CART teams began returning to the Indy 500 and even switching to the IRL on a full-time basis.

Rather than propping up the IRL, however, the heavily-funded former CART teams merely squeezed out original IRL teams with smaller budgets. Both series were on a downward spiral. By 2003, a troubled CART faced bankruptcy. Although Tony George sought to acquire specific CART assets, Judge Ott awarded everything to businessmen Gerry Forsythe and Kevin Kalkhoven because of their promise to keep the series intact and rebuild the newly named Champ Car World Series.

Four years later, the downward spiral spun out of control.

With teams and the supporting cottage industries struggling to survive and frequently turning to other forms of racing to do so, the prospects for open-wheel racing looked bleak. February rumors of a reunification plan met with cynical skepticism. Just when everyone had given up hope, a tentative deal was sealed. Key points of the initial plan include:

Acknowledging “enormous challenges ahead,” George offered “a basic engine lease and two chassis” — one new, one used, with an average value of $400,000 each — plus the IRL TEAM incentive program, which grants $1.2 million to teams that commit to a full season of competition. Teams that don’t run a full season will be required to pay the engine lease of approximately $1 million and return the cars, according to Brian Barnhart, director of race operations.

“We have a real opportunity the next couple years,” George believes. “New technologies, alternative fuel … We can shape what we want IndyCar to be.” Echoing the desire of diehard Champ Car fans, Kalkhoven hopes the series’ new identity will include an equal balance of super speedways, road courses and street venues. Recognizing the fans’ passion for many of CART’s principles, George anticipates a 20-race schedule on different types of tracks that could include former Champ Car and IRL races as well as new venues.

“Everybody is excited about the transition,” George speculates, adding that all IRL participants “want to make them feel warm and welcome, as if we’ve never done a season apart.” He vows to use a “cleaner sheet of paper to bring the best of both series together,” but Kalkhoven thinks the teams won’t truly be on a level playing field until the advent of a new car in 2010. Specifications for the new generation of chassis and engines have yet to be announced, although George has left the door open to a turbo-charged engine beloved by Champ Car fans. Until then, transitioning former Champ Car teams, which have been paired with IRL teams for mentoring, must contend with rebuilding Dallara chassis. “All the teams employ talented people,” George observes. “They’ll get up to speed quickly.”

Anticipating former Champ Car teams and new teams attracted by a healthier, single series, the Indianapolis 500 is expected to draw its largest field in years, with possibly as many as 40 competitors vying for the 33 starting spots.

As Kalkhoven sums up, the real winners are the fans, teams and drivers.

A diverse and competitive 500 field to watch 

American open-wheel racing has been capturing headlines for all the right reasons this year. First came the surprise last-minute Feb. 22 announcement of a merger between Champ Car World Series and the Indy Racing League, effective immediately. Although it encountered insurmountable scheduling conflicts, such as the Motegi and Long Beach races on the same weekend; led to the cancellation of all but two of the Champ Car races already scheduled; and left Champ Car teams not only holding the bag with Panoz DP-01 chassis and turbocharged Cosworth engines ineligible for the IRL, but without comparable equipment to meet IRL specifications or adequate time to put things together and get up to competitive levels, the blending of the two former rival series was generally welcomed.

Despite the hasty switch, more good news emerged by the second race of the season. Graham Rahal, driving for Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing, became the youngest winner of a major open-wheel race at the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg April 6. Rahal, the 19-year-old former Champ Car driver, won in his IRL series debut.

Two weeks later, Danica Patrick, driving for Andretti Green Racing, made history by becoming the first woman to win a major closed-course open-wheel race at the Indy Japan 300 in Motegi, Japan.

The IRL and Indianapolis Motor Speedway officials hope to build on that positive momentum in May, promising fans much excitement and many things to watch for as the month unfolds.

Crossing over

A few former Champ Car teams have made the transition to the IRL:

Noticeably absent are the perennially under-funded Walker Racing, which fielded Alex Tagliani in the Champ Car finale at Long Beach and is still seeking sponsorship for a potential Indy effort, and Forsythe-Petit Racing. Gerald Forsythe, former co-owner of Champ Car, has declined to participate in the IRL. At press time, it was unclear whether his driver, Paul Tracy, would be legally cleared to seek a ride with another team, although it is known he has been talking with Tony George about possibilities.

Rookie crop

This year’s rookie list is the longest in years. Because the IRL has always designated first-time Indy 500 drivers from other series as rookies unless they had significant oval experience, many recognizable names join the ranks who don the rookie stripes.

The impressive list includes: 2007 Firestone Indy Lights champion Alex Lloyd; 2006 Firestone Indy Lights champion Jay Howard; Champ Car race winners Graham Rahal, Justin Wilson, Oriol Servia and Will Power; Townsend Bell; Ryan Hunter-Reay; Mario Moraes; Hideki Mutoh; Franck Perera; E.J Viso; and Enrique Bernoldi.

Returning heroes

Former Indianapolis 500 winners who will attempt to qualify for this year’s race include Dan Wheldon (2005), Buddy Rice (2004), Helio Castroneves (2001, 2002) and Buddy Lazier (1996), although Lazier has yet to secure a spot with a team.

For the second consecutive year, three women will attempt to qualify for the race. Danica Patrick returns with Andretti Green Racing while Milka Duno switches to Dreyer & Reinbold Racing and Sarah Fisher drives for her newly founded and self-titled team, Sarah Fisher Racing.

No repeat

No matter who wins the 92nd running of the Indianapolis 500, there’s no possibility of a back-to-back win. Instead, Dario Franchitti, last year’s winner, will be competing in NASCAR’s Sprint Cup series for Chip Ganassi Racing.

He’s not the only former winner who won’t be hitting the bricks this May. Sam Hornish Jr., the 2006 500 champion, will be racing Franchitti in the Coca-Cola 600 at Lowes Motorspeedway in Concord, N.C., May 25. Team owner Roger Penske has not made an official announcement, but sources within the team confirm the commitment to stock cars.

Pick of the litter

Five hundred miles makes for a very long race where anything can happen — and often does at Indianapolis. So who do you think will win? To help you get into the spirit of May, the NUVO staff has made early — so early, the cars haven’t even hit the track yet! — predictions about who we think will win the 92nd Indianapolis 500.

Lori Lovely: I’m having a tough time deciding between Scott Dixon and Helio Castroneves. Castroneves had a strong finish in Motegi. He (and team owner Roger Penske) obviously know what it takes to win here, and he is still hungry for an excuse to climb the fence, but Dixon is smooth, smart, strong and quietly sneaks up the speed charts. Besides, he’s due.

Kevin McKinney: I’ve watched Danica the last few years at the Indy 500 and she is a tough competitor who is consistently fast and with the recent win at Indy Japan 300 I think Danica and her team will have the confidence they need to pull off a win at the Indy 500 this year.

Kathy Flahavin: Kathy being Kathy says it’s Andretti Green’s year and it will be Miss Danica. I’m so sick of Elio I could puke, and also Roger Penske. As long as it’s not a Marlboro car, I’ll go with about anyone.

David Hoppe: I saw Marco Andretti win his first race in Indianapolis; he’s come close to winning the 500 since and I have a feeling this is his year — unless, that is, Tony Kanaan finally gets it done.

Laura McPhee: (Laura was too busy defending liberty to make a prediction.)

Schedule 

Practice: May 6-8, gates open at 9
Fast Friday Practice: May 9, gates open at 8
Pole Day: May 10, gates open at 7
Second-Day Qualifying: May 11, gates open at 8
Practice: May 14-16, gates open at 9
Third-Day Qualifying: May 17, gates open at 9
Bump Day: May 18, gates open at 7
Community Day: May 21; gates open at 9
Firestone Freedom 100 Practice & Qualifying: May 22, gates open at 9
Miller Lite Carb Day: May 23, gates open at 8; Firestone Freedom 100 at 12:30; Checker’s/Rally’s pit stop challenge 1:30, concert 3:30
Race Day: May 25, gates open at 6

Tickets are available online at www.indianapolismotorspeedway.com, by phone at 800-822-INDY or 317-492-6700, or at the IMS ticket office on the first floor of the administration building at 4790 W. 16th St. from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.