thats cause shes not fat and old and male
why were you watching that junk anyways? it better have been to see her

 

because she broke a long standing record and had the best qualifying and finish placement since the 500 started in 1911


THATS WHY

 

its not illegal for all the other people to get skinnier

 

When I woke up this morning I thought how insane it would have been for her today if she'd won.

But then again, it's prolly insane anyways.

She presents an unprecedented combination of Youth, Beauty, Brains, Strength, Driving Skill and a bird-like weight and stature.

She is a force to be reckoned with and things in teh IRL will never be the same. She's here to stay and has opened the door for more women of her ilk to race professionally.

Watch for an explosion in the popularity of Karting which has already started to experience a recent, steady growth.

It's hard these days to find a World Champion who hasn't raced Karts. Senna, Schumacher, Paul Tracy, Raikkonen (future World Champ) and many more have extensive backgrounds in kart racing, just like Danica Patrick.

 

I'd guess it's because most folks don't care one bit about who won. All of my crew at work had no idea that Indy was even part of a series. They only know about the Indy 500 because that one individual race is famous.

Quotes from yesterday;

"I didn't know David Letterman was a race car driver."

"So, can she (Danica) join NASCAR now?"

"They just go in circles all day?"

To the average joe, Danica is more interesting than everything else there is to say about the race.

Interest gets ratings, therefore Danica gets the press.

She did pretty damn well for a rookie regardless of gender. To lead 15 laps and finish 4th... after a crash/spin/repair and stalling in the pits and a fuel gamble that didn't work?

I "girl" racing is still a novalty to most people, to do so well is pretty exciting.

 

shes [censored] hot

 

I can understand, its just odd since shes not the first female, while she may be the first good one thats understandable. It's just Kart rarely got as much exposure as it did with her in the race. I feel bad for the poor podium finishers, who got little time mentioned on tv.

Personally, she may be a good driver but from watching her on Spike TV she really really needs to stick to driving.

 

Janet Guthrie never had a chance, Lynn St James was a good driver in mediocre equipment. Danica got the right ride and the had right background AND took advantage of both. Good for her and good for Bobby Rahal! Class acts!Letterman...well, I guess he's pretty good at what he does, too.
You could see the disappointment in her face.
Led. Yeah, fine. Close to win, yeah, so what. I didn't win. That's the fire you have to have.

 

It's just Kart rarely got as much exposure as it did with her in the race.

That would be C.A.R.T. Championship Auto Racing Teams.

And before Tony George, the owner of the Indianaqpolis Motor Speedway, started the Indy Racing League (IRL) CART was the series that raced there under the sanctioning of USAC...

The series was healthy then.

Karting is the generic trademark for professional-level go-kart racing; and they're not called go-karts, just karts.

 

Forget IRL and CART I want to see her in F1. Didn't Sarah Fischer go to Mercedes as a test driver last year?

 

Hey guys, what you're forgetting is that this is still a Good Ole Boys kind of sport.

For auto racing, women don't have a sanctioned body that 'separates' us from the guys -- WTA, LPGA, there's even the women's tackle football league.

Physically, we're not as much at an disadvantage as the men in this sport, because racing relies heavily on skill and the machinery. It is HUGELY mentally demanding, as I found out on my first foray at Buttonwillow. I wasn't so tired from driving-- I was exhausted from having to be 100% alert for 20 minutes at a time.

I think she deserves the press for doing so well. Not from a 'feminist' standpoint, but from a Motorsports Junkie standpoint. I admire the fact she can be fast and competitive, especially with her physical stature -- racing is not like golf, it demands a lot from your body. It's just like Angelle muscling that ProStock bike down the 1/4 mile --- as much as people would like to believe, you don't just point and shoot those things. She may have a weight advantage, but imagine the G-forces she had to deal with for the length of the race. Yet, that didn't deter her from finishing 4th.

I also admire Danica's relative calmness and professionalism as she deals with the Circus that has surrounded Indy.

I hope she gets deeper into the industry, and I hope that it inspires young women to step out of their comfort zones and to compete for the love of the sport.

 

well put ^^^

personally agree, she deserves it and deserves everything that will happen in the future. i dont want to hear complaining about how "she is lighter", please, jump on the treadmill fatty....she's smokin!

she's only going up, and sry to say (because i hate when women get all feminist and want no limitations, and yet want advantages because "they're women")...but she has the guys scurred, and they should be

-chris

 

she also deserves 100 lbs ballast in her car *shrug*

 

she also deserves 100 lbs ballast in her car *shrug*

That's a lot like saying that Willie Shoemaker should have carried bricks in his pockets when he rode his horse, dude. Or that Michael Jordan couldn't shoot from inside the key. Or that Gary Gait needed to tie his shoes together.

Couldn't disagree with you more.

She is simply very well suited to the sport of auto racing. Since when does being good at something mean you should be penalized for it? Penalizing her reminds me of the Vonnegut story "Harrison Bergeron".

All these guys who complain about her are just afraid of being beaten by a "girl."

Never mind the fact that with more experience and more track time she may end up being as good or better than a lot of guys on the track now...

 

I'm just playing devil's advocate dude

In rowing, they brought your boat up to the same weight as everyone elses with ballast, no matter how light you were as a team. If i remember in lightweight, your boat weighed 168/person regardless of how far under 168 you were each.

Boxing there are definite upper limits for each class.

Sure you can play games but not 100lbs worth.

If you're going to standardize the weights at ALL (which they do), then you should actually standardize the weight.

 

For one for a woman she can outdrive alot of men out there,she did damn well for her first race.Set records etc.. and the biggest thing of all she is IRL's last chance to stay alive.

She is going to inspire alot of woman to get out there and learn to drive and maybe become race car drivers and just get more woman interested in cars and racing.

 

Attracting more women to race car driving I would agree.But in other professional sports there is the PGA and the LPGA,NBA and the WNBA,mens boxing and womens boxing.Men and women do not compete directly with each other in those sports.It will be interesting to see how professional auto racing goes from this point on though.

 

Attracting more women to race car driving I would agree.But in other professional sports there is the PGA and the LPGA,NBA and the WNBA,mens boxing and womens boxing.Men and women do not compete directly with each other in those sports.It will be interesting to see how professional auto racing goes from this point on though.

Panoz tried to do a series alongside the ALMS a few years ago. It just doesn't generate the 'hype' that a solo female does when she goes against the guys.

Maybe, after having role models like Danica to emulate, enough women will get into the sport to get such a series going. But it will take a long time.

Personally, I'd rather they stay and race alongside the men. NHRA has accepted their Fast Females as one of the family. With women like Angelle Seeling and Ashley Force showing they can run with the boys (and look, she's testing in a TF Funny Car this weekend too

) there is no reason to make it separate.

Besides, it would be much more satisfying for me to be able to kick the boys' butts than the females.

 

OK, because I hate for people to throw around numbers with no basis in reality, please go to Indycar.com and look up the driver bios. I did because I have too much time

There are 22 drivers listed, 21 male. Buddy Rice's bio wouldn't come up, so that leaves us with a sample of 20 male driver weights:

Lowest: 135 (Briscoe & Manning)
Highest: 165 (Carpenter & Hornish Jr.)
Average: 150.35

Patrick's weight advantage is 50 lbs over the 'average' IRL driver, not 100 lbs. It's as small as 35 and as large as 65 depending on the individual. Also note that even among the males there is a spread of 30 lbs. I'm sure there were bigger spreads in male weights in the past. (Remember A.J. Foyt at the end of his career? Not too many chicken fried steaks made it past him.)

If they thought driver weights were so important (I'm not saying they're not a factor), they should have factored that in a long time ago, seeing as: (a) even amongst males there is wide variation, and (b) women have competed at Indy as far back as 1977.

Some sports have participant weight rules, some don't. That's just the way it is. Wrestling has weight classes, football doesn't. Rowing may have equipment+crew limitations, but pro cycling doesn't -- the bike has a lower weight limit, the cyclist can weigh as little or as much as he wants. If you want to try to ride up the Alps at 235 lbs, well, it sucks to be you.

Danica may have certain physiological advantages, but she has certain disadvantages too (e.g., upper body strength). Maybe her body type will have distinct competition advantage in the long run, maybe it won't. Or maybe the guys will just have to lose some weight. Or maybe it just doesn't matter that much and Team Engineering + Driver Skill + Race Management + Whole Lotta Luck are what it takes to win. FYI, Dan Wheldon? 157 lbs., slightly heavier than average.

 

Attracting more women to race car driving I would agree.But in other professional sports there is the PGA and the LPGA,NBA and the WNBA,mens boxing and womens boxing.Men and women do not compete directly with each other in those sports.It will be interesting to see how professional auto racing goes from this point on though.

Panoz tried to do a series alongside the ALMS a few years ago. It just doesn't generate the 'hype' that a solo female does when she goes against the guys.

Maybe, after having role models like Danica to emulate, enough women will get into the sport to get such a series going. But it will take a long time.

Personally, I'd rather they stay and race alongside the men. NHRA has accepted their Fast Females as one of the family. With women like Angelle Seeling and Ashley Force showing they can run with the boys (and look, she's testing in a TF Funny Car this weekend too

) there is no reason to make it separate.

Besides, it would be much more satisfying for me to be able to kick the boys' butts than the females.

wow, im still royally pist you don't have a single sister

-chris

 

you need better taste cruizin.

regardless of her weight differential, she put up an impressive performance, no denying that.

I also hope that women in motorsports stay in the same races as men. The biggest tragedy of the modern world is that we can believe in equivalence of the sexes while havin different pro sports leagues for men and women.

Angele Savois (sp?) on prostock bike tends to kick ass a lot.

Ashley FOrce won't be the first woman in Top Fuel, there were Shirley Muldowney and someone else I forget in it as well.

Women with the balls to compete against men will earn my respect any day, that goes for Annika Sorenstam as well, even if she did suck it up in her PGA appearance.

 

all the cars w/driver have to weigh a certain amount. yes its advantage for her b/c the team can put it where they want.

thats better than what benetton asked alex wurz to do a few yrs back in f1, gettin this operation done that would shorten his legs a few inches (b/c he was 6ft plus-tallest in f1 by far). now u wanna call that stupid?

-Ult

 

you need better taste cruizin.

regardless of her weight differential, she put up an impressive performance, no denying that.

I also hope that women in motorsports stay in the same races as men. The biggest tragedy of the modern world is that we can believe in equivalence of the sexes while havin different pro sports leagues for men and women.

Angele Savois (sp?) on prostock bike tends to kick ass a lot.

Ashley FOrce won't be the first woman in Top Fuel, there were Shirley Muldowney and someone else I forget in it as well.

Women with the balls to compete against men will earn my respect any day, that goes for Annika Sorenstam as well, even if she did suck it up in her PGA appearance.

na just sayin cuz way kris talks bout racing and cars gets me googley eyed..you both have good points

women and men should race side by side...as long as they keep any and all "sex-limitations" out, regarding future events im cool, i hate when either one gets benefits when they are in a situation to strive for equality...remember in highschool we had a alot of girls wanting to play football/lacrosse with the guys, school let them, and then gave them special 'handicaps'..just doesn't make sense

..personally if they were gonna do something with the weight issue they would have, but they didn't, so everyone should just eat it...there has been many calls along the years no one likes and some do, just how it is

all i kno is that Danica is going places, and fast

-chris

 

So what's your gripe, BOB? Should I go after the NFL? My weight would be an asset there!

Cruzin--my sister is NOT like me, unfortunately.

 

Same reason why P.O.W. Lynch got so much attentionlast year, SHES A GIRL.