I love me some good news to start the week off with!
Danica Patrick became the first female winner in IndyCar history Sunday, taking the Indy Japan 300 after the top contenders were forced to pit for fuel in the final laps.Patrick finished 5.8594 seconds ahead of pole-sitter Helio Castroneves on the 1.5-mile Twin Ring Motegi oval after leader Scott Dixon pitted with five laps left and Dan Wheldon and Tony Kanaan came in a lap later.
Patrick said of the win, "It's a long time coming. Finally... knew there was a good reason for coming to Japan...I want to thank my team, the fans and everyone who supported me."
UPDATE: Reader Krista mentions that Patrick also won in spite of a new rule aimed at the women in Indy car, which says that that lighter drivers have to carry ten more pounds on them. (Of course, the three lightest drivers in car racing are all women.) Patrick responded to this rule last month: "There's no weight limit in football...There's no height limit in basketball...And what about the strength aspect? What are they doing to fix that? As a smaller driver, I have to work harder in that area."
0 TrackBacks
Listed below are links to blogs that reference this entry: Danica Patrick first woman to win Indy Japan 300.
TrackBack URL for this entry: http://www.feministing.com/cgi-bin/movabletype/mt-tb.fcgi/7300
Weekly Feministing Newsletter
Feministing RSS Feed
but have you seen this godawful sexist coverage by Yahoo ports?
Or how about all the conspiracy theories saying the race was rigged?
The added weight requirement is unbelievable, i don't see how they even got away with such a crybaby rule. There is no shortage of smaller men to ride on the backs of horses - if being lighter were such a big advantage in car racing, why isn't car racing filled with jockey-sized men?
The coverage surrounding Danica is horrible. Almost everything spewing forth from traditional media, blogs and fans seems to have a sexist slant.
However, I disagree that the new rule is aimed at women drivers. Every other major racing series already has a "weight rule"--most (if not all) were implemented before having any female drivers. IRL is finally catching up. Not having a minimum car + driver weight (like every other series) was hurting IRL's reputation and would have discounted Danica's win. Comparing racing to football is apples to oranges.
Not to be a naysayer, I don't doubt that there's plenty of sexist coverage out there, but I've been lucky and seen mostly reasonable coverage of Danica's win. And I kept my daughter up late last night re-playing the last minutes of the race so we could celebrate together. I just wish I'd been able to get the re-broadcast of it on the TiVo, because she keeps wanting to watch the race! Since she's only three, we'll save the issues of sexist coverage for another time. (Looking at Danica's website last night, we encountered one of her SI photos. My daughter said, "I like her face, but why is she showing her tummy? It must be because she's at the beach.")
As for the weight issue, my brother races non-professionally, and he's had to carry up to 15 lbs of weights in his car before. If I recall, Mark Martin is one of the NASCAR drivers who is required to carry weights.
You go girl! Someone at Fyrebug must like her - they're making all kinds of games out of her victory http://www.fyrebug.com/?p=5658
I've been following DP since 2005, and I was soooo happy that she won! Everyone of these sexist hacks tried to tear her down in every way possible.
I now have something to say to the Danica-hating assholes: Fuck You!!!!
You go girl! Someone at Fyrebug must like her - they're making all kinds of games out of her victory http://www.fyrebug.com/?p=5658
yay danica! Now let's take the Indy 500....really make 'em squirm ;)
"There is no shortage of smaller men to ride on the backs of horses - if being lighter were such a big advantage in car racing, why isn't car racing filled with jockey-sized men?"
It is filled with jockey-sized men, or close to. Race car drivers are usually small by average men size standards. Do you how small the racing cockpits are? You have to be small just to fit in there.
I'm very happy for her. But it makes me wish even more that she hadn't participated in the GoDaddy ads for the Super Bowl.
great stuff, she waa doing pretty well, a win only solidifies her place.
as far as the weight issue goes, well its not the same for jockeys and race car drivers. Race car teams are pathological about weight and will break rules to shave fractions of ounces. I stil find adding the extra weight pretty stupid as I'm sure the difference between the heaviest and lightest male drivers is more than 10 pounds but I have no issue with them setting a minimum weight standard, if thats what they are doing, and making those below the standard add weight to their vehicles.
“It is filled with jockey-sized men, or close to. Race car drivers are usually small by average men size standards.�
You are incorrect. The average height of a race car driver, according to the Indy Racing League, is 5’9�, which is the same as the average U.S. male height, accordingly to the National Center for Health Statistics.
Average driver weight is 159, well below the U.S. male average of 189, but a good 50 pounds above the 110 pounds frequently sited for jockeys, who are prone to eating disorders and drug abuse to maintain their low weights.
So no, racing is not filled with jockey-sized men or even “close to�.
"You are incorrect. The average height of a race car driver, according to the Indy Racing League, is 5’9�, which is the same as the average U.S. male height, accordingly to the National Center for Health Statistics.
Average driver weight is 159, well below the U.S. male average of 189, but a good 50 pounds above the 110 pounds frequently sited for jockeys, who are prone to eating disorders and drug abuse to maintain their low weights.
So no, racing is not filled with jockey-sized men or even “close to�. "
Where did you get your numbers? I had a difficult time finding exact numbers, but this source says the average weight is 148.4 pounds.
http://www.indymotorspeedway.com/05news3.htm
Which is significanly lower than the average weight of a male. That's what I mean when I say "close to". Is that their smaller than you would think they are.
And where did you get your height numbers? Not that height matters when it comes to race car driving performance.
Also, didn't you see where I said "Race car drivers are small by average men standards"?
The average height and weight figures come from the Indy Racing League, as quoted in USA Today on this page: http://www.usatoday.com/sports/2003-02-27-ten-hardest-race-car_x.htm
Scroll down and look for a box on the left titled “Big and Small of IRL�. Their average is for the 39 drivers in IRL and is presumably current.
ok, I'm actually a guy who signed in under my girlfriend's account to post this, so if you get angry, don't be angry at her.
I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU ARE ALL MISSING THE POINT HERE!! Every single post on this article deals with how Patrick has been treated unfairly by the new rule. Regardless of whether this is true or not (by the way, it's not. It's simply a way to keep everything more fair, like handicapping in horse racing, for example, which also involves adding weight to lighter horses), the bigger issue is that this is the biggest achievement by women competing against men in the history of sport - bar none.
This is not Billy Jean King beating an aging, long-retired Bobby Riggs in an exhibition tennis match. This is not Annika Sorenstam simply competing in a PGA event (and losing by several strokes). This was a real race against real competition, and she won.
I thought maybe you would want to enjoy this as a victory for women and feminists everywhere, but it appears that "Kristi" up above, is the only one who did that. Congrats to Danica.