[Holiday]

Looks like she does have what it takes  ;D :

http://sports.yahoo.com/irl/news?slug=ap-irl-indyjapan300&prov=ap&type=lgns

[cpbell0033944]

It's been a long time coming.  She's good, no doubt about it, and it's great news for women in motorsport as well as for her.  Unfortunately, she only beat half the field, because the Champ Car teams were elsewhere with their proper Indycars.  Having said that, until this season, the IRL field was the field that she beat, but it would have added an extra ring of confidence had she beat the soon-to-be-ex Champ Car boys as well.  If she can repeat the dose later in the year once the rest are up to speed with those bloody ugly Dallara chassis they use, then the detractors will have to shut up.

Just a pity that she has (by all accounts) an unpleasant personality – as a Brit I sided with Dan Wheldon around their little spat last year.

[Holiday]

I've read about her behavior. But some of the most famous athletes didn't have very amiable personalities either.

[David]

I'd like to see how the rest of her season goes. I've seen quite a few women racers and most have seemed to lack that little male characteristic that lets them go the extra mile. Stupidity. Well sorta but its that confidence to not think about how dumb something is until it doesn't work. The few races I've seen with Danica she has seemed to come close.
A recent winner who does have it is Ashley Force. She drives a top fuel funny car in the NHRA drag racing series and if you think it doesn't take skill you should have seen some of her runs where she had a lot of turning left and right. Her car makes about 7,000 horsepower or more than 10 times that of the Indy car.

[cpbell0033944]

I'd like to see how the rest of her season goes. I've seen quite a few women racers and most have seemed to lack that little male characteristic that lets them go the extra mile. Stupidity. Well sorta but its that confidence to not think about how dumb something is until it doesn't work. The few races I've seen with Danica she has seemed to come close.
A recent winner who does have it is Ashley Force. She drives a top fuel funny car in the NHRA drag racing series and if you think it doesn't take skill you should have seen some of her runs where she had a lot of turning left and right. Her car makes about 7,000 horsepower or more than 10 times that of the Indy car.

I've long been of the opinion that part of the reason that women haven't excelled in motorsport in the past is that they have too much imagination. ;D  You have to be a certain kind of idiot to race highly-powered single-seater projectiles.  I do happen to think that Patrick is one of the best or recent times, though Brits Susie Stoddart and Katherine Legge are pretty handy too.

As for Ashley Force, the girl's unhinged, but then again, her father is…how can I put this nicely…an interesting character too. 😀  Full of it would be a less complementary description.  I have a VHS of an old BBC TV series from the early '90s in which they devoted a whole 1/2 hour episode to stock car and drag racing.  In this, there were a couple of completely hyperbolic quotes from Force about how extreme Funny Car competition is.  Still, with F1 (my main love in the motorsport world) becoming more and more anodyne and bland, it's good to have some characters around. ::) ;D

[jdm022]

Although women have not excelled in motorsports in general, (all do respect to Shirley Muldowney – drag race champion of the early 80's)the time is coming when there will be women stars in the sport.

Up till now, it's been a bit of a novelty but with Danica and Ashley setting a new standard for women, the sport is activly seeking talented women.  Marketing talented, atractive women is good for the sport and the NHRA and INDY CAR knows it.

And cpbell0033944…F1 racing needs to do something to make the racing less boring, sure they're the most high-tech cars in the world, but it kills me that many of the races are not even close…i tend to only enjoy the rain soaked events at this point…peace

[cpbell0033944]

And cpbell0033944…F1 racing needs to do something to make the racing less boring, sure they're the most high-tech cars in the world, but it kills me that many of the races are not even close…i tend to only enjoy the rain soaked events at this point…peace

Oh, don't even go there – it's a source of great embarrassment to me.  Today's GP in Turkey was a good'un because the circuit promotes overtaking.  Changes have been made already to put the drivers back in full command of the cars this year by mandating a standard electronic control unit that doesn't have either traction control or engine braking assistance.  This has brought-back the pleasing sight of cars squirming under acceleration and the on-car cameras show the drivers correcting the car with the steering wheels more than of recent times.  Next year (at long last) the aero regulations are being overhauled to enable cars to run close to each other through the corners and therefore increase overtaking.  They're also bringing-back proper (i.e. slick) tyres instead of those stupid grooved things.

[khuddle]

Her performance yesterday — well not her performance but the way she
reacted after she knocked out of the race — was as embrassing as I have
ever seen in professional sports. She might be a bigger sore loser than John McEnroe!

[AlexG]

Her performance yesterday — well not her performance but the way she
reacted after she knocked out of the race — was as embrassing as I have
ever seen in professional sports. She might be a bigger sore loser than John McEnroe!

Admittedly, I don't follow this subject too closely – or sports related drama.  That said, after reading about her behavior (via a Google Search), I can only say I'm reminded of something from a Robert Heinlein novel: I treat ladies like ladies, and spoiled brats like spoiled brats.

“I like a good story well told. That is the reason I am sometimes forced to tell them myself.”
~ Mark Twain / Samuel Clemens (1907)

[cpbell0033944]

This sort of thing isn't altogether uncommon in top-level motorsport.  Emotions run high because of the adrenaline that flows.  That said, some drivers seem more prone to faring-up like this than others.  In F1, the late, great Ayrton Senna was a good example.  In general, the drivers that resist this usually benefit, but I don't think we should castigate her too much.  She is under a lot of pressure, after all, as people had almost placed the Borg-Warner trophy in her hands before the green flag.

[Author]

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