Published: April 24, 2008 07:51 pm            

Danica’s dream

If you’re an American girl growing up today, you may not want to be a professional race car driver — but it probably would never occur to you that anyone would stop you just because you were born with two X chromosomes.

Thanks to Danica Patrick, a few more girls are probably entertaining that particular career path right now. Over the weekend, the 26-year-old product of Roscoe, Ill., sped to victory in the Japan 300. With that triumph she becomes the first woman ever to win a major IndyCar race.

Patrick has been a household name since her first appearance in the Indianapolis 500 in 2005, when she led for part of the race and finished fourth. She has done photo shoots in various magazines, filmed commercials for Honda and GoDaddy.com, and appeared in a music video. Her merchandise sales vastly surpassed those of any other IndyCar driver.

But her failure to win any races in her first three seasons raised the question of whether there was more sizzle than steak. It also confirmed the prejudices of some like NASCAR legend Richard Petty, who said, “I just don’t think it’s a sport for women, and so far, it’s proved out.”

Sunday’s victory should end that sort of speculation, which never had much to back it up. Last year, after all, Patrick finished No. 7 in the IndyCar standings. Sooner or later, she was bound to reach the winner’s circle.

It’s easy to forget what a tough route she had to get there. During one period of her youth, reports the Chicago Tribune’s Melissa Isaacson, Patrick’s father, a former driver himself, “couldn’t find a team to so much as test his talented daughter, and more than once he had to break it to her that they simply did not have the money for her to race.” At 16, she moved to Europe, by herself, to drive.

When the young prodigy returned, she had to forge her way into a sport where women were once about as welcome as broken glass. A generation ago, they simply weren’t allowed. Janet Guthrie, the first woman to qualify for the Indy 500 back in 1977, wrote, “A woman might be a reporter, a photographer, a timer/scorer, she might own the race car — but she couldn’t get near it at any time for any reason.”

Rather than be daunted by such obstacles, Patrick elected to pursue her dream with all she had. In her experience lies a lesson that doesn’t apply only to females. As she put it Sunday: “This reaches outside racing. This is about finding something you love to do and following through with it.”

— Chicago Tribune

        

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