This is the article people eluded to in the Danica thread. Thought I would make a seperate post since the topic had moved away from this. By Ed Hinton June 2, 2005 Danica Patrick has a dazzling future in motor racing. But which kind? Never before in its 10-year history has the Indy Racing League had a property remotely as valuable as the 23-year-old woman who this week is the first Indy driver on the cover of Sports Illustrated in 20 years. She was singularly responsible for a 40 percent spike in ABC's Indy 500 TV ratings, this year over last, to the best in eight years. Because of her, Indy beat NASCAR's Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte--even with the 600's prime-time slot to Indy's afternoon--in ratings for the first time in four years. For this she is being paid only nominally by professional racing standards. And she is driving cars with mysterious safety flaws. She could lead IndyCar racing into a stunning resurgence. Or she could be lured away by the much higher salaries and safer workplaces of NASCAR or Formula One. American open-wheel racing has fumbled away godsends before. CART ignored Jeff Gordon at the dawn of his career. Tony Stewart, when he was the IRL's star and potential savior, couldn't make a decent salary. This time, with Patrick, it won't be nearly as simple for the IRL as fighting the fat checkbooks of NASCAR. That's because the even bigger money of Formula One is afloat. Michael Schumacher's manager, Willi Weber--for just one--has shown significant interest in signing Patrick to a long-term deal, sources say. Weber may have more money in his petty-cash drawer than team owner Bobby Rahal is paying Patrick--in the low six figures, by best estimates from the vibes at Indy. Stewart reportedly makes a base salary of $8 million a year from Joe Gibbs, so you can imagine what a real money machine like Hendrick Motorsports would pay for an instant household name. Patrick on the same team with Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson? Competing with Dale Earnhardt Jr.? Could she handle stock cars? Ford Motor Co. racing chieftains privately had her test a Busch car a few years ago, and she wowed them. Now the frightening part: There was an alarming outbreak of back and neck injuries to drivers in IRL cars during May at Indianapolis. Patrick's teammate, 2004 Indy winner Buddy Rice, sat out this year's race with a neck injury suffered when he hit the Speedway barrier backward during practice May 11. Bruno Junqueira underwent back surgery Monday to repair vertebrae fractured when he hit the wall head-on during the race. Other drivers suffered less serious back trauma, but in keeping with the pattern. Rice was replaced by Kenny Brack, able to race for the first time since suffering life-threatening injuries in an IRL race at Texas Motor Speedway in 2003. Next stop for Patrick and the IRL tour: June 11 at Texas. She already has walked away from a crash of twice the estimated force that killed Dale Earnhardt. Her demolished car's black box recorded a nearly 150-G spike at Homestead-Miami in the IRL season opener in March. Fortunately, the side of her car hit the wall first, not the back or the front. Patrick now is risking everything for negligible reward. The other day at Indy, her father, T.J. Patrick, gazed to the east, in the direction of England, and said, "Everything we had is over there." He meant the $500,000 or so he and Patrick's mother, Bev, spent to keep her in the schooling formulas of Europe after wealthy U.S. backers pulled the plug on financing her training. The Patricks own a glass business in Roscoe, Ill. Love Indy as they do, what are the Patricks to say when a Willi Weber comes knocking with yet another offer, or a Rick Hendrick jumps into the bidding? Rahal has her under contract. But Formula One teams buy out such contracts with no more thought than leaving a nice tip at Maxim's in Paris. IRL founder Tony George acknowledged a few years ago that he had spent, ballpark, $250 million of his family's money on keeping the IRL afloat until it could get a footing in the schism with CART. It was money down a hole, in public opinion. Even as the IRL's racing improved vastly, America wouldn't even bother to have a look via television--until Patrick came along. She can return all of the IRL's investment. What will it give her? Will it take this ride to recovery on a deeply discounted ticket? She singlehandedly has lifted the IRL and the Indy 500 out of the abyss. For that, is she to continue driving with a HANS device cut down from a production model because she couldn't afford one custom-made for her 5-foot-2-inch, 100-pound frame? Will she continue to electrify a nation wearing old and frayed driving gloves? For this, Danica Patrick is risking her life? http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/other/autoracing/cs-0506020273jun02,1,1875232.column?page=2&cset=true&ctrack=1&coll=chi-sportsnew-hed
Don't you just love the media. I don't think I've ever seen so much prose on one page. Richard III would have been proud. At present, the only reason an F1 team would do it would be for the publicity. And the top paying teams would rather get that through winning - not with a person (forget gender) who came 4th in an IRL race. Good luck to her, as to all combatants in motorsport. But a reality check wouldn't go amiss.
Just one quick comment about a statement in the article: "Now the frightening part: there was an alarming outbreak of back and neck injuries to drivers in IRL cars during May at Indianapolis." This makes it sound like the problem has something to do with the IRL cars. I seem to remember that Ralph Schumacher rather badly damaged his back crashing his F1 car at Indy not so long ago. I think the back and neck injuries have something to do with the stupendous speeds of the cars at Indy, with no runoff room before you smash the wall. Danica wanted to run at Indy. It was her dream, her goal. She did extremely well in her first visit. Good luck to her in the future!
The media are falling all over themselves to get Danica into NASCAR since it's the only series where they have any knowledge (little realizing this knowledge is complete nonsense) and they've just been trumped by the fact that Danica is in a racing series which has finally gotten as much (if not more) global media attention than NASCAR. I ran across some NASCAR talking heads on television yesterday and naturally the subject was Danica: How Danica would make more money in NASCAR, how NASCAR is much more high profile than IRL, Champ Car or F-1, how NASCAR is much more competitive racing, how she will get badly hurt or killed if she continues racing in IRL because NASCAR is so much safer than IRL, how the IRL cars are not a challenge to drive, etc. etc. I never heard so much nonsense in my life as these sycophants licking NASCARs ass. I couldnt believe my freaking ears. What these media humps fail to realize is Danica is focused on winning the Indy 500 and has come up through the open wheel ladder series, attaching her star to Bobby Rahal (who has her under a long term contract) in order to do so. The formula seems to be working and Rahal (who passed over Tom Kristensen for Kenny Bräck in 1999) now looks like a genius. It is highly doubtful Rahal will let Danica go, especially if/when she wins unless there is a genuine opportunity for her in Europe where Scott Speed seems to be making some progress. As mentioned in the article, Tony George let some top drivers defect but it must have been a lesson learned and now talents like Helio Castroneves and Dan Wheldon are now firmly in the IRL box. In short, NASCAR is threatened by any racing series receiving more attention than they do. What they fail to realize is over exposure cheapens the product and if that sham of a race at Charlotte (two thirds of which was run under yellow, breaking a NASCAR record) keeps the attention of NASCARs demographic, then it speaks volumes about their core audience which is apparently entertained by anything as long as their "Good guy vs. Bad Guy" professional wrestling-type format continues. Expect NASCAR to make huge overtures to Danica and watch a war errupt between NASCAR and Tony George which could signal a meltdown in their relationship and, for once, George will be on the right side. Danica will be staying put. BHW
Ahhhh look how cute she looks http://motorsportsforum.com/photos/showphoto.php?photo=1298&password=&sort=1&cat=543&page=1
If she truly shows that she has the talent at an F1 level, then more power to her. Coming in 4th in the INDY 500 means so little to me. IMO, the IRL is really a second rate series. Someone would have to absolutely dominate that series to even have a shot at F1 - the difference in talent is just that great. If she is brought into F1 purely to boost a given team's exposure, then I will lose all respect for that team.
Danica will go to NASCRAP. The money will be too big and I think she would be immediatly competitive. The articles are right: NASCRAP in the US is massively higher profile than the IRL, it pays multiples more, she is less likely to get injured and her endorsement income opportunities would go through the roof. Stay in the IRL.... make perhaps $1 million a year. Go to NASCRAP and make $10 million a year plus another $10 in endorsements. If she is not in NASCRAP in 2 years I will be shocked. Forget F1. She would run mid pack at best in a good car. No top team will risk it on her, no bottom team can afford her. The wildcard is Bernie. He may see the huge US audience having Danica in F1 could pull and he may "arrange" sponsorship for her in F1. But if that were to happen, I think her F1 tenure would be brief. I just dont think she is currently good enough to win in F1. Terry
Danica never won in Formula Atlantic (something which Katherine Legge has already done) but her in with Rahal brought her to the game. Were Bernie really concerned to bring a top American to F-1, he would have been bending over backwards to bring Jeff Gordon to the game and that aint happening. BHW
I agree that Bernie is the unknown factor in this entire discussion. If he decides that she would help the marketing of F1, she will be there. It is just that simple. The money for F1 is even greater than NASCAR. The entire budget for the IRL grid is probably about the same as a caboose team like Minardi. As I see it, there are many drivers in F1 who got there for other reasons than their talent. Marketability is king. Talent may keep you in F1 and make you a superstar, but your ability to sell cigarettes or computers in your home country is what gets you there. No one really knows how talented she is relative to the current 20-odd F1 drivers, although as a rookie at Indy she performed as well as any her age that have preceded her. She is young and very aggresive, on the steep part of the learning curve. Her dimunitive size would be an advantage with respect to ballast placement and aerodynamics in an F1 car optimized for her. She has travelled outside the US before, and has a good family support system around her. However, most of the things listed in the preceding paragraph will not get her into F1. I think she will get the opportunity to test sometime in the next year or so, and will get a shot at a race or two within the next three years. I realized why two weeks ago. My wife sat down and watched the last half of Indy for the first time in her life. She actually showed interest because of Danica Patrick and for no other reason. If Bernie ever wants F1 to appeal to more than half of the world's population, he will buy her and promote the hell out of her to women. Keep in mind that at least in the US, it is a proven fact that women are responsible for more of the household spending decisions than their husbands. Think about it.
Danica Patrick would bring F1 to the US audience. Hey it might actually mean that I can watch a race without anyone *****ing that there are better things on. Katherine Legge is very unknown in the US, regardless of her victory in TA.
No, there is an inherent safety problem with IRL cars. Look at the statistics. It has to do with the positioning of the transmission relative to the rear suspension and the rest of the chassis tub. There is basically no deformation or crumple zones at the rear of an IRL car. Hit the wall backside first, all the energy gets transferred to the tub. They tried to get around it by sticking an "attenuator" on the back of the transmission, with little effect. Weight distribution has to be bad on those cars, too, as they all seem to hit the wall rear-end first. Hinton is right, she is risking her career, or her life, in a second-rate series.
OK. So my question is - If you hit the wall backwards at Indy, at tremendous speed, in an IRL car and in an F1 car, are you safer in the F1 car? Are you saying that IRL cars should be safe enough to hit the wall backwards at 200MPH and have the driver walk away with no injury? I don't think that's realistic. These boys and girls are playing a dangerous game.
Murph 7355, susinct and to the point ! Reality is F1 mental fortitude levels are MUCH higher than IRL or Champ Cars. Remember Michael Andretti, Oriol Servia, Christiano DeMatta, Alex Zanardi. The only person that's recently been remotely successful in F1 coming from racing on this side of the pond is "Whine" Pablo "Minetoya".
Well, Ryan Hunter-Reay backed into the wall into Milwaukee, 175G at impact, walked away with a sore neck. So far, this year alone in IRL, I see: Paul Dana - crashed in practice, broken vertabrae Buddy Rice - crashed in practice, torn spinal ligament Tomas Enge - crashed in qualifying, multiple rib fractures Bruno Junqueria - crashed in race (OK, taken out by AJ Foyt IV), broken vertabrae, out for season Granted, the nature of the racing is different - IRL is mostly oval, speeds are higher, runoff room is less. Every crash is different, too. But if you look at the history of injury in the IRL, they have a serious problem, and they have not solved it. The cars back into walls and the transmissions transfer a lot of energy to the tub.
Exactly right. It's hard enough making the transition from CART/Champ Car to F1. IRL is an even greater leap. Anyone remember what Montoya the rookie did at Indy?
Geez...She finishes fourth in the Indy 500 that has a pretty second-rate series running now, and now she's the "next star". She impressive, but she needs to do alot more then a fourth place finish. As for F-1 I just don't she's physically strong enough to handle the fast speeds and demanding road corses. NASCAR is a much tougher series then the IRL, and could she handle the close-tight racing and all the types of tracks?
Publicity is good for the relevant sports. Nascar is the last sport I want to see capture any more media attention. Speed channel is consumed by it. Lets face it, the NASCAR fans like the crashes and pile ups. Thats a part of racing but should never be the focus. I wouldnt mind if a Formula 1 team was able to some how benefit from Danica Patrick. Anything to raise consciousness of the sport. I cant handle being inundated with chevys and fords around an oval track anymore. I can barely handle it on the way to the grocery store..... I wish her the best and let her talent speak for itself. After all she is in it, we are not. MM
The G-forces on an IRL car on a speedway would be at least equal to an F1 car on their fastest corners, IRL are just always turning the same direction. IRL car/driver are also at least 150kg more than F1, with wider tires. If she can drive an IRL car on a road course, she should be able to handle an F1 car as well. In August they race at Infineon, and in September Watkins Glen. If a driver like JPM can be driving right now with a shoulder injury, a fit woman would probably be able to handle it. She definitely still has a lot to prove, but a young man with her resume would also have a buzz around them.
No they wouldn't. There are plenty of mid-packers that don't have a buzz around them, becuase they are not attractive women. I can name at least 5 that do not. http://www.champcarworldseries.com/News/Article.asp?ID=9091 Besides, have all of you forgotten about Sarah Fisher? She could have put up the same results as Danica, given the same equipment. Unfortuantely, she doesn't glam up quite like Danica does.
Sarah has quite a list of accomplishments on her resume. Starting as a 5 year old racing quarter midgets; high school honor student;1994 WKA Grand National Championship:driving winged outlaw sprint cars; numerous "first" accomplishments for a woman in racing . . . etc. I think you are correct that she could have put up the same results (my bet is for better). I also applaude Sarah for not "glaming up". Just my thoughts . . Carol
remember all of the HYPE about a one IRL driver named Sara Fisher??? Lets see all she did was get into huge wrecks and was treated as the crowd darling. Well meet the new crowd darling DP..
