acegear
Moderator
Joined: 22 Oct 2004
Posts: 973
Location: Enumclaw, WA
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 Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2005 12:08 am Post subject: Driver: Danica Patrick |
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Most know Danica Patrick for her recent top-5 finish in the 2005 Indianpolis 500. However, Danica has a long and impressive racing resume that started at an early age.
Danica was born Danica Sue Patrick in Beloit, WI on March 25, 1982. At the age of 10, Danica and her sister, Brooke started racing karts because Brooke wanted to get into racing. Eventually Brooke lost interest in competing but Danica was hooked. In her first race, Danica was lapped only 6 laps into the event. However, she persevered to finish 2nd in points out of 20 racers in that class for the season.
The next year Danica was able to improve her ability and finished 2nd in the WKA Midwest Sprint Series for both the Yamaha and US820 classes. She was also able to finish 4th in the WKA Manufacturers Cup national points for the Yamaha Sportsman class.
Building on the previous seasons success, Danica was able to take her first national points championship at the tender age of 12 years old in the WKA Manufacturers Cup for the Yamaha Sportsman class. Adding to this accomplishment was her capture of the WKA Grand National Championship in the same class, in addition to winning the WKA Great Lakes Sprint Series in the Yamaha Sportsman and US820 Sportsman classes.
By the time she was 14, Danica established herself as a major force in karts by winning 39 of the 49 feature races she entered. This led to the title for the WKA Manufacturers National Points Series in the Yamaha Junior and Restricted Junior classes. In addition, she was runner up in the in WKA Manufacturers Cup National Points title (HPV 100 Junior) and the WKA Grand National Championship (Yamaha Restricted Junior). Continuing her winning ways, Danica took five WKA Great Lakes Sprint Series and WKA Midwest Spring Series titles, won the IKF Division 7 event in Willow Springs, CA (Yamaha Junior) and finished 2nd in the IKF Grand Nationals for the Yamaha Junior group.
For the final full-time season of her budding kart career, Danica captured the WKA Grand National Championships in both the HPV class and the Yamaha Lite classes in addition to the WKA Summer National title for the Yamaha Lite class. She also got her feet wet in a formula type car by taking 10th in the Elk Constructors championship for Formula A. The next year would see Danika run a limited kart schedule to stay fresh while attending the Formula Ford school in Canada. She later debuted in the British Formula Vauxhall Winter Series.
1999 was her first full year in the Vauxhall Championship where she finished 9th overall. Building on her experience there, Danica entered and posted the top American finish ever at the 2000 Formula Ford Festival in England by coming in 2nd overall. She became the lead test driver for Andy Welch the British Zetec Formula Ford Series and Haywood Racing in the European Formula Ford Series.
She won the 2001 Gorsline Scholarship Award for top up-and-coming road racing driver while competing again in the British Formula Ford Series that year. Danica returned to the home to the states to enter the Toyota Atlantic series securing a multi-year contract to drive for Team Rahal. In the meantime, Danica entered the Barber-Dodge Pro Series running a limited schedule of 5 races. In her first Barber race, she was able to qualify 11th and improved to finish in 7th place. Her highest finish was a 4th place in Vancouver, BC. After testing a Busch Series stock car in June, Danica went on to win the 2002 Long Beach Grand Prix Toyota Pro/Celebrity Race and won the pro division, topping former Trans Am champion Tommy Kendall and IRL driver Sarah Fisher.
For 2003 Danica drove the Argent Mortgage Company Toyota/Swift to a sixth place finish in the Toyota Atlantic Championship claiming a pair of podium results and five top-five results in her rookie campaign.
Becoming the first female to post a podium (top-three) result in the 30-year history of the Atlantic series with a 3rd place finish at Monterrey, Mexico, Danica also posted top-five results at Cleveland, Trois Rivieres and Denver, and finished with a season best 2nd place finish at Miami in the season finale.
2004 was the year that Danica moved into the big leagues by being picked to join the Rahal Letterman Racing Indy Racing League team in 2005. In preparation, Danica continued in the Toyota Atlantic Series, improving on the last years results to finsh 3rd in points with 10 top-5 finishes out of 12 races run. In her long list of firsts, she became the first female to win the pole in an Toyota Atlantic race, and won the Argent Fast lap award for the fastest lap at Denver. She finished the year by testing a IRL car for Rahal at Homestead and Kentucky.
In 2005 Danica Patrick made her IndyCar debut at Homestead-Miami Raceway in the Indy 300. Qualifying 9th, Danica was running in the top-10 when she was involved in a multi-car incident that knocked her out the race. In Phoenix she started 18th and improved to 15th. Back to road racing, Danica started 15th and improved to 12th in St. Petersburg, FL. Posting her first top-5 finish of the season at the IRL race in Japan, Danica finished 4th. Finally after qualifying 4th for the 89th running of the Indianapolis 500, Danica moved to the front mid-way through the race becomeing the first female to lead the Indy 500. Having problems on pit row, Danica moved back in the field, but eventually gained the top spot. Fighting for the win, Danica ran out of fuel on the last lap of the race to place a respectable 4th place which is the highest finish ever by a female at the famous Brickyard.
Keep your eyes pealed for this young lady as she has brought the excitement back to American open wheel racing, and will hopefully encourage other women to follow in her tire tracks.
 
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A win is a win, and second place is never good enough |
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