Danica Patrick Sets Historic First-Ever Mark In Japan

On a day where the possibility of water seeping onto the race track threatened to postpone racing at Twin Ring Motegi, Japan (as it had done the day before), Danica Patrick uses her skills and her cool foot to out drive, out pace, and out last the top echelon of Indy Racing League drivers to become the first-ever female driver to win a race at the highest levels of professional open-wheel automobile racing.

2008 will easily go down as a year of firsts in American Motosports!

First unified open-wheel racing season in well over a couple of decades (INDY perspective). The youngest driver to win a professional open-wheel automobile race (Graham Rahal at age 19). First team to win an IRL race other than the three top teams in the IRL since 2005 when Newman/Haas /Lanigan placed Graham Rahal in the top spot in St. Petersburg. And NOW - - - The first woman to ever win a race at the highest levels of professional open-wheel automobile racing.

Video taken from the live internet broadcast at indycar.com and the IMS radio announcers play-by-play. Thanks to indycar.com for the continued authorized use of this content on YouTube.

... notes from The EDJE
http://theedje.blogspot.com/2008/04/danica-patrick-sets-historic-first-ever.html

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• AGR
• Andretti
• Green
• Racing
• Danica
• Patrick
• female
• first-ever
• Indy
• IRL
• Motegi
• Motorola
• Sports
• Twin
• Ring
• win

[MiniCHAMP7]

nice quality! :)

-SAVATS

[justjackster1959]

She worked her tough butt off to get this, and she got what she deserved.

[sombermike]

its not like the other drivers just run out of gas suddenly, you have to know when to push and when to ease off. she demonstrated that perfectly.

[sonjaxfactor]

I thought Katherine Legge was the first female to win a major open wheel race.

[cmumailman]

Last time I looked, IRL legend A. J. Foyt won two of his four Indy 500s because the guy ahead of him either ran out of gas or popped an engine part. Gee, I would hate to win a race like that, but I don't recall him apologizing in Victory Lane. Didn't three guys pass Danica in the last ten laps of Indy 2005--when she was leading the race--because she was low on fuel? If she wins again I guarantee you guys like the one below will find something else to cry about.

[japmax96]

Wow what a way to win lmao everyone in the top 8 ran out of gas lmao. I would hate to win a race like that.

WTH a win is a win I guess.

She's not that great of a driver seriously people open your eyes for a change don't let this women driver Hype bullshit distort the facts.

[japmax96]

Wow what a way to win lmao everyone in the top 8 ran out of gas lmao. I would hate to win a race like that.

WTH a win is a win I guess. I guarantee you guys she wont win a race for the rest of the season unless the top 5 or so runs out of gas.. lol

[PackedFunk]

Well put arnoler. This is a great acomplishment.

[arnoler]

3 things:

1-as gobucs28 said, new rules require weights be added so CAR+DRIVER match closely.

2-After 40 yrs watching racing (yeah, I'm old), it's become obvious just how good a driver has to be to be FAST while SAVING FUEL, driving extremely smooth so not to scrub away momentum. Danica's shown she can do that as well as any other. That alone proves she's got the stuff.

3-Let's see a 5'2" 100 lb man go out there and whip a car around the track like she does.

Give her the credit she deserves!

[yomi1896]

yeah but its still not the same and seeing it on tv.