Danica Patrick is the daughter of T.J., a racer who raced midgets, motocross and snowmobiles, and Beverley Patrick. Danica was born on the 25th March, 1982 in the town of Beloit, Wisconsin. Her love of speed was not apparent when she was a younger child and she discovered it by chance at the age of ten when she went with her sister, Brooke, to a go-kart lesson at Sugar River Raceway in Brodhead, Wisconsin. Her sister soon gave up the idea of karting but Danica loved it and went on to join the World Karting Association (WKA) where she went from strength to strength becoming the WKA Grand National Champion in 1994 in the Yamaha Sportsman class. She won more karting titles in 1995 and 1996, continuing to rise through the ranks in various racing leagues.

Danica Patrick at the premiere of Baby Mama in New York City at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival. (Wiki Commons)

Desperate to improve she moved in 1998 to Milton Keynes in England at the age of sixteen, imagine the disappointment when she found that she was too young to drive on British roads and, added to this she had to sell her beloved Ford Mustang Cobra that she had been driving "totally illegally" in America since she was fifteen.

Turning seventeen the best she could afford to buy in a car was a Fiat Punto which she says, "I got up to 108mph with the wing mirrors tucked in. Wheeeee!" After the Punto she had a Vauxhall Vectra, "and then a Granada or something awful. An old brown thing, about 20 years old. I remember having to drive from Birmingham to Silverstone racetrack and you could never let off the throttle or it would just die." During her time in England she raced in British National Series events and raced against such drivers as future Formula 1 World Champion, Jenson Button. During this time she raced in Formula Ford, Formula Vauxhall and gained a second place, the highest finish for a woman in the event, in Britain’s Formula Ford Festival.

She stayed in Britain for three years, returning to drive for Rahal letterman Racing of the Indy Racing League, where she trained in the lesser league but when Danica became the first woman to win a pole position and took a top three finish she was promoted to the IndyCar Series. As she was the only woman in this exclusive league at this time, (she was actually the fourth woman to compete in this league, after Janet Guthrie, Lyn St. James and Sarah Fisher), she attracted a lot of attention, especially on the 29th of May, 2005 when she became the fastest driver during the pole runs and entered the record books as being the first woman ever to lead the Indy 500 in which she led for nineteen laps.

In April 2008 Danica became the first woman to win an IndyCar Series race, the Indy Japan 300 at Twin Ring Motegi, Japan. She joined drag racer, Shirley Muldowney who won three NHRA Top Fuel Championships. In 2010 she ran a limited schedule in NASCAR’s Nationwide Series for JR Motorsports with her sponsor, GoDaddy.com, driving the #7 Chevrolet in an ARCA race on the 6th of February at Daytona International Speedway when she finished in 6th position and again on the 13th February when she was involved in a twelve car accident, she started at 15th and finished at 35th. Danica had her best NASCAR Nationwide Series result in her final race of the season, the 29th of November when she finished 19th at the Homestead-Miami Speedway in the Ford 300 event, giving her 43rd overall in the point standings. During her short life she has been involved with many other adventures apart from racing. Danica has hosted many TV shows on Spike TV, she has been involved with taking part in commercials, modelling, featured on the front cover of the June 2005 and February 2009 issues of Sports Illustrated, has published her autobiography, Danica: Crossing the line and made her debut in acting in the 10th of February, 2010 episode of CSI: NY. She has had some criticism though, apparently one driver has claimed that because she is small and has a lower body weight it affects the inverse proportionality of the combined mass of a car and it’s driver, and its maximum velocity but after her win there were many drivers who had nothing but praise for her, including NASCAR driver and former IRL champion, Tony Stewart, who said, "I think she’s got talent; she’s been successful in every form of racing she’s been in so far and I don’t see why she wouldn’t be successful here (in NASCAR)".

Wikipediat
Askmen
The Independent

Comments

Be the first person to comment on this item

You must Login to comment on this item.