Yeah! She was so good they were afraid to give her a ride at INDY for fear Danica and all the boys would go home. In fact they wouldn't even let her drive in the regular series she is so good.Quote:
Originally Posted by weeflyonthewall
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Yeah! She was so good they were afraid to give her a ride at INDY for fear Danica and all the boys would go home. In fact they wouldn't even let her drive in the regular series she is so good.Quote:
Originally Posted by weeflyonthewall
I agree. What I was trying to establish with Harvik#1 was the first American female winner of a major track race. M Mouton is excluded by virtue of being French and a Rally specialist. She is certainly not excluded on merit.I think we can establish women winners of major track races as this: First winner Desire Wilson (S Africa) 1980 First American winner Liz Halliday LMP2 Sebring 2006 First open wheel American series winner Danica Patrick 2008 This assumes F Atlantic is not major, the original Press Agency story made this assumption, otherwise the answer to 3 is Katherine Legge.Quote:
Originally Posted by beachbum
What I find interesting is how "records" and "firsts" have so many qualifiers. If you want to get picky, Danica was the first American female winner of a non-american race. Next we will have an award for the first IRL winner who was born in Wisconsin and is under 5'1" tall.
PR hacks are notorious for creating accolades that sound great but don't tell much of a story. What is unfortunate for the princess is that nearly all of her "firsts" and "records" come with a back story. Most of her results in every series have been average at best with a handful of good results. She has never shown a pattern of being a regular contender, but more of a "one hit wonder", and often a very lucky one at that.
IMHO, one of the reasons she is controversial is that in some ways she is an enigma. She has proven she can be fast for a few laps at certain types of tracks, yet almost always fades in traffic and her average lap times are typically mid pack. All of her early experience was on road courses, yet they are her main weakness in the IRL. She can run consistently with few mistakes for whole races, and then pulls off bone-headed moves like at Surfer's, Kentucky 2007, and the Glen this year. She can seem charming to some, and then explodes in temper tantrums. She lectures other drivers on racing etiquette yet blocks mercilessly, can't hold a line, and has a history of "doing her own thing" (ask Kanaan at Edmonton). She has claimed she wants to be treated like another driver, yet much of her notoriety has come from taking off most of her clothes and playing the celebrity model card. She can easily spout off techo-talk about her car setup and how it works and yet admits she knows almost nothing about the mechanical aspects of a car. She wants the back of her car "planted" and then screams on the radio about understeer (the basic condition created from the back being planted).
When the princess showed up on the scene, I was personally skeptical about how she would do. It was fairly obvious that much of her history was heavily enhanced by PR, which is hardly anything new for a young driver, and her efforts to get attention seemed a bit over the top. But she showed sparks of talent and the potential to contend in Atlantics and the early days in the IRL. I was willing to let time judge her abilities. But now after 4 years, she hasn't improved, her attitude and behavior seems less and less professional, and now her "performances" are getting more than a little stale. IMHO, her best years are already behind her and if she doesn't clean up her behavior and attitude, her days may be numbered in major league racing.
"Hasn't improved"?
She's been in the IRL four years. The first year she finished 12th in the points. Second year 9th. Third year 7th. Fourth year 6th. And last year she probably had the stiffest competition because of the larger fields/new talent coming over from CCWS.
Don't like her attitude? OK. Don't buy one of her t shirts.
Don't think she's the next Mario Andretti? I agree with you.
But to spend the amount of time you do bagging on her when she's done nothing but move up in the championship makes me wonder what your agenda is. Did she turn you down for a date? Wreck your favorite driver? Or do you just not like what she does for AOWR?
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Originally Posted by beachbum
No need to get personal in your attacks. She never wrecked a favorite driver, I don't think she does much at all one way or the other for AOWR, and I never met her and don't care if I do. I don't have an agenda, just voicing an opinion. But I can't help but wonder about the fervor in which her fans attack anyone who doesn't share their opinion about her. If you want to buy her T-shirts and follow her exploits, that is fine with me.Quote:
Originally Posted by downtowndeco
But leave the personal attacks at home.
The only statistical area in which she has improved is in the points standings. IHMO, in all other areas, she has not improved and nothing suggests that will change.
I worked in racing with a number of racers, including female racers. There were always racers with huge overinflated egos, attitude issues, and other annoying traits. What disturbs me as a fan are her anger issues and her often erratic behavior on track. It isn't hard to see that other drivers don't often race her hard. They will race wheel to wheel for a bit, but frequently just move away. Her behavior and attitude on the track is dangerous, and she has had some very close calls with disaster. I find that worrying as a fan as I don't want to see anyone get hurt, including her.
When I was in the racing business, racers with those issues were often avoided, even when they were winners. Some changed as they developed, and just as many were quick flashes and disappeared. The racers I respected - male and female - worked hard at their craft and professionalism, even if they weren't contenders for a win. They were respected by their peers and often were raced very hard because they could be trusted.
I only ever worked around one other racer with the attitude issues displayed by Danica. They were talented enough to get some leeway and even won championships. They also switched teams with great regularity and had a relatively short career as they were deemed just too temperamental.
If there is anything that really bothers me about the fantasy world around Danica is that, in my opinion, she gets attention for all of the wrong reasons. As a professional racer, she would garner my respect if she worked hard at getting better, showed a respectful attitude toward other racers, the media, fans, and others in the sport, and was honest about her mistakes and weaknesses. Her arrogant pouting attitude just lowers my opinion of her as a professional racer.
Now blast away because I am done for now.
Quote:
Originally Posted by beachbum
You want dangerous on-track behavior, look at this guy who causes this wreck:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRCWjV5tnVQ
If you dig deep enough, you can find an example to prove almost anything.Quote:
Originally Posted by Damon
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yahW3YrFYKM
Danny boy is dangerous, I'll give you that. He won a championship and dominated an entire season doing. it. He since won a few more races and contended for championships right up until the series started expanding to tracks requiring driver skill. Now he's out of a top ride at TCGR. Why? 1.) No real driving skill outside of hanging it out on aero tracks (at the front as opposed to DP at mid-pack). 2.) He has an ego and an attitude similiar but not quite as bad as DP.Quote:
Originally Posted by Damon
Since you make the comparison, he has shown little Princess Brat the back end of a few things and is therefore a lot more qualified as a professional race car driver. I might add that he also finished ahead of her in the points this year. With that, I'm not trying to make a point of his abilities compared to Princess Brat. But take note, he is out of a ride at TCGR because he can't hang with the big boys even after actually accomplishing something (again as opposed to DP). So if his credentials gets you demoted to a ride with Panther, where does that leave Princess Brat now? At the end of this coming contract year? Dreyer & Reinbold have a seat opening up?
I do not like Danica.
She is pretty competent on ovals although always complaining.
She has too many bone headed crashes.
So do Marco and so did all the Andrertti's.
Aust. was a real low point.
I am in dangerous territory here.
This is a lady racer with a time of the month situation.
All of us mere males know all about that.
So please cut her some slack here. She is better than Aust. but no super star.
No, improvenments in points don't indicate much if anything, you get a better car you can certainly get a better result, an avg 10.5 finish in RHR, an avg 6.5 in AGR pretty much sums it up, and by saying improvement, people were saying how she's going to feel different after winning Motegi then when she came to Kansas she still drove like when first came to IRL, rather cautiously, so not really, I can't see her big improvements over the years.