Following in the racing shoes of Janet Guthrie, Danica Patrick will assist in making motor sports history when she starts the ARCA (formerly the ARCA ReMax) series race this afternoon at 4:30P at Daytona. Guthrie was originally an aerospace engineer and started in the old Sports Car Club of America series and later ran in the 1977 Indy 500 where she finished 29th. She then ran in the NASCAR Winston Cup series and won a race at the Bristol Motor Speedway.
A quote from Guthrie's autobiography * A Life at Full Throttle* "There has been a big change in reaction to me. The hostility has cooled down quite a bit. I think the worst is over. The initial reaction to me was one of a lack of respect. What you really need is endurance. And some tests show women have more endurance than men. But that is not the point. I'm not trying to establish the superiority of one sex over another. I'm a good driver but no superwoman. What I'm trying to emphasize is that a driver is primarily a person, not a man or a woman, and a great deal of driving is mental. You can not afford to get angry behind the wheel. A good driver needs emotional detachment, concentration , good judgment, and desire."--Guthrie on the subject of women competing in NASCAR
Today's ARCA race will have 5 other women drivers in addition to Patrick who will be running a 12 race schedule for Dale Earnhardt Jr's JR Motorsports team this year. Patrick will start #12 on the grid in her GoDADDY #7 Chevrolet.
Wallace S. Gibson, CPM * GIBSON MANAGEMENT GROUP, Ltd.
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I admire the women in NASCAR and find it great that they are now being more accepted into the sport.
I agree * it's been a long way since Darrell Waltrip's wife, Stevie, was not allowed in his pit stall during his races.