The Danica Patrick 'Excuses' Thread. A refuge for haters.

Ted knows I never mean anything I say to him, except the fact he knows nothing about racing. HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA. Anyway, I do think Danica has been really positive to the sport at at time it really needed it, and I do think she is a really good B+, maybe A- driver. F1 WDC?? No way. IRL Champ? Yes, very possible. No, I do not find her sexy, I have a 32 year old daughter, anything younger is not only jail bait, its adoption material. I am not into younger women. And yes, I wish I had a daughter that would do what Danica does.

She has bigger basket balls than either you or I Ted, I respect her for that. I really really respect her for that. And the fact she has to put up with jerk males like you that diss her every unreasonable second, tells me she is one really incredible female. Not enough of those, for that I salute her.

 

She would obviously surprise you, but so far, I can see that is not very hard. HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHA, but I meant what I said, so its not funny.

 

An IRL Championship? Not in this lifetime. She ain't got the huevos.

 

+1, ZERO Chance.

 

Unsubscribed ... some of you guys are pathetic and insecure dorks.

Pete

 

So instead of supporting your position with facts, you intelligently have elected to resort to name calling?

 

Oh give me a break ... facts!!!!, there are none in this thread.

The girl won a race fair and square. Fuel strategy is all part of the game ALWAYS. You guys are just scared, and the guy supporting his son to become a sexist pig (not sure if it is this thread or not) is well just disappointing.

I classic car raced against many women, some were fncken fast and gave the guys are bloody hard time in the same car. One woman was near 50 and used to beat the young guys all the time. And she prepared her own car. I also raced against many guys that were fncken pathetic ... but ofcourse thought they were the next Senna (probably like many of the guys posting against the girl on this site).

I tell you something for nothing also, some guys are brave, but piss a woman off and then you will find out what bravery is because we men a mentally weak fools in comparison. Any married man can back this up!. The only reason women are not winning big time races already is because they are not interested in proving themselves on what 99% of women see as pointless sport. It is only our lack of braincells that make it so important to us mere males ... [BTW: I don't have a problem with this because I fully appreciate that cars are just going around and around wasting fuel, etc. ... but I just like it like that, and watch for hours thankyou ]

So give it up ... and if ANY Of you scaried little boys even post one single supportive comment regarding Massa in any of his future wins I'll be really pissed off, because he only wins for the same reason that you all are knocking this girl for ... but ofcourse he (apparently) is a man and thus he has what it takes (apparently).

Now go back and get in your little pumped up small penis Ferrari you big strong men ...
Pete

 

Have you considered therapy?

 

No I'm a New Zealander, we sort ourselves out.

Seriously though it is very dissapointing to see the constant knocking of any woman involved with motorsport, or any male dominated sport. Why are we so insecure?

I say well done, and I fully expect like most racing drivers that the next win will be easier.
Pete
ps: One of NZ's best Porsche (race and road) mechanics is a female, and nice looking too ...

 

Well which is it? Are you an Aussie or a Kiwi? I have several friends in both countrys. I have nothing against females either. I rather like them and as a matter of fact my wife is from a neighboring Southeast Asian country right off your coast. I am in the automotive industry and I have seen some pretty damn good female mechanics as well. I have also seen some pretty good female race cars drivers. My beef is Danica isn't one of them. She has been in the best equipment and has never won a race of any sort other than in a GoCart years ago. Her looks and average driving ability got her where she is. She is good for the sport and will bring the needed additional attention to the sport. She is very marketable and a sponsors dream as long as she doesn't get to trashy. But first rate talent, she isn't. There are a ton of better drivers with better credentials that have not been spoon fed like she has. That's my beef. She has yet to prove that she can win a race as the fastest driver on that day. There was even one post that compared her to Button. Give me a break!

 

Kiwi, never have said I was an Aussie ... just live in Sydney.

We'll she is doing better than any other female driver, AND a lot of male drivers (many who also have been spoon fed).

She just did. Strategy is what it is always about. She drove faster than ANYBODY else while using less fuel to give herself the ultimate advantage. The other drivers of that day either could not keep up with her, OR had to use more fuel doing so (hardly making them look good then) ... thus she won the race as the fastest on that day.

Jim Clark, who many rate as the greatest ever, used to be able to do this as he was very easy on his machines.

So again well done Danica.
Pete

 

Apparently my point is lost on you...

 

Sounds like someone has mommy issues...

 

Danica absolutely deserved the win - she won fair and square, although IMO she was definitely lucky. Others have been lucky before and will be lucky after her, this time was her shot at being lucky. Just like when Fisichella won that race against Kimi in the Jordan - remember that? Or the time the Minardi came in 3rd at Indy when all the other cars couldn't race.

I think Danica is great for IRL. She probably gets a lot of women into the sport, and probably increases ratings dramatically. Good for her, good for IRL, good for her team.

The only criticism I have of her is that she is marketed as a top shelf driver but she has mid-shelf skills at best. IMO it would be like if Nakajima was a hot blonde 20-something and was driving the McLaren instead of the Super Aguri. Would she still deserve the seat? Sure - racing is a sales game and it's all about winning to further the brand, and getting sponsors and PR for your sponsors. Danica does a phenomenal job of the latter, if a mediocre-at-best job of the former.

And despite claims to the contrary, not all and not even "most" people who don't support her are sexist misogynists. Some people (gasp!) actually just think she is short on talent, me included. That's cool - a lot of people make it pretty far being short on talent - just look at how Felipe Massa did

 

Peter,

Much of what you said is spot on. Sadly we live in a society of "me too" and "Monday Morning Arm Chair QB's". For most of us who race for nothing more than a $2 trophy and our own personal satisfaction, we know what people must endure to get where Danica is because all we have to do is magnify our crummy Friday night spent working in the shop until 2 am so we can drive five hours and be on the track by 8 am for qualifying with no sleep.

We sacrifice a few nights a week to go racing while people like Danica sacrifice half a life time.

I get a real kick out of some of you idiots arguing if she was a man she would have lost her ride a long time ago. Maybe if she was a "man" like most of you use the term and hide behind that might be true.

If I am wrong about this please grace me with your experience of running at 220 mph surrounded by names like Wheldon, Dixon, Kanaan, Andretti and the like on something other than your XBOX. It takes two things to succeed in the top rungs of professional motorsports.............Money and Talent. Without both you're done !

The addiction of racing has ruined many a racer financially and you can bet that if Vitor Mera was offered a spread in Playgirl to get a few million to fund a better ride he would do so in a heartbeat and without hesitation.

Regards,

Jon Kofod
ex-1995 #23 F355C

 

Yeah whatever ... I admit I allowed my frustration of some of the immature posts to get to me when I wrote that one.

Pete

 

Since I doubt if you will be IRL champion, does that also mean you have no "huevos"?? Using your analogy of course.

Actually she does have huevos, she is a female. Apparently you are also lacking in sex education. Females, carry the eggs. Huevos are eggs. Men have the sperm. The sperm fertilizes the eggs. Keep up with me, this is not hard. I should not have said hard, it actually should be "it's not difficult", I meant to say difficult, not hard.

So I believe you meant to say pelotas. Those are the round thingies that men have beneath their second brain. She has more pelotas than any of us, especially those of you that can't comprehend how difficult it is to do what Danica does, I don't see anyone here doing 220mph around a narrow oval for a living so you have no credibility in criticizing her ability. And please, driving an oval at 220 for two hours is no less difficult than driving a road course, actually more dangerous.

I will say it again, just as I said she can win in IRL and I was right, just as I said she has finished in the top 6 in points for the last few seasons beating at least 15 men, and I was right, I think she has the ability to be IRL champion. And frankly I hope she does it.

 

Very well said, I wish I said it this way. She earned it, she did the sleeping on garage floors bit, she finishes in points above 70% of the men in IRL every season so she never would have lost her ride, you have to be a total lmental ightweight to not get what this kid has accomplished, and endured all the male chauvanist BS all along.

 

I guess it's all relative. She most certainly is a lucky sperm in the context of the majority of the American populace and certainly the vast majority of the world. To have parents that can put up the kind of money to have their kid live in the UK racing. That most certainly is quite lucky.

Most professional race drivers are "lucky sperm". They just are luckier or better drivers than their competitors (who are also lucky sperm).

 

You must not race very much...

Racers believe in the adage "Luck is Where Preparation Meets Opportunity."

That's what happened to her, period.

 

Queen for a Day
Danica Patrick just won her first race, but is she a great driver?
By Robert Weintraub
Posted Monday, April 21, 2008, at 4:09 PM ET

Danica Patrick
Race-car driver Danica Patrick says that she "can die happy" now that she's won a race on the Indy-car circuit. Patrick's victory at the Indy Japan 300, the first for a woman in the Indy Racing League, was perhaps her best performance since the 2005 Indianapolis 500, where she took fourth place as a rookie. After that race, Robert Weintraub praised Patrick's talent but also noted that the IRL has been watered down in recent years. "If we're searching for an analogy for Patrick's achievement, imagine if Annika Sorenstam placed fourth in a PGA Tour event after the top golfers broke away to form their own tour," Weintraub wrote. The full article is reprinted below.

Every hero needs a villain, so the sports media were positively giddy last weekend when Robby Gordon started whining about Danica Patrick's figure. Patrick is the 23-year-old woman who turned in the most famous fourth-place finish in auto-racing history at last weekend's Indianapolis 500. Gordon opined that Patrick's svelte physique—she weighs in at about 100 pounds—gives her an unfair advantage against fleshier drivers.

Gordon's skinny-bashing has little merit. Over 500 grueling miles, the pounds mean far less than talent, focus, and stamina. His misguided disapproval did allow Patrick to skate past a more valid criticism, though. Patrick competes in a racing series that has been watered down to the point of irrelevance. While beating men in such a macho domain is laudable, it should be noted somewhere—OK, here—that her accomplishment represents less of a cultural shift than a reflection of the sad state of affairs at Indy.


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Don't be mad at yourself for letting the world's best-known race drift from your consciousness. No one has been interested in the Indy 500 for a decade. The vehicles that greats like Foyt and Andretti raced to glory are called Indy cars. The series they raced in was called CART, and until the mid-1990s it was the dominant domestic motor-sports franchise. But in 1994, Tony George, the president of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, announced the formation of the Indy Racing League. George wrapped himself in the flag, claiming the move was designed to promote American drivers and sponsors. In reality, it was a blatant power grab.

CART owners responded by boycotting the Indy 500 and running the swiftly forgotten U.S. 500 in its place. While the media waited for one series to establish dominance, fans and sponsors burned rubber toward NASCAR. Ratings bottomed out, attendance declined, and the next generation of talented drivers stopped dreaming of running at Indy—except at NASCAR's Brickyard 400. CART went bankrupt in 2003, but the IRL hasn't capitalized. The circuit used to be dominated by boldface names like Mears, Rahal, Fittipaldi, and Unser. I'll forgive you for not remembering that some guy named Buddy Rice won Indy last year. And by this time next week, you'll have forgotten all about Dan Wheldon.

If we're searching for an analogy for Patrick's achievement, imagine if Annika Sorenstam placed fourth in a PGA Tour event after the top golfers broke away to form their own tour. Instead of besting Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, let's say that Sorenstam knocked off Ty Tryon and Billy Andrade. A milestone in women's sports? Sure. A feat that's slightly tempered by the diluted level of competition? Most definitely.

The weaker field in this year's Indy 500 didn't simply make Danica Patrick's driving easier. It also made it less of a hassle for her to find deep-pocketed sponsors and a savvy racing team. Among the very few skilled enough to drive at the professional level, the difference is support. In the glory days of Indy car racing, it would have been inconceivable for an inexperienced rookie like Patrick to sign on with a top team like Rahal-Letterman. It would be like an elite NASCAR team sending a go-kart driver to Daytona.

If you think Patrick's talent and charisma would have been enough to win her a top ride in any era, just take a look at NASCAR's Shawna Robinson. Like Patrick, Robinson is strikingly beautiful and has loads of talent—she sat on the pole in a Busch Series race (the rung just below NASCAR's major leagues), the only woman ever to do so. But Robinson isn't a star. Since NASCAR is stocked with talent, she's been stuck on a small team with iffy sponsorship support. Racing for a second-tier team led to second-tier results, and Robinson lost her regular ride earlier this season. Had she gone into Indy racing, she'd be a legend by now.

Patrick is so marketable—she's pretty, well-spoken, and American—it's a wonder she wasn't created in a lab. The most important factor in her success, though, is her ability to win quickly in racing's equivalent of AA ball. She'll also have the support of ESPN/ABC. ESPN wants back into NASCAR in the worst way, but Fox will spend whatever it takes to stay in, and NBC is drooling at the prospect of NASCAR/NFL double-headers on Sundays. So, what is the worldwide leader to do? Pump up the motor-sports alternative. The network has already been sending reporters to IRL races for SportsCenter despite a lack of any recognizable viewer interest. Patrick's emergence will likely mean more programming: live qualifying runs, tech shows, reality shows, and IRL 2-Night or some such iteration. Be prepared for her mug to be as ubiquitous on ESPN as Stuart Scott's.


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Will the increased visibility of Patrick and the IRL mean more female drivers behind the wheel at a speedway near you? Along with Robinson, there are several women in the lower levels of NASCAR, including Deborah Renshaw, Tina Gordon, and Kelly "Girl" Sutton. However, female drivers are still a rarity at sprint-car and dirt tracks across the country, the place where novice drivers earn their stripes by swapping paint on weekend nights. And if the IRL capitalizes and open-wheel racing makes a comeback, Patrick's star power may actually work against the women who idolize her. More money means more drivers and bigger sponsorship expectations. Inexperienced female drivers will probably be the first to feel the squeeze.

It's impossible to know at this point if Patrick—or Shawna Robinson—is the real deal. What is clear is that Liz Johnson's recent achievement was more impressive than Patrick's finish at Indy. In March, Johnson made the final of a Pro Bowlers Association event, the first time a woman advanced anywhere near that far in a men's tournament. Not only did Johnson finish higher than Patrick, she did so against the top bowlers on tour (the man who defeated Johnson, Tommy Jones, is a leading candidate for PBA Player of the Year). But you didn't see Johnson on the cover of Sports Illustrated.

 

And? What is your point? We could generate many gigabytes of data on this website analyzing Schumi for the same...or any other racer...JV in 97...Damon at all...but really... she won. She has an IRL winner trophy, which no one on this site has. All her detractors on this site don't have what she has and that's why they hate her. They are pissing themselves green with envy in light of the many dollars they all spent to compete and all of them came up short and washed out.

 

Learned new terminology from Nuvolari, I see.

 

Mike:

A lot of folks around here like slinging the misogynist label as it deflects away from the fact that their arguments are weak, assuming they have one at all.

The also conveniently forget my posts in support of other female drivers like Sarah Fisher or Angelle Sampay. Just another inconvenient fact that gets in the way of their superficial, simplistic thinking.

Apparently since we are not IRL drivers ourselves, we are not qualified to discuss the capabilities of IRL drivers. Well, I have never been President either, I guess I can't comment on the candidates. Since I have never played major league baseball, I can't comment on the Boston Red Sox.

Then there is the jealousy angle. We must all be jealous of Danica because she races professionally and we don't. That may be but then again this is a website for Ferrari owners. I am pretty sure that there are folks on here that earn well in excess of what the top IRL drivers earn. This is evident. There are folks on this site that are among the best in their profession, I am pretty sure that they worked as hard and overcome substantial obstacles to get to that point too. Personally I love racing and I enjoy racing my Porsche in club events. I am pretty sure that I derive the same amount of satisfaction from my participation in the sport that professional drivers do, however I do not have to put up with the less savory elements of their chosen profession. I do not lie awake at night wondering if my sponsors are going to pull, I don't sweat whether my team is folding next season, and I don't worry about planning for my future once my career as a driver is over. Racing may appear to be glamorous, and for some it is, but the truth about glamor jobs is at the end of the day they are still just jobs.

Of course, the single most ridiculous rebuttal is that Danica is a better driver than any of us. Perhaps she is, perhaps she isn't. I fail to see the relevance. I am pretty damn sure that the Miami Dolphins can kick the crap out of my high school's football team, what does that prove? Last time I checked, the Miami Dolphins played in the NFL and presumably it is their performance relative to their competition, and not the population as a whole, that is relevant. Danica doesn't have to beat me, she has to beat her peers.