Danica...

tuna55 wrote:

barnca wrote:

spdracer315 wrote: Not a huge fan of drag racing, but i am a huge fan of Ashley Force. Doesnt bring in the headlines like Danica though

definately better than danica..

A hottie, for sure. Too bad she always wears HUGE sunglesses during interviews.

read an interview with her mom.. ashley is real uncomfortable in front of the camera according to her mom. funny thing is. her and her sister. robert hights wife both broke the cardinal john force rule.. they got involved with force racing employees.. and married them..lol

I would not normally have any problem with strong female role models in motorsport. Danica is not what that is. She has fans because she is a girl, she is terrible in PR with those fans, has a bad attitude (can you imagine what would happen if she did her "storm down the pit lane toward some driver who wronged you" in Formula 1?), and has had one win in 84 starts, and a grand total of 5 podium finishes in 5 full seasons of IRL.

WTF, If I had that kind of win record, I certainly would not have a job at Andretti. Maybe it's cuz I'm ugly...

sorry, yet another rant.

There are very few things I rant about, Danica is one of them.

This is a strong female role model in motorsport. Michéle Mouton

Kat Legge's website:

http://katherinelegge.com/

And I'm not much of a drag racing fan either, but I've heard that John's daughter Ashley (thanks for the pix/reminder, guys! Pretty girl!) actually has a couple of wins to her credit.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashley_Force

While we're talking drag racers, I should also thank Tuna55 for reminding me about Shirley. I'd forgotten that she'd actually filled a trophy case or three back in the day...

Eh, can't help myself. Here's Sabine in some sort of FIA GT car, I think it's a Porsche GT3 Cup car:

A smile that melts butter and eyes that say I'll know more than you ever will. I love that.

friedgreencorrado wrote: Kat Legge's website: http://katherinelegge.com/ And I'm not much of a drag racing fan either, but I've heard that John's daughter Ashley (thanks for the pix/reminder, guys! Pretty girl!) actually has a couple of wins to her credit. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashley_Force While we're talking drag racers, I should also thank Tuna55 for reminding me about Shirley. I'd forgotten that she'd actually filled a trophy case or three back in the day...

It was probably because of Shirley in the first place that so many great woman drivers were able to make it and do very well in the NHRA.

To name a few active drivers:

Angelle Sampey

Karen Stoffer

Peggy Lewellen

Angie McBride

Katie Sullivan (19 years old)

Valerie Thompson (who also does land speed racing)

Hillary Will

Melanie Troxel (currently racing Pro Mod and TF Funny Car - insane)

Ashley Force

Erica Enders

And lots more in years past.

That may have something to do with the blue-collar background of drag racing in the US. Go to a local drag race and you'll see more women than at a typical w2w race or even auto-x.

I think that Danica is frustrated and has put a lot of pressure on herself to win...and thusly she comes off as "difficult". I'd like to see her win some more, and see if she loosens up.

maroon92 wrote: I would not normally have any problem with strong female role models in motorsport. Danica is not what that is. She has fans because she is a girl, she is terrible in PR with those fans, has a bad attitude (can you imagine what would happen if she did her "storm down the pit lane toward some driver who wronged you" in Formula 1?), and has had one win in 84 starts, and a grand total of 5 podium finishes in 5 full seasons of IRL. WTF, If I had that kind of win record, I certainly would not have a job at Andretti. Maybe it's cuz I'm ugly...

It seems like I have seen an F1 driver storm down pit lane towards another driver more then a couple times. just saying.

JFX001 wrote: I'd like to see her win some more, and see if she loosens up.

I volunteer to loosen her up and see if she wins more.

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: I volunteer to loosen her up and see if she wins more.

But she still needs to perform better on track.

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote:

JFX001 wrote: I'd like to see her win some more, and see if she loosens up.

I volunteer to loosen her up and see if she wins more.

Ahhh, that's why I love your posts - you type what I'm thinking. That way I can look better than the chauvinist pig that I really am.

In reply to tuna55:

I think the main reason I'm sorry I forgot Shirley was that she actually won races..and (what, 3 or so?) championships! I guess I forgot because I'm not that big of a drag racing fan..but my ignorance shouldn't take anything away from her accompishments.

Or her hotness..

Appleseed wrote: A smile that melts butter and eyes that say I'll know more than you ever will. I love that.

Aw, yeah! Confidence, but without "attitude". I love that pic.

I think a lot of the forgetting of Shirley is that she's "just" a drag racer. Drag racing is often equated to a hill billy sport. It shouldn't, but it is.

Appleseed wrote: I think a lot of the forgetting of Shirley is that she's "just" a drag racer. Drag racing is often equated to a hill billy sport. It shouldn't, but it is.

I've never said that drag racers aren't "real" racers..but I say very often that drag race cars (Top Fuel & Funny Cars) can't be driven. Which should actually show how talented those people actually are...

Where's that pic of Don Garlits slamming on the throttle while his Top Fueler is 90deg to the road and the course at the same time? Car's standing straight up, somehow turned around backwards...Don hit the gas to get the thing back on the ground. Didn't win, but didn't put the thing into the fence, either.

friedgreencorrado wrote:

Appleseed wrote: I think a lot of the forgetting of Shirley is that she's "just" a drag racer. Drag racing is often equated to a hill billy sport. It shouldn't, but it is.

I've never said that drag racers aren't "real" racers..but I say very often that drag race cars (Top Fuel & Funny Cars) can't be driven. Which should actually show how talented those people actually *are*... Where's that pic of Don Garlits slamming on the throttle while his Top Fueler is 90deg to the road and the course at the same time? Car's standing straight up, somehow turned around backwards...Don hit the gas to get the thing back on the ground. Didn't win, but didn't put the thing into the fence, either.

Don Garlits is awesome. Back in those days those cars drove terribly. That's compared with now, where they are still ridiculous.

Warren Johnson often wrote about how terrible a few of his cars were, but he's never actually flipped one. A LOT of pro stock drivers can't say that.

http://www.garlits.com/posters.htm

Danica doesn't like road courses, so she doesn't do well. This is from a professional driver ?

iceracer wrote: Danica doesn't like road courses, so she doesn't do well. This is from a professional driver ?

She raced on road courses to start her career; karts in the WKA and formula cars in FF (in England of all places) and Formula Atlantic in the States.

She doesn't perform well on road courses now because she's not applying her talent, or she is simply out-driven by half of the field.

Long Beach qualifying spread: 1.4 seconds for the top 22 cars. Danica was 0.2 slower than Franchitti who was last year's champ, yet they were mired in 12th and 20th. Contrast that with F1 where the spread is somewhere around 4-6 seconds. Maybe, just maybe, aside from Penske and Ganassi the rest of the teams are pretty closely matched.

Elena Myers for the sprockets:

http://www.motorcycle-usa.com/50813/Motorcycle-Photo-Gallery-Photo/2010-AMA-Pro-Road-Racing.aspx

autoxrs wrote: Long Beach qualifying spread: 1.4 seconds for the top 22 cars. Danica was 0.2 slower than Franchitti who was last year's champ, yet they were mired in 12th and 20th. Contrast that with F1 where the spread is somewhere around 4-6 seconds. Maybe, just maybe, aside from Penske and Ganassi the rest of the teams are pretty closely matched.

Spec vs. Non Spec series

she may not "like" road courses but she did make a nice pass on Simona De Silvestro shortly after the last full course yellow today at Long Beach... sure it was for 16th, 1 lap down but she had been following Simona for many many laps, finally set her up well and pulled off a very clean pass... well done...