Lone woman’s IndyCar challenge

One glance at Danica Patrick and it’s logical to assume she belongs on the IndyCar circuit. But the movie star looks and slim figure are deceptive.

Patrick is not a wannabe Miss Indy, but one of motor racing’s premier female drivers.

The 26-year-old American made history earlier this year when she won the Indy Japan 300, becoming the first woman to ever take out an IndyCar race.

In Australia for the first time to contest the Gold Coast’s Indy 300 over the weekend, Patrick today showed she’s just one of the boys when it comes to talking big.

“My only goal is to win,” she said of the non-championship race.

“I might look small and deceiving, but I am strong,” says the 155cm and 45kg Patrick who has been racing for 17 years.

The first female rookie of the year and first woman to lead the Indy 500, Patrick is the sport’s ideal poster girl.

But audits of the series’ only female driver have not always been positive.

Before Japan, Patrick, who has posed for pictorials in Sports Illustrated and the lad’s mag, FHM, was compared with tennis star Anna Kournikova after breezing through three seasons of top tier racing without a win.

She was also labelled a diva following several run-ins with rival drivers, including a well-publicised shoving match with Dan Wheldon after a race in Milwaukee last year.

And in May, officials had to stop her from confronting Australian Ryan Briscoe after their pit lane collision during the Indianapolis 500.

But Patrick says she doesn’t feel she is being targeted as a woman in a so-called man’s world.

“As far as feeling goes as being the only girl here, I just don’t know any different,” she said.

“We all feel a lot of pressure.

“I don’t think I’m any different from that perspective, this is the top level of motor sport, we’re all keeping our job every weekend and earning our keep.

“I’m not really bothered.”

And anyway, she now feels she has earned the respect of her peers, as all rookies must.

And she reckons girls are not the only ones guilty of histrionics on the track.

“You’re going to find that in guys too,” she said.

“I’m definitely an emotional driver and I’m not afraid to wear my heart on my sleeve a little bit.

“But that’s just what I’m like as a driver and I don’t think that has to do with the fact that I’m a drama queen.”

The brunette beauty confesses she is otherwise “pretty girly”, content to leave the complex details of her car’s engine to the mechanics and engineers.

“When I go home, I like to go shopping and get pedicures, I like to hang out with my girlfriends and have wine nights and things like that,” said Patrick, who one day hopes to start her own clothing line.

In the meantime, make-up is a definite no-no on the track.

“I am definitely au natural on race day,” she said.

“If I explain my race car to my engineer or other drivers and I’ve got bright pink on my fingers, I feel kind of dumb.

“I’m not there to look pretty, I’m there to race.”

IndyCar practice begins tomorrow, before the first qualifying races on Saturday.

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