Viewpoint: Patrick's win a coup for women

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By Nate Bloomquist | Monday, April 21, 2008 12:53 AM CDT | () comments

You know what they say about women drivers? Well, they’re wrong.

And it didn’t take Danica Patrick to prove them wrong.

It was great to see Patrick win an IndyCar race early Sunday in Japan. The win was long overdue. Not for Patrick, of course, but for women, in general.

Sarah Fisher should have won at least five years ago, but no one gave her a competitive car.

Lyn St. James had the talent, but other than once every May at Indianapolis, no one took a gamble on her.

Janet Guthrie was for real. She finished as high as ninth at the Brickyard in 1978, but it took almost 15 years before St. James joined the fray.

What took so long? Well, it might have something to do with that saying about women drivers.

“Today marks the celebration for all of us who have chipped away at the barriers that many women have faced in fields that are dominated by men,” Fisher said. “To finally have a female win an open-wheel race is simply a progression of what Janet Guthrie started.”

Patrick’s victory is important not because of what a great accomplishment it was, but because of what it should make the sport — a level playing field for women and men.

No other sport can boast such a claim.

Sure, women play basketball and soccer. But do they play on the same field at the same time as men? Can the women’s sports draw as much fan interest as men’s sports? No way. Women’s sports are at least five laps down to the men’s sports.

There should be no distinction between men and women in motorsports. Under the helmet and in the driver’s seat they can perform the same.

Women can win races by luck and fuel strategy — as Patrick, a Roscoe, Ill., native, did in Japan — just as well as men can. They can show their skills and flex their muscles — as Patrick did on a street course in Detroit last year and finished second.

It didn’t take Patrick’s win to show that women are equal behind the wheel.

Women just need to get the chances to prove it.

After she outlasted and outsmarted the boys, relief was her first emotion. Not surprise.

Behind the tears she cried in Victory Lane was the release of anguish and frustration women suffered for at least the past 40 years in racing. For every girl who wanted to go fast was a boy or 20 who told her she couldn’t.

“A lot of women hadn’t really proved on a consistent basis that they could be a good driver and always run up front,” Patrick said. “I think there had been times when they had done well but not consistently.

“I can’t tell you that I blame them for not believing that we could do it. But when you have 100 guys come through, finding one good one, the odds are a lot better than 100 girls since it takes a lot longer for 100 to come through. The odds are against us.”

Maybe now those odds can change. It would be long overdue.

You know what they say about women drivers? They’re just as good as men.

Nate Bloomquist writes a motorsports blog at qctimes.com/blogs.