Danica Patrick finally wins an Indy car race

I know many of you consider car racing a sport only simple-minded, beer-drinking, tobacco-chewing rednecks could enjoy. But this reflects your ignorance far more than it does any lack of sophistication among the fans of this sport.

After all, Indy car racing is a sport that requires the steady nerves of a surgeon, the daring skill of a jet fighter and the physical stamina of a marathon runner. And no sport can match the none-stop thrill, nail-biting anxiety and death-defying excitement one gets from watching those cars zoom around that track - jockeying for position at an average speed of over 220 mph…for 500 miles!

Now, add to these exhilarating dynamics Danica Patrick – all 5’1”, 100lbs of her in full racing armor – and the world’s most watched sporting event (over 300,000 in the stands) is injected with a level of human interest that transcends sport.

Indeed, when Patrick made her debut on the all-male Indy racing circuit in 2005, I was among the ardent feminists heralding her as the Tiger Woods of her sport. In fact, I thought her performance in that year’s feature race, the Indianapolis 500, was so promising that I wrote the following:

What a debut Patrick made! Because, after racing in such dramatic fashion - by skillfully navigating through a number of harrowing crashes, leading the race on several occasions (including at lap 190 of 200) and finishing 4th out of 33 of the world’s best drivers - Patrick easily surpassed her media hype and demonstrated beyond doubt that a woman is equal to any man when it comes to the sport of auto racing.

Therefore, imagine how disappointing it has been for me to watch her turn into the Anna Kournikova of this sport, namely: a babe who competes more to win commercial ads than to win Indy races.

That all changed on Sunday, however, when she won the first race of her career at the Japan 300. And in so doing, she became the first woman in history to win an Indy car race. But no one appreciated how belated it was in coming than Patrick herself – who hailed her victory as follows:

It's a long time coming. Finally!

Well, you've come a long way baby! In fact, I can think of no greater tribute to her performance in this race than the one I gave in honor of her debut:

Here’s to Danica Patrick for racing through yet another sexist barrier along the road towards liberating the full potential of women to be all that they can be. And, it’s only a matter of time before this young trailblazer drives her car into the winner’s circle as champion of the Indianapolis 500.

You go girl!

NOTE: It seems no one thinks Barack Obama has a prayer of winning today’s Pennsylvania primary. But I think he’s going to shock the world by upsetting Hillary Clinton (i.e., by racing her to a virtual tie in her “home state”). And this will give him a lock on the Democratic nomination for president of the United States.

More important, however, even if Hillary wins by the 10-point margin most pundits predict, it will have no significant impact on Obama’s lead in the overall delegate race 1655 to 1513.

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