For those who obviously know what I'm talking about, the media hype over Danica Patrick has reached a possible pinnacle like when the media was all ga-ga over Sarah Fisher. Lesson be known Danica has actually never won a race past the Toyota Atlantic (formerly known as Indy Lights) series, and never drove in the Infiniti Pro Series that IRL pushes so much.
That being said, there are several other female faces about to make marks on the motorsports world that you might want to get to know before putting all your money on "The American Dream" they call Danica.
CHAMP CAR/TOYOTA ATLANTIC
In the Toyota Atlantic seres, trying to work up to get a Champ Car ride is a fierce battle on road courses. They hardly do ovals (makes you wonder why Danica Patrick moved up the IRL ladder using Toyota Atlantic last year, and she never won a race) so the road course theme is clear. However, aside from being Danica's stepping stone, Toyota Atlantic has now risen to be a great launch in any ladder for any racing series, but mainly the Champ Car World Series. 2003's dominating AJ Allemendinger is now in Champ Car, and he ALMOST won Cleveland if it wasn't for Paul Tracy's domination. Winning the Toyota Atlantic series this year will almost definitely vault for to Champ Car status. And that's what British driver and rookie phenom Katherine Legge is attempting to do.
Katherine Legge (
Her Website Here) is labelled as "The Fastest Female in the UK" and has held that title since 2002. Last year she ran in the little known North American Formula Renault Seres, which is like driving half a Renault F1 car, not as powerful but still just as much pep. In the UK, she's made more women's racing records than any other female driver, and holds very much promise to someday hit Formula 1. In Toyota Atlantic, she races for famed team Polestar Racing Group, a team that has built up a list of drivers unheard of since well never! (Patrick Carpentier, Alex Barron, Memo Gidley and 2004 Indy 500 Champ Buddy Rice) Katherine has beaten an important man's lap record somewhere in the world... ever hear of Kimi Raikkonen? Yeah, she's taken one of his records and smashed it in European Formula Renault.
Now, you might be saying "Why all the Danica smack?" Well, while Danica tries to win a major open-wheel event in North America, Katherine Legge has ALREADY won one. Toyota Atlantic is like the Busch Series of Champ Car. Katherine
won the first race of the 2005 season at Long Beach, which if you all remember Danica was in a road course race where she was leading that same weekend but couldn't win because of pit strategy. With a major open-wheel win and the first as a female, Katherine is building high hopes for being called up.
Kathering Legge finished 3rd overall in the points race, tied in points with her teammate Antoine Bassette, but won in tiebreaks by 1 more win over Antoine. She also scored 2nd in the ROTY points.
NEW: While Danica-fever is still hitting ESPN with the newest rumor that she punched Buddy Lazier in the track ambulance (it was just a tap), Katherine Legge has inked a deal to test a V10 Minardi! While the Minardi team cars are being retired at the end of December, this test is sufficient for testing a possible RPM restriction on the Cosworth engine, and its similar to making the Minardi to Champ Car style speeds, without the turbo. If that is the case, then Katherine Legge MAY be a contender for a Squarda Torro Roso seat next year or in 2007.
ARCA into BUSCH SERIES
Oooo didn't know about this one, did ya? Ray Evernham has had this one tucked away trying to take the Busch Series for next year, and she'll even get maybe 5 races from this year's schedule too!
Erin Crocker may only have a few ARCA starts, but they've been in true dominating style. In March, she qualified on the pole of Nashville in her first ever ARCA race, then spun out to finish 12th by a rookie mistake. In her 2nd start in mid-June, Erin got 7th at Michigan. Perhaps she's the dark horse of the female drivers out in racing now, but she shows promise, and she'll get to test her skills in the Busch Series near the end of this season.
Since my last edit, Crocker has won races, and tested those skills in the Busch Series only to have frightening results, and some hard wrecks, but her resilience makes her a tough cookie.
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