Will female driver ever break through at Indy?
Danica Patrick made history by becoming the first woman to lead the Indianapolis 500.
That was 11 years ago. Patrick finished fourth in 2005, the best result for a female driver in history, a feat she topped in 2009 with a third-place finish.
As the Indy 500 prepares to celebrate its 100th running May 29, the question lurks in the background. Will a woman win the race soon? Or ever?
Wednesday, the answer became even more complicated when Grace Autosport’s effort to field a car for Katherine Legge fell through. Team principal Beth Paretta said the team had all the pieces in place to field an entry but couldn’t find a feasible car.
“The consolidation of teams and the decrease of entries in 2016 reduced the available options for us,” Paretta said in a statement. “Our partner spoke with Dallara about buying a new car after Long Beach, but there wasn’t a current 2016 car available in time for the 500. We evaluated an available chassis as late as last week, but there wasn’t enough time to acquire all the parts needed to rebuild the car safely.”
Barring a last-minute entry, Pippa Mann will be the only woman attempting to answer
the aforementioned question.
“I want to say yes (a woman will win someday), but I think first we have to get the sponsorship behind female drivers so they can race consistently in IndyCar throughout the year in front-running teams,” Mann, who has started four Indy 500s, told USA TODAY Sports. “When we have female drivers doing that — like Danica was able to do for many years in her (IndyCar) career — then you’re going to have a female driver contending year after year. When you have that, you know a winner is coming.”
It could be as simple as another type of math.
“If it takes 100 guys to come through to find the talented one, that doesn’t take very long,” Patrick said. “But if it takes 100 girls to come through to find the one with talent, it’s going to take a lot longer. There are more girls racing now, but whether one will come through and win, well, that’s what makes sports so exciting. You have to watch to find out.”
And that woman could come from anywhere.
Patrick was an inspiration to many, including a girl in Norway.
Ayla Agren has begun a journey she hopes will someday put her in the Indy 500. On May 29, 2005, as an 11-year-old in Baerum, Norway, she decided she wanted to do what Patrick was doing, and she wasn’t alone. Today, Agren is on her way to her goal by competing in a feeder series that leads drivers toward the top level of IndyCar racing.
“It’s thanks to her that I’m here today,” Agren said. “Without that, I might not have started thinking about IndyCar, but because of that moment, my dream became IndyCar. It started when I read about her in the newspaper and saw her on TV.”
When told of Agren’s story and the source of her inspiration, Patrick took a moment to reflect.
“It’s not something you might do a lot of while you’re in the midst of your career,” Patrick said. “You might not always think about the bigger picture or think about what you’re doing and how that might affect others. It’s a nice pause to look at the bigger picture a little bit and be grateful for where I’ve been and what I’ve done.”
But the path for female racers into the Indy 500 hasn’t been repaved recently.
In 2013, the record for female drivers in the field (four) was tied as Mann, Legge, Ana Beatriz and Simona de Silvestro took the checkered flag.
Since Janet Guthrie broke the gender barrier at Indy in 1977, eight other women have competed in the race. Only Patrick, who moved to NASCAR in 2012, achieved the mainstream fame that allowed her the ability to land multimillion-dollar sponsorship deals required to race at the highest levels.
“Danica has been able to break through and really create this brand,” Mann said. “She’s the only female driver I can think of that’s been able to create an incredibly strong brand to attract all of that different, diverse sponsorship to be able to keep racing at a top level. There are so many female race winners who haven’t been able to attract the sponsorship to keep racing.”
When Patrick looks back on the 2005 Indy 500, she understands its significance.
Agren knew from that moment in 2005 that her goal was the Verizon IndyCar Series. She is in the entry-level Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship, the first of the three-level Mazda Road to Indy ladder system. While most of her karting contemporaries were dreaming of Formula One, Agren was dreaming of Indy.
“Other drivers in Europe talk about F1, while I always knew I wanted to do IndyCar. But then the question became how. ... I started learning about the Mazda Road to Indy and I spoke with a fellow Norwegian who had been racing in the U.S., Anders Krohn. He said there is a clear path, the racing is competitive, and that’s how it all started.”