Women in Motorsports Blog Carnival - Sept. 15

The cat fight with Danica Patrick may still be on her mind, but now Milka Duno has something to lord over Patrick.

Last week at Chicagoland, Duno stayed out, knowing she only had one more stop to make. The move sent Duno up to the front of the pack, enabling her to lead her first laps in the IRL.

On the restart, she led the field down to the green. Her five laps led, brought her team a bit of the
spotlight, and also meant she led one more lap than Patrick this season.

"We'€™ll continue to work for next year,"€ Duno said after Chicagoland. "€œWe showed we have a lot of potential as a team. We just need to find the resources to improve and continue to build our team to be faster all the time. I have to say many thanks to all (my crew). They continue to believe in me, and I showed what we can do when we have good conditions. I have to thank Robbie (Buhl), my coach."€


R2B2 Motors owner Roger Burgess has added NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle rider Peggy Llewellyn to his team for three more races and announced that R2B2 Motors will be an associate sponsor on Matt Guidera's Mohegan Sun motorcycle in his run for the championship.

Llewellyn's good performance at the recent Mac Tools U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis prompted Burgess to extend the relationship through events at Dallas, Las Vegas and Pomona, Calif. She finished fourth in 2007, winning at Dallas, the NHRA race closest to her San Antonio home.

Idled for months, Llewellyn returned at Indianapolis, changed her riding style in three days and qualified 14th in field of 27 motorcycles on the Guidera team motorcycle. She lost to eventual race runner-up Andrew Hines in the opening round.

"Peggy is a good spokesperson for the sport and we are happy she'll be with us again in Dallas," said
Burgess. "We also were impressed with Matt's team and how well they worked together. I knew they could use additional support as he begins his run for the championship, so R2B2 Motors stepped up with an associate sponsorship to help Matt in the Countdown to 1."

"I am thrilled to run more races," said Llewellyn. "We learned a lot in Indianapolis that will help my
riding. I am looking forward to returning at Dallas, my home track, and trying to repeat my success."


The final round of the FIM Women'€™s World Championship this weekend at the Lierop circuit for the Grand Prix of Benelux will not be able to count on the participation of one of the main stars of the series. Double Women’s World Cup winner and Yamaha rider Katherine Prumm is currently recovering from operations to her right knee and left wrist as well as the collarbone break that prematurely ended her season while leading the standings of the inaugural championship.

"On July 25th I had my operation in Auckland with Dr Barry Tietjens, who reconstructed the right ACL in my knee," said Prumm. "They also removed the plates from my left wrist which was meant to be a fairly easy process but the doctors found that the plates were buried in the middle of the bone so they had to be scraped out."


History is in the offing for Ashley Force.

Shirley Muldowney won three NHRA Top Fuel drag racing titles in the 1970s and 80s; Angelle Sampey claimed three straight Pro Stock Motorcycle championships to start the new millennium.

Nevertheless, a woman driver never seriously has contended for a championship in an NHRA Funny Car division considered the last bastion of male dominance.

"I think we'll do good (in the Countdown)," said Force. "It's exciting to have all four of our Ford Mustangs (those or her father, brother-in-law Robert Hight and teammate Mike Neff as well as her own) in the Countdown, but it's also going to be stressful.

"We don't want to be the ones who look back at one bad race that cost us a chance at winning the championship. We just want to go out and do what we've been doing all season," she said. "My crew has given me a great car almost every race. We won a race, we've qualified No. 1 (twice). We just need to keep doing what we've been doing and I think it will pay off."


With the season's final six races approaching, Melanie Troxel has set her sights on a new goal: winning at least one more NHRA POWERade Series event.

"Getting one more race win would make it a very good year . . . and I think it can be done," said Troxel. "Brian (Corradi) and Mark (Oswald, crew chiefs on the R2B2 Racing Dodge Charger R/T) plan to do some parts and tune-up testing over the next six races so we'll have some good data for next year.

"They went in a new direction before the U.S. Nationals and it is really promising. We've had our ups and downs this year, but right now we are on a roll. We missed qualifying for the Countdown to 1, so we don't have to worry about points."


Chrissy Wallace said in an interview with The Press Enterprise that "one fellow Craftsman Truck driver has been anything but thrilled about an up-and-coming woman in the sport, but knows that sort of mentality is something she's going to have to get used to."

"You pretty much can't let it bother you," Wallace said. "You can sit there and hold a grudge and try to wreck a driver, but that's not going to get you anything but a torn up truck."

The interview, about why there are no women at NASCAR's top level, also pondered: "Perhaps another reason women might feel more pressure to succeed than men is because the general public is infinitely more skeptical as to how a female may have gotten her ride."

by Linda Przygodski
Contributing Editor
AskPatty.com

by Linda Przygodski
Contributing Editor
AskPatty.com

Comments

[The Utah Windowz]

Thanks for the updates, as always. I'm always interested to see how women are doing in "men's" sports. Keep up the good work.