Danica Who?
Does Danica Patrick ‘s Marketing Strategy Cross The Line In Motorsports?
Danica Patrick goes by many titles and descriptions. IRL race car driver, Nationwide driver, swimsuit model, commercial actress, co-talk show host and list goes on.
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Danica Patrick Official Website
Her words to live by could be summed up by this quote:
Whatever it takes to win, to dominate, to be number one can become a daunting task.
Lest we forget, Danica is following in the steps of women predecessors who succeeded beyond her current threshold. Females, who broke the barrier and chose to be remembered by their abilities in a man’s dominated sport.
Their names echoing in history:
Janet Guthrie
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Janet Guthrie, The First Female Of The Indy 500 … The First Female NASCAR Driver She was a pilot and flight instructor, an aerospace engineer, a technical editor, and a public representative for some of the country’s major corporations. She had 13 years of experience on sports car road-racing circuits, building and maintaining her own race cars, before being invited to test a car for Indianapolis. http://www.janetguthrie.com/Biography.htm
Louise Smith
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Louise Smith raced in the 1949 Daytona Beach Road Course, along with two other female drivers (Ethel Mobley and Sara Christian), the only race to have three women compete. She later raced late models, modifieds, midgets, and sportsmen cars. She had 38 wins, with 28 of them in the modifieds from 1949-1956. She was the first woman inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1999.
Sarah Fisher
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Sarah Fisher, At 19, she was the youngest driver at the time to compete in an IRL race (Texas, 1999) and has the most Indianapolis 500 starts (8) by a female driver.Intervew with Car And Driver
Angelle Sampey
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Angelle Sampey, In 2001, Sampey became the winningest female in NHRA history, moving past Shirley Muldowney. She went on to get seven wins that season which remains the most wins ever recorded in a single season by a female competitor in NHRA history. NHRA motorcycle racer Angelle Sampey of Louisiana retires
These four ladies were instrumental in the acceptance of female participation in competitive racing. Not just their achievements, but how they managed to be successful while breaching the wall and competing to win the race on a level playing field. Meeting and competing against the opposite sex and not having to pull the female card made them true pioneers.
We are watching as the face of racing is changing. Back in the day, winning by any means meant bump and run. Has Danica crossed the line by promoting herself as a sex object instead of a competitive race car driver?
IRL embraced Danica years ago and watched as she made history several times with her motorsports accomplishments. Not until advertisers began courting her youth and sexuality did she began to morph. Did the prospect of being in the limelight dim her real reason for racing?
Danica’s sights are set on NASCAR. Trying to break into this good ole boy network with her suggestive commercials promising a peek for a following will be her legacy. Will NASCAR’s 40% female fan base, accept Danica or will she be blasted for her questionable marketing practice?
Ultimately, the fans will decide.
