Girl Power

[Sid The Manager]

Apparently CMS are running their Viper GTSR in British GT this year with an all girl driver line up, said to be Amanda Stretton, Vicki Butler Henderson and Annie Templeton.

More should be known after todays media day at Silverstone.

[Rob29]

Clearly a media exercise.2 reporters and Annie who frankly going by her BTCC results will not cut it. Please CMS hire Rachel Green & Amanda Whitaker.

[egor]

Vicki Butler Henderson is ****. Did you see when she competed on the Silverstone rally sprint course, she had to have Louise Aitken Walker sat next to her to change gear - in a car with a sequential gearbox.

I hope if she drives she will bring a lot of money to the team as she has not much else to offer!

[Tim Northcutt]

Speaking of the Fairer Sex and those who can drive:

There is a young woman now in Toyota Atlantic, Danica Patrick, who really seems to have her act together...not a novelty item when it come sto talent...

Anybody know anything about her?

[ss_collins]

media stunt - sure, but it will highlight to women that racing is a sport they can do, its the same reason theres an all black team in the uniroyal team challenge.

[Liz]

No, it will highlight to women that it's something "girls" can do if they are "celebrities" and/or Hot Babes -- no driving talent necessary.

Is the "all black team" a private business or was it put together by the organizers to prove their Liberal Credentials? If the former, then its composition makes no difference; if the latter, it's reprehensible.

[ss_collins]

a publicity stunt, to raise awareness of both the series and of diversity in motorsport, and to make a point to the motorsport community that there are black racers and to the black community an introduction to motorsport. The team is called "roots" and the catchline is "motorsport - whatever your are."

[FG1]

Originally posted by Liz
Is the "all black team" a private business or was it put together by the organizers to prove their Liberal Credentials? If the former, then its composition makes no difference; if the latter, it's reprehensible.

I wish you were right Liz, but I doubt you are.

FG

[gi_gav]

Although a media-driven 'all women' or 'all black' team might seem reprehensible at first, if it results in motorsport diversifying beyond its current white-male-middle class base, then its not necessarily a bad thing

[FG1]

Originally posted by gi_gav
Although a media-driven 'all women' or 'all black' team might seem reprehensible at first, if it results in motorsport diversifying beyond its current white-male-middle class base, then its not necessarily a bad thing

My point exactly. I wish it weren't so, but it probably is.

FG

[John Turner]

Egor, I cannot comment about Annie Templeton but have seen both Amanda and VB-H race. Have you? I recall Vicki driving off the back of the grid to midfield position in the wet at Thruxton about 3 years ago in the Ginetta series. Come on,
Give them a chance.

[blueflagger]

If the women are serious about racing, I can't blame them for using their sex to grab sponsors and media attention. Anything to afford a better car.

However, it does sound like a publicity stunt. I hope that doesn't mean they are incompetent or dangerous drivers. That's the scariest part about celebrity drivers in professional events. They aren't allowed to play pro sports just because they are celebs so why do we allow them in race cars?

[ss_collins]

well black drivers have been competing as everyday drivers for a few years and have been largely ignored by the black community and a black driver is still a novelty (as are women drivers) the odd stunt doesn't go amiss to increase participation and diversity in the sport.

[blueflagger]

Actually, in the US, we see more female drivers than black drivers in road racing (and very few black females). But the same still applies. If they are serious drivers and they can use their color to attract sponsors and publicity, more power to them.

But if they are just after publicity and not really interested in racing, they are probably dangerous. This applies to white males too.

[Liz]

One of the best teams (now 3 cars) in Speed World Challenge touring cars is Turner Motorsports and it is owned and operated by a Black man. But I haven't heard anybody comment at any time "Hey, Will Turner is Black!" or make any connection between his success and his colour. That's the way it ought to be, IMO.

The problem with putting teams together for publicity's sake is that it tends to tar all the members of that group with the same brush, i.e. "Look, if we give them their own team, they can race too!" Doesn't it raise false ideas such as that (1) because I belong to the Spotlighted Group, you ought to give ME my own team too, or (2) since there aren't any except on teams we create, ,the only way they can be successful is if we give them their own team?

[Sid The Manager]

People are forgetting a couple of things here.
Historically women used to compete much more than they do now.
In the current climate, money is very hard to come by, and something different is needed to attract sponsors, if the end result is some competent female racers being out there, why should we worry, its one less racing car gathering dust with no money to run it, too many more of them and the sport disappears and nobody wants that

[Cynic]

The key phrase is "competent female racers". Having seen all three drivers in action at various circuits, Amamda and Vicky are both fairly good pedallers, but I can see no reason at all to include Annie Templeton in that category. I think her inclusion is a bad mistake if the team intend to be taken as serious competitors.

[Liz]

True -- why not support women who have already proved their competence if you want to support women racers? Instead of making up a celebrity team willing to pose?

[ss_collins]

cos there aint enough of them, stunts are needed

[KA]

Originally posted by Liz
True -- why not support women who have already proved their competence if you want to support women racers? Instead of making up a celebrity team willing to pose?

Although I see exactly where you're coming from, I don't really see any difference between this particular case and any other driver who buys a ride in sportscars/GTs, except that they may get more media attention than their results might otherwise warrant.

Both Amanda Stretton and Vicki Butler-Henderson are fairly experienced racers-in fact both were racing before they became involved in the media and acquired any kind of 'celebrity' status. Amanda Stretton has raced historic cars for a number of years, and I can remember seeing VB-H driving (in a Formula Ford if memory serves) at Brands Hatch a few years before her TV debut

[egor]

I hope VBH and the other ladies involved in this project prove me and who everelse wrong and do a very good job, not just go round at the back of the feild and get in the way.

Only time will tell whether this team comes up with the goods or not.

I wish them all the best for the season ahead.

[Tim Northcutt]

KA and Liz make the best points here...

A Few Examples (regardless of Gender)

Sarah Fisher has talent...she's runing hard on a "race-to-race" budget this season and ran 2nd in the last IRL race right under Tony Kanaan's rear wing for many laps befoe finishing 7th or 8th with a Chevy engine that has less power than the Toyota or Honda...

Sarah deseves top equipment and good funding...she will make good use of it and win...

Another female, Lyn St. James, was so clueless one year at Indy that she couldn't tell her engineers what the car was doing on the track...the team hired John Andretti (who was in town just to watch proceedings) to jump in the car just to tell the eam what needed to be changed...within a few hours, the chassis was up to speed and squared away..

Lyn had no business being on the track...

And finally, who can ever forget Hiro Matsushida???

A wealthy heir to Panasonic, he had the money to buy state-of-the-art equipment, but had zero talent...he was always way off the pace and journalists even dubbed him "the moving road block" and "the human traffic cone." he didn't even have enough sense to stay out of the racing line to keep from hoilding up the leaders....

He had even less business being on the track than Lyn St. James...

I, too, hope that people would select women with talent for these efforts, and not just for the hype...racing desrves the best to be on the track for the fans, but morn important, for safety of all competitors...

[Rob29]

Seem to remember Lyn St.James leading a TransAm race at Pheonix,so she can't have been that bad.

[Tim Northcutt]

in her defense, she did qualify in the Top Ten (after Andretti set up the car for her) but in the Indy race that year, she had to retire early, because the conditions were much different on Race Day and he car handled so poorly that she couldn't drive it...

Maybe "no business being on the track" is too harsh...but she didn't have the talent that other women, like Sarah, have...

Lyn also had enough ability to not be a hinderance or a safety factor in the races she did run....certainly a better driver than Hiro

[Burton]

If you want more info regarding Danica Patrick you could try looking at the FHM USA website, some very nice picture for you to drool over, don't remember her looking quite like that when she was over here but bloody nice all the same!
http://www.fhmus.com/girls/covergirls/220/