Molly Rhoads didn't get to see Danica Patrick's impressive performance at the Indianapolis 500. She was busy with her own race. When she heard about Patrick's fourth-place finish, though, Rhoads was thrilled. Patrick left skid marks all over the notion that women can't have success against men in a big-time race, and Rhoads believes that can only help other female drivers.
"Hopefully, it will open a lot of doors for the rest of us,'' said Rhoads, one of the few women racing cars in Minnesota.
During the week, Rhoads works in Hastings as the office manager for her father's company, Dakota Rhoads Masonry. On weekends, she does what she has done for the past four of her 23 years. She races stock cars. Sometimes it is with the help of her twin sister, Megan, as a member of her pit crew.
On Saturday nights, Rhoads can be found at Elko Speedway or I-94 Raceway in Sauk Centre. Minn. On Sundays, she is at Raceway Park in Shakopee. She competes in super late models, the top stock car class at each track, and so far she has been the only woman in those races.
She has yet to win a super late models race but had two feature wins in the sportsman division in 2003.
"I've seen her do time trials better than most men,'' said Tom Ryan, who owns Elko Speedway.
Ryan is a former auto racer, and while he hasn't seen a slew of women in races, he is convinced men have no real edge on women.
"It's extremely hard for everybody, male and female,'' Ryan said. "I don't think it has anything to do with gender. It has more to do with aptitude and whether you're good at it. It has to do with hand-eye coordination, focus and concentration. From what I've seen, the expression 'cool as a cucumber' applies. And maybe women have an advantage over men. My experience is women are really cool, not as wound up as men.''
Patrick was as cool as they come for much of the Indy 500. She made some rookie mistakes, but that is to be expected of anyone competing for the first time in the most storied auto race of all.
It was only the fifth time Patrick has competed in the Indy Racing League, making her fourth-place finish even more remarkable. Three other women have raced in an Indianapolis 500, but none ever led the race or finished better than ninth. Patrick had the lead with seven laps to go and, if she hadn't run low on fuel, she might have won.
She certainly had the Indianapolis Motor Speedway crowd of 300,000 supporting her, as well as a television audience that was the biggest to watch the Indy 500 in nearly a decade.
Patrick, 23, is a slick, 5-foot-1, 100-pound package of talent and charisma. She also is extremely photogenic, which will only fuel her marketability and help heighten awareness that women — at least one woman, anyway — can compete with the best male drivers.
"A lot of people think women aren't as good. That's just a stereotype that women can't drive,'' said Rhoads, whose dream is to some day compete on the NASCAR circuit.
In July and again in October, Rhoads will race in what amounts to NASCAR's minor league system.
"A lot of us can race and just need a chance,'' she said. "What Danica Patrick did gives me hope that I can do that someday, that I can race in a major series.''
Patrick's stellar run at the Brickyard has NASCAR officials interested in finding their own female sensation.
"What Danica did in Indianapolis was spectacular," NASCAR spokesman Jim Hunter told the Associated Press. "We absolutely would love to have a female competing in our series, and we do have some on the horizon. It's just a question of getting them in the right equipment and getting them experience."
That sounds encouraging, but what Patrick did at Indy may not be enough to open doors quite as wide as women drivers such as Rhoads would like. While Patrick's performance could have a Tiger Woods-like impact, getting more women involved in racing just as Woods' success drew more African-Americans to golf, it also is possible Patrick will have only short-term appeal.
"I think what Patrick did at Indianapolis may become a Tiger moment if she has Tiger-like results,'' said Mary Jo Kane, a professor of sports sociology at the University of Minnesota and director of the Tucker Center for Research on Girls and Women in Sport. "It becomes a breakthrough moment only if she establishes herself, and the way to establish herself is to win. In order not to be a novelty, she has to win.''
Patrick told Sports Illustrated, "You can go from zero to hero and back again really fast. You have to stay persistent. Second in the field is not good enough. You have to keep moving. You have to keep thinking, I can be better.''
Patrick has become the hottest race car driver in America, and it doesn't matter if you're talking about the IRL, NASCAR or any other alphabet soup of racing acronyms. Dan Wheldon won the Indianapolis 500 and has won four of the first five IRL races, but he isn't the talk of auto racing.
Patrick is.
For now, anyway.
"She has to establish she belongs because she's good, not just because she's female,'' Kane said. "If she doesn't win, it's the Anna Kournikova Syndrome. She's never won a singles championship match. She's a pretty face with a lot of sponsors. At the end of the day, you're judged on if you win or lose. Not whether you're male or female, not whether you're black or white, not whether you're rich or poor. Do you win? It's all about just winning, baby. Just win, Danica.''
Even if Patrick wins, it doesn't mean there will be a huge influx of women into auto racing. It takes at least one car and a pit crew to compete.
"You don't just show up and jump in a race car,'' Ryan said. "It's cost, and it's a people game. I was one of the racers who didn't have a checkbook problem. You need a good crew chief, then someone to help with maintenance. You need, at minimum, three people.''
But if you have the car and the crew, as Molly Rhoads does, Danica Patrick's success may be good for you, too.
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