Originally Posted by
pacificaslim
But here is the thing...Danica is perhaps the female "athlete" that has done the best in an open class sporting event. Yes, perhaps she would have washed out if she was a man and didn't have the marketing ability she does, but she has managed to win once, right? What other woman has ever won any open class sporting event or place near the top like she often has?
Sticking with Indy cars, Danica's arch nemesis in IRL,
Milka Duno, has raced at the 24-hr Daytona and LeMans races (placing 2nd with her team at Daytona), scored five wins in ALMS in 2001, and even placed higher in the 2008 Indy 500 than either Danica or Sarah Fisher (whose pole-winning run at Kentucky still stands as the track record). There was also
Janet Guthrie, who raced NASCAR, was the first woman to qualify for the Daytona 500, and drove an Indy 500 race with a broken wrist (that's hardcore!).
There are women in other motorsports that have done well. John Force's daughter has won more than once in NHRA Funny Car drag racing (beating her dad on one occasion), the late
Pat Moss has several class wins and a few overall wins in rallying (no small feat, mind you), Katherine Legge raced some Champ car races and was campaigning in DTM last year.
None of them have done a shoot for Sports Illustrated's Swimsuit Issue, though, have they?
Let's take an example: from a performance standpoint, women's tennis probably lags behind men's as much as women's basketeball lags behind men's. But women's tennis tv ratings are similar to men's while no one watches the wnba. Why is that?
Because Eastern European supermodels in short skirts get ratings, while the WNBA is—and there's no nice way to say it—noticeably slower, lower, and less "Wow!"-inspiring than men's basketball.