100 Pound Racer Accused of Unfair Advantage

[Jack]

I suspect it is because she is a woman, not because she is 100 pounds. Story below.

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CONCORD, N.C. -- Robby Gordon accused Danica Patrick of having an unfair advantage in the Indianapolis 500 and said Saturday he will not compete in the race again unless the field is equalized.

Gordon, a former open-wheel driver now in NASCAR, contends that Patrick is at an advantage over the rest of the competitors because she only weighs 100 pounds. Because all the cars weigh the same, Patrick's is lighter on the race track.

"The lighter the car, the faster it goes," Gordon said. "Do the math. Put her in the car at her weight, then put me or Tony Stewart in the car at 200 pounds and our car is at least 100 pounds heavier.

"I won't race against her until the IRL does something to take that advantage away."

The Indy Racing League does not consider the weight of the driver in its race specifications. The car has to weigh at least 1,525 pounds before the fuel and driver are added, and teams in Indy have estimated that Patrick will gain close to 1 mph in speed because of her small stature.

Although her rivals in Sunday's race have said she doesn't have a huge advantage, pole-sitter Tony Kanaan told reporters he would like the Indy Racing League to look into the issue.

"Right off the bat, a guy my size is spotting her 105 pounds," Gordon said. "That's the reason she's so much faster."

Gordon never planned to race in the Indy 500 this season, choosing instead to focus on his job as owner of a NASCAR team. Gordon had run in the 500 and NASCAR's Coca-Cola 600 on the same day the past four years.

But with his startup team struggling, Gordon couldn't afford to take his focus off NASCAR. He qualified 25th for Sunday's race, but his car was among the fastest in most of the practice sessions.

Still, he said the No. 7 Chevrolet is searching for more horsepower from its Menard-built engines.

"We are a long ways away," Gordon said. "But we're still working and we will get there."

AP NEWS
The Associated Press News Service

Copyright 2004-2005, The Associated Press, All Rights Reserved

[rebl_rn]

There could be some sexism involved, but I don't think that's the primary reason for his comments.

Women have been racing along men for a while now - granted very few of them and with limited success, but many women have raced in the Indy 500, and in open wheel's and NASCAR's top series'. (You can't say that about too many sports). Robby Gordon has raced alongside women before.

This is an old argument even among the men. NASCAR drivers argued about this for years, and now NASCAR does take the driver's weight into consideration with its minimum weight requirements - bigger guys still have a disadvantage, but not as much of one.

There is sexism in racing as there would be in any other male-dominated field. I don't think that's what Robby's problem was here, but I don't know why he decided to open his mouth about this now. I don't really care for him too much as a driver and he has made a lot of stupid comments before, I pretty much just ignore him anyway.

Beth

[Ridseard]

Who cares what Robby Gordon says? Anyhow she weighs 105, not 100, and Buddy Rice, who won last year, was the heaviest driver in the field. Besides, it's not things like that which win auto races, it's having the brains and guts to go all out and kick butt without getting killed. There's no question that Danica Patrick has what it takes.

[Henke]

Ridiculous. It is an advantage sure, but not unfair. This has always been an element in racing, the ideal is really to be small and light. Even in some classes, where they have weights in the cars to get them above a minimum weight, it's an advantage to be under the minimum weight to begin with, because you can move the weights around to balance out the car. It's just plain silly to start complaining about that now.
BTW, is anyone going to watch the Formula 1 race today? I think that's a bit more interesting than oval tracks.

[Random notes]

The Indy 500 is an endurance race. Ms. Patrick could be said to be at a disadvantage because she doesn't have the muscle mass to support the 3+hr effort to run the race. Indy cars are not like the placid beasts we drive with comfy seats and power steering, and rounding curves at those speeds produce serious G-force which has to be fought over and over again. Robby Gordon just sounds like a whiner.

I say, "You go girl!"

Roger

BTW - I've seen publicity photos of Danica - she cleans up nice! A win for her would be a fat boost for Indy racing.

[Wombat]

She'll certainly have an advantage over all who refuse to race her.

[brewerpaul]

I wonder if there would be the same complaints if some thoroughbred jockey(male) decided to take up auto racing and weighed in at 105.
I say good luck to her!
As an alternative, in the future they could equalize the field by adding weight to the cars of light drivers, male or female, so the total of driver plus weight equals some pre-determined amount such as 200 lb.

[emmline]

If there is an advantage to being small, so be it. Certainly in football there's an advantage to being big, in horse racing small is good, in basketball tall is usually desirable, etc...
So what?

[Jerry Freeman]

There are advantages and disadvantages on every side.

I would say she comes in having overcome enough disadvantages that it would be hypocritical to complain because her weight gives her one advantage. As mentioned already, it also gives her a disadvantage in arm strength to drive the car. There are advantages and disadvantages that can be counted on all sides. If the boys can't keep up with her because they're too heavy, tough luck. Lose some weight, then, or find a lighter driver.

But really. If you did a statistical analysis of finishing position plotted against the weight of the driver, I'll bet you would find absolutely no correlation with lighter drivers finishing faster.

Go, Danica!

Best wishes,
Jerry

[Nanohedron]

The Indy 500 is an endurance race. Ms. Patrick could be said to be at a disadvantage because she doesn't have the muscle mass to support the 3+hr effort to run the race. Indy cars are not like the placid beasts we drive with comfy seats and power steering, and rounding curves at those speeds produce serious G-force which has to be fought over and over again. Robby Gordon just sounds like a whiner.

Yep.

[rebl_rn]

The general endurance to go 500 miles may be an issue, but it's that way with lots of drivers, especially those like indy car guys that aren't used to such long races. I think Danica keeps in shape. The mental concentration is most important, I think - the concentration that it takes to be driving a race car at 200+ MPH for 3 hours inches away from other cars where the out of bounds line isn't a line but a wall, with no time outs or halftimes.

I think Robby's just afraid of Danica because she's the real deal, and he'd probably be whining even if she were male and 100 pounds. And the only reason why the press is reporting on his whining is because she's female. If Robby were whining about some 100 pound male driver, probably everyone would ignore him.

Beth

[jsluder]

What, exactly, is the draw to watching cars (or anything else, for that matter) race around in a circle? I was born and raised in the Southeast USA, and I still don't "get" NASCAR.

[Henke]

What, exactly, is the draw to watching cars (or anything else, for that matter) race around in a circle? I was born and raised in the Southeast USA, and I still don't "get" NASCAR.

I understand what you mean. But I think it gets really exciting as soon as the circle becomes really irregular with lots of twists and turns.

[dubhlinn]

Weight, Shoemaker, Piggott, Horses...
It's all down to money..
Judgement...
Form..
Breeding...
Not to mention Luck....

Slan,
D.

[Wombat]

I was all set to fight Mike Tyson until I realised he had several unfair advantages over me.