Danica Patrick The female racer Created by:Joseph Craver

Author:Tara Baukus Mello.

EARLY YEARS Patrick was born in Beloit, Wisconsin and her parents names were T.J. and Bev Patrick. She grew up in a nearby town called Roscoe, Illinois. Danica’s father helps her by training her how to motor cross and other stuff.

CHEER LEADING? When Danica was in high school, she was a cheer leader. That doesn’t mean she gave up racing though, she just kept on practicing

BEGINNING RACING She began racing go-karts at the age of 10 in 1992. She eventually won several World Karting Association track championships.

MOVING FORW

ARD IN THE RACE

Eventually at age 16, she moved Milton Keynes, England to become a better racer. It was really hard for her because she was leaving her friends and home. Worst of all was she was going to be with all boys.

SHES A WINNER After 3 years of racing at Milton Keynes she had earned second place in Britain's

Formula Ford Festival and was the only women there. Then she went and raced for Rahal Letterman Racing and after the 2004 racing season Rahal Letterman Racing announced that Danica Patrick could race in the IRL Indy car series

2005 In 2005 Danica Patrick became the fourth women to complete the Indianapolis 500 and the only women to lead the race in the Indianapolis 500. She led that race for 19 laps, but in the end she came up in 4th place. In the end of 2005 in the Indycar Series championship she finished 12th with 325 points and named rookie of the year.

2006 In her first race of the season, the Toyota Indy 500 at Homestead she finished 3rd. Then tragedy struck as RLR teammate, Paul Dana was killed in a crash during practice the morning of the race. It was very hard for her once she herd this happened, but she has to keep calm and keep on racing. Also at the Indy 500 she started 8th and finished 8th. Patrick struggled to remain competitive, but her fourth place finishes at Nashville and Milwaukee tied her career best IndyCar finishes. In November, the March of Dimes awarded her the title of Sportswoman of the Year.

2007

In Patrick's first race with Andretti Green Racing at Homestead on March 24 she crashed into the pit wall on lap 154, but she came out in 14th place. At Milwaukee , Patrick started second to last but moved quickly to 5th before she hit contact with Dan Wheldon, Patrick managed to keep the car from hitting anything else, but the wreck caused aerodynamic damage. She used a caution to regain the lead lap and finish in 8th. After the race, she and Wheldon had a heated fight when she tried to get him to confront him about the wreck. At the season finale in Chicagoland Speedway, Patrick ran most of the race in the top 6, but had to make a pit stop for fuel with only 7 laps to go. When entering pit lane, Patrick spun-out but avoided all damage to her car. With help from her pit crew, Patrick was able to restart the engine, make a complete pit stop, and rejoin the race, finishing 11th overall. For the 2007 season as a final, Patrick scored her first three career podium finishes to finish with 4 top 5's and 11 top 10's while leading with 17 laps on the season. She also scored her best career championship points finish of 7th with 424 points

2008 Patrick won at Twin Ring Motegi in the Indy Japan 300 on April 20, 2008, becoming the first woman ever in history to win an IndyCar race. During practice for the 2008 Indianapolis 500, Patrick's car hit a member of Dale Coyne Racing's pit crew when she came into the pits on May 9. During the Indianapolis 500 on May 25, 2008, she retired from the race early after a wreck in the pitlane. Overall, she finished the 2008 IndyCar Series season in a amazing spot of sixth place. the highest championship finish among American drivers for the 2008 season of racing.

2009 On May 24, Patrick raced at the Indianapolis 500 and finished in a great place, 3 rd. Her car was rebranded from Moterola to Boost Mobile following the Kansas race. In the Honda Indy Toronto, it was difficult qualifying and practice for the entire Andretti Green team, Patrick started the race near the back in 18th position (her teammates also started in the rear of the race in 17th, 20th, and 22nd). Patrick had the best finish of the Andretti Green team, moving up twelve positions to finish 6 th. Patrick finished the season in 5th overall in the point standings, which gave her the best finish by an American driver in 2009

2010 The 2010 Indianapolis 500 got off to a bad start for Patrick when difficulties with the car setup led her to publicly removing blame from herself for poor qualifying results. Her comments that the car was "absolutely awful" and that "it's not my fault," led the crowd to boo and chant Patrick loudly as they took it as her blaming the whole incident on her team and not taking any responsibility for her very bad session. Patrick was also booed during driver intros. Despite starting in 23rd position, Patrick moved up 17 positions to finish in 6th. During the 2010 season, Danica Patrick set the Indycar Series record for consecutive races finished running, having finished every race of the 2010 season as well as all but the first race of the 2009 season, for a all out total of 33 races.

2011

In her season opener at the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, Patrick started in 19th and finished 12th after sustaining front wing damage and having to pit for a replacement twice. On May 21, due to unexplainable team-wide fails with the cars, Patrick, and the rest of her teammates would fail to race for the 2011 Indianapolis 500, forcing them all to have to attempt to race on the following day for the last nine positions in the race. Despite being one of the fastest in the following morning's practice, when it came time for racing, her car failed, and she was then placed in the back of the qualifying line. Her season is not over yet so she will keep on racing and have a great year.

NASCAR

Patrick drove a part-time schedule in the NASCAR Nationwide Series and her sponsor for nascar was GoDaddy.com. She raced at Daytona on February 13, 2010, in the NASCAR Nationwide Series for her first career start in the series, which ended when Patrick was caught up in a 12-car accident. She started 15th and finished 35 th which was really bad and she was really upset. On March 5, 2011, Patrick set racing history again, finishing 4th in the Sam's Town 300 Nationwide Series Race at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Patrick talked about in the post-race interview that her goal was to get a top 10 finish in the series. On July 7, 2011, Patrick finished 10th in the Subway Jalapeno 250 Nationwide series race at Daytona after leading a total of 13 laps during the race before being involved in an incident coming to the checkered flag on the last lap of the race. So that’s her nascar career so far and hopefully everything goes well for the rest of her season.

PERSERVERANCE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjFPIubBNwQ. This video explains how she had to persevere through her whole career and her whole life. It also shows her winning the Indy Japan 300.

Danica and Maria Teresa de Filippis are the basically the same in a lot of ways. First of all they are one of the rare and only female racers out there. They both had to realize they were a different species out there to those guys so they had to act normal and not cause anything. Maria had to persevere through basically the same things Danica had to. She had to persevere through being the only girl out there on that track and fans and fellow team mates making fun of her or not encouraging her on. So now you know the caparison of Danica and Maria.

Bio Poem

DanicaLove of racing,

Who excels at ignoring the bad comments,Who feels the need to spend more time for with family,

Who needs more practice,Who gives love to other,Who fears car accidents,

Who would like to see everybody happy in this world,Believes that everybody has a great chance to be anything,

Stands for child abuse, Is against killing of animals.

Patrick