Note: Everything below is completely true.
It was about 10 second into the Q&A period of the Jan. 30 conference call announcing that Sarah Fisher and Buddy Rice will return to the Indy Racing League when Sarah got her first question -- about Milka Duno and Danica Patrick.
For the record, I know what the questioner was going for. It's that whole "Sarah as female racing pioneer" angle. I used to be newspaper reporter. So I see the target.
From the transcript: "Q: Hey, everybody. Sarah, what's the perspective of coming into the series where there might be three female drivers (Sarah, Danica and maybe Venezuelan Milka Duno)? Back in IRL, start of the decade, that's unheard of. Now what do you think about running with two other female drivers?"
Welcome to Sarah Fisher's life. She announces she's in the IRL for 2007 and the first and only question is about being female.
"It will be exciting for the league," Sarah answered gamely, "because it's something they can sell and it will be great entertainment to see that happen. You know, I focus more on the individual drivers themselves and who you're competing against and, you know, it will be neat to have three drivers, that would be cool."
That was it. No more questions for Sarah. A few questions for Buddy Rice, who was announced as Fisher's teammate at Dreyer & Reinbold Racing, but, oddly enough, none of them were about how cool it would be for Buddy to be racing against 19 or so other male racers.
For Sarah it's just another day at the office. I haven't chatted up Sarah about it, but I think Champ Car's Katherine Legge put it well when she said her gender has both helped and hurt her ability to get a ride. Helped with the novelty factor. Hurt in that there are not a lot of people even open to considering a female driver for their cars. Hurt in that all people want to ask you about are the other women in the league. Even though, in Sarah's case, she has virtually nothing in common with Danica or Milka other than gender and a stated desire to win.
Team owner Robbie "Incredi" Buhl said the Fisher Rice paring was "something we talked about for a while. Sarah drove for us the last two races last year, Kentucky and Chicago, and she didn't put a wheel wrong there; there were things we need to do improve on our race cars to give her a better race car, but Sarah showed her desire to want to be back in a car and make a statement in open-wheel (cars), so we're excited to have Sarah with us and complement that with Buddy and his knowledge of open-wheel cars." Robbie somehow failed to mention that Sarah does, in fact, have an extra X chromosome making her, indeed, female.
"Past champion at the 500, Buddy was at the shop, and we were looking at some of the things we have done as a team, Dreyer & Reinbold Racing, and we were excited to see some of the commitment that Dennis and myself knew that we had to continue to improve on," Robbie continued, "to take our team to the next level, and we internally as a team have done a lot, and we are looking forward to putting some great cars out there for both Buddy and Sarah and having a competitive year. The work is still ahead but that's the plan."
For the record, Buddy is male.
For her part, Sarah said during the conference call "I've had a great time with those guys (at DRR) and they have the equipment and the people to be able to put me back on the podium again and to be able to compete up front. They have wonderful people and working with them in the off season showed their commitment to growing as a team solidly. I'm excited about that to be able to be back and love the IndyCars definitely at heart. "
Sponsor-wise, DRR will again get support from Indianapolis-based Roll Coater, who coats steel for multiple industrial uses. Also joining the team for ’07 will be EurUp Energy Drink on Fisher’s Number 5 car and Bitburger beer on Rice’s number 15 car in new sponsorship roles. The 106th St. Grill will also celebrate their seventh season with the team. “Racing for Kids”, for whom team Buhl, DRR has served as national spokesman since 1989, will also partner with the team.
Sarah, apparently, will not be driving the street/road courses for DRR. Like some much in racing, particularly open-wheel racing, it's a cash thing.
During the conference call team co-owner Dennis Reinbold said "I can share some why's on that from the standpoint of we're trying to round out our budget. We're far enough along to get us to the tipping point to where we can pull the trigger and say, 'Yeah, we're going to do this,' but it may be a possibility that we have to get someone else in for the road course races in order to balance out our budget."
If ya got a check and want to run road races, see Dennis.
Dennis also said DRR may consider going to a three-car team for Indy, but that, again, depended on -- you guessed it -- cash.
Here's hoping Katherine Legge shows up at the DRR shop in early May with a big check from mum.
It is a good thing that there are drivers in the IRL that can attract attention. That being said, it seems a shame that Sarah Fisher spent the entire off-season preparing herself for road-racing, and now she is limited to the ovals. If she is to have any chance at the championship, she needs to drive all the races. As it is, she has to concede a mediocure season. That just ain't a fair deal for her, but it is better than sitting on the sidelines for the whole season.
Posted by: Jahuti Rhys | January 31, 2007 at 02:02 AM