Why motorsport needs fast women - Sydney Morning Herald
Every major motorsport series – from Formula 1 to V8 Supercars – craves female drivers good enough to compete with men, but few teams are willing to take the risk. Successful female drivers would attract new fans, new sponsors and alleviate motor sport's image as a testosterone-dominated endeavour. Far fewer young girls take up racing and, consequently, the talent pool of fast femmes is tiny by comparison with the plethora of teenage boys who scale the ladder from karts to junior car racing. There is no institutional obstruction to female drivers – in fact, motor racing is one of the few sports in which there is no segregation between men and women. There is also the debate about whether the best women drivers are physically and mentally strong enough to beat the main men in the most demanding and ruthless disciplines - F1, IndyCars, NASCAR and V8 Supercars. It is a dangerous argument, but the fact remains that while many women have tried, only one has succeeded in being regarded as "one of the boys" in major league racing on an on-going basis. Source: www.smh.com.au
