Gunning for Danica? Texas cheerleading captain making waves in racing
Lindsey Adams is 19, has a thing for manicures, designer clothing, and she's the captain of her school's cheerleading squad. She's also a burgeoning threat on the racetrack, having just won a regional Formula Mazda race at Texas World Speedway late last month, on top of achieving some success kart racing nationally. In fact, her racing career is looking so bright that Adams is putting her higher education plans on-hold to pursue driving. Little wonder then, that donning helmets and mixing it up on the track is in Adams' blood. Both Adams' father and grandfather raced, the latter going on to build race cars for some three decades in Dallas after having children.
Admittedly, virtually every female enjoying any sort of success in the racing world is being labeled as 'The Next Danica'... but what's to say Adams doesn't have a shot?
[Source: The Dallas Morning News via WFAA.com]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Bob-o 2:18PM (6/04/2006)
The difference being, Danica hasn't won ANYTHING since 1997...
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slate 3:22PM (6/04/2006)
All it shows it that nascar and formula driving doesn't require much skill. Driving in circles is not terribly difficult. Get a good car and have some agressive driving nerve and anyone can be a star. Pick any pretty blonde with decent hand eye coordination and give her some serious backing and there is your next nascar phenom.
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brian 3:47PM (6/04/2006)
CART/IRL might have a chance if they start filling their fields with hot looking women that drive something other than SUVs and minivans :-)
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gbh 4:51PM (6/04/2006)
Slate,
While I would agree that the skillset used in wrasslin' on wheels, errr NAPCAR is rather limited, it is a skill. Like drag racing, a limited skill-set, but it does take a certain amount of talent to hustle anything around (or down) any track.
If Lindsey did/does well in a kart, that's a different story. Shifter karts are quite tough - broken ribs from the g-loads are common. Many/most of the F1 drivers come from karting.
Anytime you have to shift a few thousand times, and turn in more than one direction (varying corners even!) coordinate brakes and clutch a few thousand time a race - I would say there's more than just average driver level required. Especially to win.
Racing quit being mainly about racing around the death of Can Am. Maybe earlier, maybe later, but racing to race only exists on the privateer level. Anything that requires cubic dollars, is corporatized, medianized, and sanitized for your protection.
This is business. Drivers are billboards for a product/service. They are spokesmodels driving cars - male or female.
Though I have not personally spoken with Danica, her interviews leave a LOT to be desired. If this Lindsey girl is smarter and slicker, she should have no problem getting sponsor cash. Unless Danica starts performing, she's not going to be marketable for much longer.
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WolfgangNC 5:19PM (6/04/2006)
I get to differ that oval racing is less difficult than road racing (I have done both). If you live in the states, go to your local oval track and watch, especially on dirt. You can't tell me looking over your right shoulder through the turns while steering the car both with the wheel and the throttle doesn't take skill. Open wheel oval racing is alittle different since there is very little in the way of handling since they are glud to the track. I remember Jeff Gordon saying after he he got out of the Williams' F1 car at Indy that is was like a video game, on-off driving, where Montoya was not as excited about the NASCAR feeling.
Personally, if the driver is good (boy/girl) I don't care. I just want to see the best compete with each other, that is why the IRL/CART split has made open wheel racing in the USA a joke. I believe a talented driver will be good in anything he gets into be it F1, NASCAR, kart racing, or off-road.
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sr20de 6:42PM (6/04/2006)
Ooh! Let me make a mental note to watch this girl. She wins a small meaningless race and is the next big thing. Yeah okay. I'm a motorsports fan- but please wake me up when a woman wins a REAL event and not some runoff or regional event. There are plenty of good women drivers in the many divisions of the SCCA, what makes this girl so special? Oh right, she is a cheerleader. Oh boy!
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Cray 12:38AM (6/05/2006)
In this day and age do we really need to make a mountain out a molehill because of gender or even racial make up? Sure it will be big news when a Female driver can win the big race like Indy 500 or a black driver winning the Daytona 500. Its going to happen, its just matter of when, so people shouldn't be surprised about it.
As for Lindsey Adams, she seems like she's on her way, a few more races under her belt and she might be Indy ready.
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HC 4:24AM (6/05/2006)
how can you actually go and learn to be a race car driver?
I've seriously thought of being one
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Corey W. 10:19AM (6/05/2006)
I can't believe the label 'The Next Danica'... even exists, this is an all time LOW!! It's amazing, the sport is that hard up, that it needs attractive women drivers to draw more attention.
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Glenn Zanotti 11:39AM (6/05/2006)
I know Lindsey, and we did a story on her in Texas Driver. Although it is still to early to predict her success in the long run, she is definitely commited to racing, and she is smart. She knows how racing works, too, so getting sponsors should not be a big deal, as long as she continues to improve on the track. She has a good start with the Tomlin family backing her current seat time. She is also very young, and experience can only come with time. What is her future? Her future will be whatever she commits to making it.
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Racer X 2:01PM (6/05/2006)
HC:
Yes, there are. Many. Read this little blurb, and know it's just the tip of the iceburg:
http://www.ovr-scca.org/letsGoRacing/
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Legge fan 6:16PM (6/05/2006)
Katherine Legge took 2nd overall in the premiere open-wheel series in the US this weekend. Not in some 2nd tier thing, but in the Champ Car series.
Oddly (for Champ Car), the race was on an oval.
It's an insult to all the good female racers already in real series that people would call an up-and-comer "The next Danica."
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Grajeda 2:01AM (6/06/2006)
this isn´t direct to the post... maybe it is
I want a girlfriend like her...
everyone think the same...
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Motorsport fan 10:06AM (6/21/2006)
I wish to have a personal driver like she :P
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