i can think of 3...
I can think of 4 
i am in no way a sexist, but i do believe there is significant scientific evidence that shows that there are differences between men and women other than their genitals, and that some of these diffeneces come into play in racing.
i can think of two main factors.
first, males are generally better at spacial relations, ie, keeping track of their own position relative to other moving objects, and this comes from our evolution through the hunter/gatherer period. spearing a charging mammoth and racing towards T1 have a lot in common.
second, as noted by someone else already, males have more testosterone. it's a powerful mind alterning chemical that when combined with adrenaline makes us do stupid things that women will tend not to do. sometimes taking those stupid risks make us crash, but other times they pay off, and we win the race.
now, this is certainly not to say that women can't be good drivers, or that all men are better than women. the differences, while real, are still small, and there is variation among the population, so it would be quite natural for some women to be pretty good drivers, and some men to be pretty bad. but at the highest levels of competition, even a small advantage is an advantage, and so even if none of the social hurdles faced by women were there, they would still have a very difficult time competing.
i can think of two main factors.
first, males are generally better at spacial relations, ie, keeping track of their own position relative to other moving objects, and this comes from our evolution through the hunter/gatherer period. spearing a charging mammoth and racing towards T1 have a lot in common.
second, as noted by someone else already, males have more testosterone. it's a powerful mind alterning chemical that when combined with adrenaline makes us do stupid things that women will tend not to do. sometimes taking those stupid risks make us crash, but other times they pay off, and we win the race.
now, this is certainly not to say that women can't be good drivers, or that all men are better than women. the differences, while real, are still small, and there is variation among the population, so it would be quite natural for some women to be pretty good drivers, and some men to be pretty bad. but at the highest levels of competition, even a small advantage is an advantage, and so even if none of the social hurdles faced by women were there, they would still have a very difficult time competing.
Really stunning that this discussion can even exist.... Fact is, there are not actually that many MEN who can compete at the highest levels of motorsport. And quite a high proportion of the men who are there... well, they brought an awful lot of money to the table when the negotiations were going on.
I'm willing to bet that there aren't too many women around, because the prevailing sexist attitudes in wider society mean that there are fewer people willing to put the required loot behind a woman. At club level, I know that there are many more women. Again, its down to money, not testosterone. I don't want to join the Hamilton knockers, but can anyone here imagine a dad seeing his precious eight year old princess screaming round a kart track and saying anything other than, "Wouldn't you rather have a pony love?" (okay, there's probably a few of you here willing to contradict me on that! At least, I hope there is....)
Do a few searches on this lady:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laleh_Seddigh
Very instructive story....
And as for motorcycling, check out this lady, a road racer with more guts than many blokes I know: http://www.costelloracing.com/
I'm willing to bet that there aren't too many women around, because the prevailing sexist attitudes in wider society mean that there are fewer people willing to put the required loot behind a woman. At club level, I know that there are many more women. Again, its down to money, not testosterone. I don't want to join the Hamilton knockers, but can anyone here imagine a dad seeing his precious eight year old princess screaming round a kart track and saying anything other than, "Wouldn't you rather have a pony love?" (okay, there's probably a few of you here willing to contradict me on that!
At least, I hope there is....)Do a few searches on this lady:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laleh_Seddigh
Very instructive story....
And as for motorcycling, check out this lady, a road racer with more guts than many blokes I know: http://www.costelloracing.com/
If I had an eight-year-old daughter who raced karts she'd be my favorite child.
Oh, crap. I'm screwed.
I think I'd fight her for a go
Since she's 8, in this hypothetical situation, I'd be the one funding it, so I get a go whenever I feel like. I don't have to fight her for it 
My oldest turn 8 next year. If she would like to try the rental karts, I'd be first in line to take here there. In fact, I'll take all my kids there as soon as they are old enough. 
That might change when people are a little more open. (Many it'll start with me since one of my goals in life is to own a race team
)Well, the reason why there's no women in NASCAR is actually due to lack of funding and proper programs
Article: http://www.nascar.com/2007/new ... .lstjames.indy/index.html
Article: http://www.nascar.com/2007/new ... .lstjames.indy/index.html
There are female drivers in NASCAR, remember NASCAR is more than just the Nextel Cup
Theres at least one female driver in CTS.Kelly Sutton i believe and yes I do remember her but she's only part time and she's not exactly doing great
Some women do cruel things to their body, but I for one would not want to develope my neck muscles sufficiently to compete in a top flight formula motor sport even though I love single seater racing.
Had I the finances to compete competitively this would always, for me, be a limiting factor in how far I could go in single seater motor sports.
Testosterone is lorded around as a key reason why women dont do well in motor sports, I think this is wrong. Testosterone is responsible for poor judgement more often than it is useful, and actually women have about the same amount of it - what we dont have is as many testosterone receptors, and of course we have way more oestrogens which make us nag our mechanics
.Men have oestrogens too, just not nearly as much of it, meaning they have to rely on testosterone whenever hormones are thrown into the mix. However, racing isnt a hormonal exercise outside of LFS - and the only effect they have in LFS is the ability to say 'fu' instead of 'sorry'.
Adrenaline can be useful in making reactions faster, but most drivers running on adrenaline will find that they are slower, adrenaline causes nervousness - it's the drivers who have a high threshold before adrenaline is released who tend to do better in motor sports because it allows them to make less rash decisions. For an example of this look at the carear of Takuma Sato: Crash crash crash crash crash maturity *ding* overtakes Alonso. As one gains experience the base level of adrenaline in a driver is reduced.
You can test this for yourself by getting into a 2 stroke go kart, on the first couple of laps out of the pits of a day I find myself asking "how the hell did I ever manage to drive this thing? It's scary fast!" - but once adjusted the adrenaline subsides and i'm able to cope with all the input i'm getting.
Research into why racing drivers tend to run in the family shows that the fun/fear threshold of racing drivers is high and is passed on genetically.
No surprise to me then, that before me my father was a racing driver, and so is my brother.
The only thing stopping women getting into the top flight of motor sports is the lack of desire to get there. It takes financial investment to get to the top of this sport, but more importantly, it takes sacrifices physically that a lot of women who would get up to that point just dont want to make.
LOL. Coming from a guy, I'll have to say that I dont do or say stupid things because of testosterone (it's usually because of something else) and I'll disagree that testosterone is a disadvantage. Because of testosterone guys will take more chances and risks to get where they want. Coming from oval racing I see this a lot and yes sometimes it can cloud our judgment. But usually it gives us that extra push we need to get out front
But IMO, it really depends on the individual. I mean I know some guys who are just RIDICULOUSLY passive on the track while some are a bit too aggressive.
Juan Pablo Montoya and Narain Karthikeyan are two totally different drivers. One uses the throttle more then the brakes and the other uses the brakes more then the throttle.
That's not completely true. My family is almost anti-racing, and yet here I am trying to get into motorsports
No one NO ONE in my family has a need for speed That is true and that I'll agree with. I mean that NASCAR article kinda backs the statement up
Ha ha.... yeah, I don't really think you took Becky's point onboard. Another good example is Casey Stoner. Last year he was willing to go for those chances and earned himself the nickname "Crashey Stoner". So he got married, calmed down, started thinking and there are very few riders capable of beating him at the moment.
And don't anyone try the "but the Ducati is so much quicker than anything else" argument. Even if its true, Casey is so obviously a better rider than he was last year.
sebeen schmitz (speeling) probably the worlds best female driver and not bad looking either (id bone her) but i think mostly its that women are not discouraged (speeling) from racing i think its more of a fact that they dont really have an intrest for it and the ones that do, do well at it (just opinion not fact)
Does this means that if Rossi's marries, he will be unstopable
?Two main drawbacks that i see for women in motorsport.
1. Physical abilities, women are genetically weaker than men, but with practice this wouldn't really matter.
2. Womens brains are wired differently than men. Take for instance the long held notion that women are rubbish drivers, well, alot are, and there was a psychiatric study recently (sorry forgot the link) that delved into this, basically it went along a few things, women give cars a name, men don't. Men see the car as an extension of their own bodies, whereas women see cars as a item they use.
But those two points only explain why there aren't a lot of women in motorsport, it's because it's harder for them to get into it, they aren't really interested.
Of course there's lots of exceptions, and that's great. And it also doesn't mean a woman can't be as good as any other man can be, it's just hinders them in the begining.
Personally i think women should be encouraged to get into motorsport, i always take my girlfriend along to my trackdays.
1. Physical abilities, women are genetically weaker than men, but with practice this wouldn't really matter.
2. Womens brains are wired differently than men. Take for instance the long held notion that women are rubbish drivers, well, alot are, and there was a psychiatric study recently (sorry forgot the link) that delved into this, basically it went along a few things, women give cars a name, men don't. Men see the car as an extension of their own bodies, whereas women see cars as a item they use.
But those two points only explain why there aren't a lot of women in motorsport, it's because it's harder for them to get into it, they aren't really interested.
Of course there's lots of exceptions, and that's great. And it also doesn't mean a woman can't be as good as any other man can be, it's just hinders them in the begining.
Personally i think women should be encouraged to get into motorsport, i always take my girlfriend along to my trackdays.
I think it's a non-issue. If you would calculate the percentage people racing vs people who would like to go racing there woldn't be a significant difference between male and female. In DTM there are two women, in F3 there have been as much as three in a field of 20 men. In that case that means seven times as many men than woman. I think we can safely assume that men as a whole are at least seven times as interested as women to get into racing so I don't see any sexism going on here.
If a girl has the funding and the talent to win races, nobody will stop her. DTM has had Ellen Lohr winning races and Michel Mouton was challenging for WRC titles at the time of Group B and Walter Röhrl so it certainly isn't true that a woman's brain is "wired up wrong". Even if true on average, it says nothing about individual people.
If a girl has the funding and the talent to win races, nobody will stop her. DTM has had Ellen Lohr winning races and Michel Mouton was challenging for WRC titles at the time of Group B and Walter Röhrl so it certainly isn't true that a woman's brain is "wired up wrong". Even if true on average, it says nothing about individual people.
I've read somewhere that getting funding for a girl is harder then it is for men.
Funding is hard in motor sport full stop, I dont know whether it's harder for women - I never found good funding and never got on the ladder, but that might not have been prejudice.
I had the pleasure of working in the same office block as Mark Blundell, it was interesting to see how he handled his affairs when he was racing, and for him it was a full time job. He hired the offices so that he'd get up in the morning and go to a full days work selling himself. Of course, the amount of time he spent at it might have been because a lot of companies shut the door for a cockney geezer asking for 18 million quid for an 'F1 car in Pekham' but if that's what it takes to get the cash together I can safely say that I didn't put the effort it.
I had the pleasure of working in the same office block as Mark Blundell, it was interesting to see how he handled his affairs when he was racing, and for him it was a full time job. He hired the offices so that he'd get up in the morning and go to a full days work selling himself. Of course, the amount of time he spent at it might have been because a lot of companies shut the door for a cockney geezer asking for 18 million quid for an 'F1 car in Pekham' but if that's what it takes to get the cash together I can safely say that I didn't put the effort it.
very true
to get anywhere you really do need to be in a well above an average wage earning family as a youngin
I wouldn't say that. From my experience in motorsport, motorsport marketing and raising sponsorship i can safely say it is definitely easier to raise money for women!
The amount of interest a good female racer gets and that's great for marketing and brand exposure.
There haven't been many good female racers and there are and have been a lot of crap ones, but they get quite far because of the money behind them.
I mean, look at Katherine Legg... she is crap! She couldn't drive nails, yet she's been in ChampCar all year!
Being male or female has it's pros and cons, overall i don't think it is any easier for any one of the sexes...
But not as crap as some of the men to be fair.
1
Sebastien Bourdais 216 2 
Robert Doornbos (R) 206 3 
Will Power 192 4 
Justin Wilson 175 5 
Neel Jani (R) 156 6 Simon Pagenaud (R) 154 7 
Oriol Servia 146 8 
Graham Rahal (R) 145 9 
Alex Tagliani 140 10 
Bruno Junqueira 125 11 Paul Tracy 113 12 Tristan Gommendy (R) 95 13 
Ryan Dalziel (R) 95 14 
Dan Clarke 83 15 Katherine Legge 71 16 Alex Figge (R) 57 17 
Jan Heylen 50 18 
Mario Dominguez 49 19 
Matt Halliday (R) 18 20 Roberto Moreno 9(also she's a bit of a hottie and she came out unscathed from this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8h2iqmliVMk Ok, that has nothing to do with her talent or lack of, but i thought i'd say it anyway
)LOL! Nah, getting married would probably void the contract he made at the crossroads a long time ago...
Women and Racing
(57 posts, started )
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