Thursday, May 17, 2007

Drive fast, attract cops; drive faster, attract sponsors

No, I'm not really into NASCAR, but being in the South, in fact just being in North Carolina, it's hard to avoid it. It's hard to avoid cardboard cutouts of drivers in the grocery store, driver interviews on the news, the scandals about other drivers ("Junior") and reports on races during the sports section of a newscast. Come to think of it, is there really a better place to put such a useless bit of information but a segment devoted to useless information?

Anyway, some of that useless information I found a little interesting. You see that little red and white Pontiac decked out with the Citgo logo? It's not driven by your average run-of-the-mill chewing, drinking redneck. The driver, who is from Venezuela, has been educated and trained to be a Naval Engineer and holds 4 masters degrees--organizational development, naval architecture, maritime business, and marine biology. But that's not the shocking part... the driver of that car is a woman! And yeah, she's gorgeous, too. Her name is Milka Duno. She'll be racing in the Indy 500, making it the first time three women have participated in that race at the same time (because there are in fact two other women drivers who have qualified as well!)


So my hat's off to her for defying stereotypes in so many ways. I wonder if Saudi Arabia could take notice that yes, women can drive just as well as men, even competitively. And even wearing headgear. (Which is the same headgear men have to wear, by the way!)

2 comments:

Aviator said...

LOL, nice competition!! But, it is easy to drive a car.

The big challenge is to fly a glider for many hours in the air without fuel !!!

Are girls able to do so??? I dont think so: both in USA, Saudia, or even Ploto planet. They probably will get scared and get their hearts stop. :-) JUST JOKING


How about sport aircrafts??? will never ever see a girl flying it too.

I had met a doctor, 65 years, who fly gliders for more than 8 hours continously, mashaa allaha. He flies gliders more than 30 years, before i even get into the earth !!


Airplanes are the royal sports to judge people professionalism and capabilities. lol :)

Amy said...

If you can say "it is easy to drive a car" then you've never seen these races.

I haven't ever flown a glider though, so I can't comment on that. Not because I'm scared, but because I don't know anywhere around here to do that. Maybe Jockey's Ridge at Kitty Hawk (which btw is my childhood beach retreat and where the FIRST MACHINE POWERED FLIGHT took place!)

And don't dare me on the "sport aircrafts." Going on hajj is just a little higher priority for me than a sport license, or else you'd see me doing aerobatics, I swear!

Get scared and my heart stop? Yeah whatever. Being in the air is natural. And that's what my flight instructor said, too, "You're a natural!"

A natural bird of prey and I would .hunt. .you. .down.