Since the invention of the motorcar, racing has been a male dominated sport, women however, have also been driving cars at a competitive level since the early days. As early as 1901, Camille du Gast and Helene Van Zuylen were racing motorcars with the first woman to join NASCAR in 1949, today hundreds of women are competing in all series and on any level.
Here is our top 3 list of the most talented female race car drivers.
Danica Patrick
If you know anything about racing, you won’t be surprised by our top pick for female race car drivers, Danna Patrick. She is by far the most famous female race car driver of all time. Danica is not only about image, but she is also a competitive driver and an inspiration to many other female drivers, in a sport dominated by men over the past decades.
At the tender age of 16 Danica started racing in 1998, competing in junior formula events, the IndyCar Series, and NASCAR, holding the only win by a female in IndyCar. As a competitive driver, Danica raced twice at the 24 Hours of Daytona, but her best season was in 2009, when she finished fifth overall.
Milka Duno
Milka the 50 year old former Venezuelan model is ranked one of the top female racers, with a solid racing record in the IndyCar and ARCA Racing series.
Born in April 1972 in Caracas, Milka not only worked as a model, but she is also an academically educated person, who worked as a naval engineer before starting her racing career in 1996. But what is most impressive of all, is that she did not start driving race cars until she was 24 years old, which is a very late start if you want to succeed in the word of racing.
Participating in the sports car, open-wheel and stock car competitions, her racing career flourished between 1996 and 2014.Milka competed in the American Le Mans Series and raced twice at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, she also scored five class wins in ALMS between 2000 and 2004 and finished the 2001 season in second place.
Milka was most successful in the sports car racing, scoring several class victories in the American Le Mans Series and Rolex Sports Car Series, even finishing as ALMS LMP675 class vice-champion in 2001. After spending four seasons in the IndyCar and three seasons in the ARCA Series, Milka retired from racing after competing in the NASCAR Nationwide and NASCAR Truck Series in 2014.
Simona De Silvestro
Simona a 31-year-old race car driver from Switzerland already has 15 years of hard racing under her belt, debuting in Formula Renault back in 2005 and progressed through various series until she entered IndyCar in 2010. Simona tested for Sauber’s F1 team in 2014 and raced in Formula E with Andretti Autosport, also racing four full seasons in Australia’s Supercars Championship with Nissan before joining the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship at the 24 Hours of Daytona in 2019.
As a teenager her great passion was car races. She abstained from many things and worked hard to live out her dream.
Simona De Silvestro always knew what she wanted, her open, humorous manner makes her very popular with her team-mates and rivals, earning due respect with good performances on the track. “I have always worked hard and let lap times speak for me. It was never my goal to just be the token woman in motorsport.” – Simona De Silvestro
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