Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, May 29, 1994 TAG: 9405290111
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CONCORD, N.C. LENGTH: Long
So Sherry Blakley, 32, a single mother with a 9-year-old son, was wondering how things would go at Charlotte Motor Speedway on the night of May 21 when she and her purple Ramses Buick were introduced to the crowd.
"I was really surprised the other night when we raced with the place packed," she said. "The announcer said, `The Ramses condom car!' and people went crazy.
"NASCAR was a little afraid we might have opposition to it; that we might have a problem with some people thinking this was something we shouldn't be doing. But I think we proved in one night's time that people are not opposed to it and that it's a very positive sponsorship."
Blakley, who recently moved from San Antonio, Texas, to Greenville, S.C., was one of four women competing at Charlotte during the past two weeks. In the Grand National series, Shawna Robinson and Patty Moise tried unsuccessfully to qualify for Saturday's Champion 300. In the Sportsman series, Shari Minter won the pole positions for all three races.
In the Indianapolis 500 today at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Lyn St. James starts sixth - on the outside of the second row - after qualifying her 1994 Lola Ford at 224.154 mph. She has become a regular in the world's greatest race.
Women drivers today are like women police officers. They still generate attention, but they're becoming so common it's simply not the news it used to be, even when a woman races in a condom car.
"All in all, it's been a real good experience," said Blakley, who started in go-carts 10 years ago. "I'm doing AIDS awareness talks at high schools and going to conventions and doing all sorts of things to tie into the sponsorship.
"And I've had a lot of fun with it. You have to imagine. I mean, here I am - a woman. And then this is the first time in the sport that they've ever let a condom company in, and I get the sponsorship. But you know, I've always had it the tough way."
She hears a lot of jokes, of course, but the only thing her crew teases her about is her knack for missing wrecks. She went through the middle of two crashes during the three Sportsman races - and missed both. (Her best finishes were a pair of 21sts.)
"There's added pressure as to, `What's the girl going to do this time,' " Blakley said. "I think that's a problem for any rookie coming up, but maybe just a little more for a woman rookie. But the sport is so competitive all around, it really doesn't make any difference who you are. Breaking into the big time is tough."
Robinson could attest to that.
On Friday afternoon, she was standing next to her damaged Chevrolet, contemplating a trouble-filled season.
"I may not be much of an interview right now," she said apologetically. "I'm just very frustrated - not because I don't think I can do it, but because circumstances repeatedly happen."
Although Robinson, 29, a native of Des Moines, Iowa, is the most prominent woman driver in NASCAR racing this year, she wasn't talking like a woman racer. The words of frustration could have come from anyone.
Less than an hour earlier, Robinson had been caught in a big crash early in the last-chance qualifying race for Saturday's Champion 300, which became the seventh race she missed this year.
Two months ago, she won the pole for the Busch 300 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. "But it's definitely been downhill since then," she said.
"The only thing is, we women stand out a little more," Robinson said. "And there are good things about standing out. But obviously it's a whole lot easier when you're running up front."
Actually, despite all the publicity surrounding Janet Guthrie's racing career in the 1970s, women racers were among the earliest NASCAR pioneers. Louise Smith, Sara Christian and Ethel Mobley were regular competitors in the 1950s.
Robin McCall Dallenbach, the racing wife of Wally Dallenbach, ran in two Winston Cup races in 1981. Dallenbach said she wore blinders when it came to the issue of gender.
"I didn't look at myself as a girl trying to break in," said the 30-year-old mother of two who is itching to get back into the sport. "It was just something I did. I don't really remember a lot about the attitude of the men. I was young and naive, and there was probably a lot of talk, but I didn't really catch on.
"I had to work for everything I got. I had to earn it. I had to crash a couple of cars to make a point. When I went into a corner and I had the spot, if a guy came down, we crashed."
Said Moise: "This is one of the few sports where men and women can compete equally. It's gotten to a point where you don't have to have brute strength. All these cars have power steering on them. There's nothing about gender that matters to a race car."
Moise, 33, a Florida native who lives in Greensboro, N.C., with her husband, fellow Grand National driver Elton Sawyer, said some men still have a problem with women driving.
"I'm sure women in any sort of male-dominated work place face the same situation, but over time it gets easier and easier," she said.
"It's still you and that machine out on the race track," said Minter, who is 34. "A driver is a driver."
Minter proved that point in Saturday's Sportsman race. After racing for more than 20 laps with two other cars on her tail, Minter came out of the fourth turn and into a wall of smoke from a horrific wreck. She collided with another car and had the breath knocked out of her, but her enthusiasm was undimmed.
"We'll fix the car and have it ready for Pocono" next month, she said.
Like just about every stock car driver, Minter dreams of racing in the Winston Cup series.
She wants to race on equal terms with men. She doesn't want any favors, but she does hope she can help blaze a path for women racers.
"I hope in some what what I'm doing now may help another girl starting out down the road," she said.
Keywords:
AUTO RACING
by CNB