Six Women Try Out for Infiniti Pro Series

INDIANAPOLIS Nov 9, 2004; Steve Herman writing for the AP reported that the Indy Racing League expects to have the first female driver in its developmental Infiniti Pro Series next season in preparation for an eventual ride in the IndyCar Series.

The Infiniti series graduated three drivers to the bigger open-wheel circuit in its first two years of competition. This week, six women are testing at Texas Motor Speedway for a possible ride next year.

"This is designed as the developing ground for the IndyCar series," IRL spokesman Tim Harms said Tuesday. "The same type of cars, running the same circuits, running at speeds just slightly slower than the IndyCar Series cars and within 150-200 horsepower. Everything is basically set up to give them an environment as close to the IndyCar Series as possible."

Car owner and former Indianapolis 500 (news - web sites) winner Bobby Rahal said in May he would give a ride next year in the Indy 500 to Danica Patrick, who competes in the Champ Car's developmental Toyota Atlantic series.

And Nunn Motorsports, the only IRL team owned by a woman, is conducting the tests this week in Texas and plans to offer at least one of the six women a full-time Infiniti ride in 2005.

"It is probably the best training ground there is to get somebody into the IndyCar Series, a very good opportunity for the women in this test to take that step," Harms said.

No woman has driven in the Infiniti series yet, and Sarah Fisher and Lyn St. James are the only women to have competed in the IRL's nine-year-old IndyCar series.

Among the six testing in Texas is Sondi Eden, a U.S. Auto Club regional midget champion.

"I was a little nervous going into it, so I just started out slow to build up my confidence," Eden said. "I just progressed slowly, took my time and got comfortable in it, got up to speed."

Eden, 27, of Crawfordsville, Ind., and a former North American Midget Auto Racing Series rookie of the year, was the first of the six to test Monday and completed 60 laps on the 1.5-mile oval.

The three-day program ends Wednesday.

"I expected them to do well," team owner Kathryn Nunn said. "They all had excellent credentials. Today's exercise was designed to give them all a lot of seat time and let them get comfortable in the car, on the track and with the crew.

"They'll have another opportunity to get in the car and pick up even more speed," she said.

The other drivers include Sarah McCune, 26, an Indiana University graduate who twice tested an Indy car in 2000 and tested an Infiniti car with Sam Schmidt Motorsports this past June. McCune, of Perrysburg, Ohio, started racing at age 11 in quarter midgets and moved up to the USAC national midget series.

The other women are Becca Anderson, 25, of Lincoln, Del., who has 13 career sprint car feature wins; Juliana Chiovitti, 23, of Canada, a three-time World Karting Association grand national champion; Rossella Manfinato, 35, of Italy, a sports car driver and engineer for a chassis manufacturer; and Wendy Mathis, 25, of Brandon, Fla., the first woman to win a sprint car feature in the Tampa Bay Area Racing Association.