Watching Danica Patrick win the IRL race in Motegi, Japan last night was fun. The race itself was somewhat processional until the last 15 laps when the tension built as we waitied to see who would have to pit for last gasp “splash & go” stops, and who had managed to race and preserve fuel. – The answer to the last question was Danica.

All evening she had been around 8th or 9th place with the in car camera shots showing she was fighting understeer all the way around the egg-shaped oval track. After her last pit stop she seemd to have settled for a top ten finish, but in retrospect was probably conserving fuel for the end, as this race has traditionally come down to fuel management over out right speed. With just two laps to go she swept past the fuel starved Penske of Helio Castroneves to take the lead and an historic victory.

Since Danica Patrick burst onto the IndyCar scene I’ve always been impressed with her speed, but often questioned if she had the race craft to take a victory. Last night she proved she did.

The only negative note after the race for me was the TV commentators continued use of the phrase, “The first woman to win a major open-wheel event.” As usual with US based journalists, they ignore the rest of the world. “The first woman to win a major open-wheel event” was Desire Wilson, who won a round of the Bristish F1 championship in 1980 – becoming the only woman to have won an F1 race.

Not to take away anything from Danica’s achievment – but let’s be accurate. She is “the first woman to win a major American open wheel race. – Let’s hope there’s many more to come.