At the half-way point of the season 135 different drivers from Formula One, Indycar, NASCAR, NHRA drag racing, and the World Rally Championship have qualified to be included in The Speed Blog driver rankings.

World Rally driver Mikko Hirvonen maintains the top spot for another month, but the gap to second placed Indycar racer Scott Dixon is closing fast.

Here’s the Top 10 standings at the end of June.

1. Mikko Hirvonen (WRC)
2. Scott Dixon (IRL)
3. Sebastian Loeb (WRC)
4. Helio Castroneves (IRL)
5. Robert Kubica (F1)
6. Fellipe Massa (F1)
7. Dan Wheldon (IRL)
8. Kimi Raikkonen (F1)
9. Tony Schumacher (NHRA)
10. Chris Atkinson (WRC)

Kyle Busch is the top ranked NASCAR driver at #13 on the list.

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.

The opening IRL race of the 2008 season was meant to be the start of the new era of US  open-wheel racing. Sure enough there were a few ex-Champ Car teams on the grid, but given the short amount of time they have had to prepare they weren’t really a factor. In short the start of this “new era” was pretty much the same as we’ve seen over the last few seasons.

The battle at the front was between the three power teams of Ganassi, Penske and Andretti-Green with Ganassi’s Scott Dixon ending up in victory lane with team mate Dan Wheldon being the star of the show with a charge up to third from the back of the grid. Marco Andretti drove with maturity beyond his 21 years to a solid second place.

Going back to the unification; while it was great to see a full grid of cars, would it have been better to wait a little longer, maybe even to the Indy 500 in may, for the ex-Champ Car teams to join in. having a team like Newman-Haas sidelined through a lack of spares is frankly ridiculous. And how can drivers like publicity stunt Milka Duno have a ride, while Sarah Fisher, Paul Tracy and many others sit on the sidelines?

Ernie Triplett was the 1931 and 1932 AAA West Coast Champion. Although he was born in the Midwest and did most of his early racing there, he rose to prominence after he started winning at the Legion Ascot Speedway in Los Angeles. He competed in the Indianapolis 500 five times between 1929 and 1933. He failed to finish four times because of mechanical failures. However in 1931 he completed the distance finishing  in seventh place. By 1934 he had semi-retired from the sport and was racing only occasionally.

On March 4th, 1934 he entered a AAA Pacific Coast Big Car Championship race at Imperial Raceway in California. According to reports the track was so dusty that the vision of the drivers was severely impaired. One car, slowed by engine problems, had stopped on the track in the north turn. Another car hit the stationery race car and rolled over on impact. At this point several people from the infield had run onto the track to assist just as Triplett arrived on the scene at speed. Triplett’s car struck and killed a mechanic, and crashed heavily, causing injuries to Triplett that would prove fatal within a few hours.

Willy T. Ribbs -  3rd January 1956

Perhaps the best known African-American driver who over the years competed in many forms of racing. After retiring, he became a sport shooter in the National Sporting Clays Association.

Willy was born in San Jose, California,  and  after his graduating high school in 1975,  he moved to Europe to compete in the Formula Ford Series. He won the Dunlop Championship in his first year of competition, then returned to the United States. NASCAR owner Will Cronkite hired Ribbs to drive his Winston Cup car, but fired him after Ribbs skipped two practice sessions. Ribbs went on to race Formula Atlantic cars, winning the pole in the Long Beach Formula Atlantic race in 1982.

The following year, Ribbs won five races in the SCCA Trans-Am Series and was honored as Pro Rookie of the Year. Ribbs would attempt NASCAR again in 1986, running three races.

Here’s  onboard footage of Willy T. Ribbs driving an IMSA GTO Toyota around the temporary circuit at Del Mar Fairgrounds in 1988.

Also in 1986, Ribbs drove a Formula One car, when he tested for the Brabham team. In 1990, Ribbs joined the CART circuit in a car owned by comedian Bill Cosby. Ribbs had two top-10 events that season, and in 1991, he became the first African-American to qualify for the Indianapolis 500. He raced there a second time in 1993. After being released from the team in 1994, he continued in the CART series with another two top 10 finishes.

In 1999, Ribbs raced in an Indy Racing League event at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, finishing 26th after a crash. After three top-10s in the SCCA in 2000, Ribbs signed to drive in the Craftsman Truck Series. Driving 23 out of 24 races, Ribbs had a best finish of 13th, and finished 16th in points.

 The official Willy T. Ribbs website.

Other Driver Birthdays today

• Russell Spence F3000 and occasional F1 driver (1960)
• Michael Schumacher  - Seven Times F1 World Champion (1969)