Danica Patrick

Born in Beloit, Wisconsin, on March 25, 1982, Danica Patrick grew up in a loving household with parents T.J. and Bev and sister Brooke. Danica's need for speed was not obvious from the get-go as, like many young girls, she loved to play with Barbie dolls as a child. At the age of 10, however, Danica got a glimpse into a world she would come to love. She accompanied her sibling on a trip to a go-karting lesson and quickly fell in love with sitting behind the wheel of a speedy vehicle. While sister Brooke soon abandoned racing, Danica was hooked, and she soon joined the World Karting Association (WKA). Within two years' time, Danica had become a racing fiend, and in 1994 she captured the WKA Grand National Championship in the Yamaha Sportsman class. She would win additional karting titles in 1995 and 1996, and soon had established herself as a rising star. Her final season in the WKA came in 1997, and she went out with a bang, winning the Grand National Championship in both the Yamaha Lite and HPV classes.

The next step in Danica's career would be a big one. She upgraded her competition by joining the Formula Vauxhall Winter Series, moving to England in order to do so. Over the course of 1998, Danica kept up only an abbreviated racing schedule in the UK, because she was also spending time fine-tuning her technique at the Formula Ford racing school in Canada. Therefore, it was in 1999 that Danica made her true British racing debut. She finished her first full season in ninth place, then showed vast improvement by finishing second the next year at the Formula Ford Festival, the best-ever finish by an American at the British event. Patrick was featured on the cover of the June 6, 2005 issue of Sports Illustrated, making her the first Indianapolis 500 driver on the cover (and the cover, the first for the Indianapolis 500 itself) since Al Unser, in victory lane, following his upset fourth victory in 1987. She can also be seen in award winning corporate training videos Four Weeks In May and T.E.A.M.W.O.R.K. During testing at Phoenix International Raceway, Go Daddy filmed a second commercial with Patrick that has also aired nationally. During the same test, at the invitation of Go Daddy, Patrick met with Paul Sr. and Mikey Teutul, and subsequently appeared on an episode of American Chopper.