[h=2]RACER@25: Issue No. 160 - Danica Mania[/h] Wednesday, 19 April 2017



By RACER staff

This might have been the most controversial cover of RACER, as much for who wasn't on it as for who was. Issue No. 160 covered the events of the 89th Indianapolis 500 but the winner of that race, Dan Wheldon, was eclipsed on the cover by Danica Patrick, who finished fourth. But by demonstrating front-running pace all month – and leading the race until Wheldon claimed the lead for the final time with seven laps to go – Patrick had created a sensation at Indy like no other female racer since Janet Guthrie and caused a massive boost in mainstream media attention at the 500, which had suffered from a lack of it since the IRL/CART split of 1996. And the attention paid off in TV ratings which, at 6.5, were the highest seen since '96.
In response to it all, Jeff Olson's cover story chronicled Patrick's Month of May in the context of asking whether "Danica Mania" was the long-term answer to open-wheel racing's promotional prayers. While this choice of cover subject rankled some readers (not to mention Wheldon himself!), we noted that RACER articles aren't intended to be "race reports" in the traditional sense but features aimed at providing insights into the key issues of the day.