MOTORSPORT: Four women take on Indy 500

NASCAR's Daytona 500 in February and the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte, North Carolina, on the same day as the Indy 500 now rival the open-wheeler classic as Amercia's greatest race, but there's still something very special about the Memorial Day event at Indianapolis.

This year is its 100th anniversary, although it will be "only" the 95th Indianapolis 500.

The race is on Sunday, May 29, but qualifying will start on May 14.

There is lots of other motor racing before then, including the fourth round of the V8 Supercar Championship at Perth's Barbagallo Raceway this weekend -- which we will preview in the next couple of days -- and the start of the European stretch of the Formula One world championship next week in Turkey (followed by Barcelona, Spain, on May 22 and Monaco the same day as Indy).

Just briefly on F1, its commercial tsar Bernie Ecclestone has hinted that he will quit if Australian media magnate Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation gets control of the sport by buying out his empire's majority shareholder, CVC Capital Partners.

We reported last week on speculation that News could lead a syndicate including the  world's richest man and Sauber team sponsor, Carlos Slim, in buying CVC's F1 stake.

Ecclestone, who is 80 but has always brushed aside any suggestions of retirement, told London's Sunday Times: "I'm old enough to get a pension, so I don't have to get a job. I'd have to be sure the people [who end up owning F1] are people I would like to work with and whether they would want to work with me."

Not much credence needs to be given to any of this -- either a News swoop or an Ecclestone retirement -- until there is clear evidence of a move by the media group for the CVC shareholding.

Meanwhile, the Indianpolis 500 at 'The Brickyard' is traditionally billed as "The Greatest Spectacle in Racing" but this year it's "The Most Important Race in History".

The entry list keeps growing from the depths of the 15-year division in American open-wheeler racing between the Indy Racing League and Champ Car, when the 33-car field was sometimes barely filled. When next month's entry was announced in mid-April, it already had 35 drivers, 42 entries and 83 cars -- it is usual for spare cars to be nominated for drivers, although not all entries have drivers nominated initially.

It's the biggest entry since 2002, the eighth straight year in which it has climbed or at least held steady, and the third consecutive year of at least 40 entries.

This year's initial list contained three women drivers -- American Danica Patrick, Switzerland's Simona De Silvestro and Brazilian Ana Beatriz -- and a fourth has now been added.

She is 27-year-old Pippa Mann, who will run with Conquest Racing.

While there is now quite a long list of women who have competed at Indianpolis since Janet Guthrie made history in 1977, Mann is the first British woman to tackle the Indy 500.

She had pole position for last year's Indy Lights race at Indianapolis, finished fifth in that championship with Sam Schmidt Motorsports and secured her first Lights victory.

Mann is one of six rookies now for the 500 this year.

The others are Californians J.R. Hildebrand and Charlie Kimball, Canadian James Hinchcliffe and Brits, James Jakes and Jay Howard.

The field includes four past winners: Scostman Dario Franchitti (2007, 2010); Brazilian Helio Castroneves (2001-02, 2009); New Zealander Scott Dixon (2008) and Brit Dan Wheldon (2005).

Australia's representatives are Team Penske drivers Will Power and Ryan Briscoe.

The series regulars race this weekend in the fourth round on the streets of Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Power, who is second in the championship to Franchitti is hopeful of improving his record on oval tracks. Briscoe in turn is trying to fight his way back out of Power's shadow. The third Penske driver, Castroneves, is trying to become just the fourth four-time Indy 500 winner after A.J. Foyt, Al Unser Senior and Rick Mears -- but is on notice from series officials to clean up his driving or face disciplinary action.

Castroneves bumped into Brit Justin Wilson at this month's Long Beach Grand Prix in California and would have been penalised for hitting Power after a late-race restart had the pair not been in the same team.

Series driving standards consultant Al Unser Junior and fellow official Tony Cotman felt Team Penske suffered enough with the field passing both Power and Castroneves and left it to team owner Roger Penske to handle the incident internally.  However, Unser warned: "If he [Castroneves] continues, then some action will be taken."

Castroneves bumped Marco Andretti in the season-opening race at St. Petersburg, Florida, triggering a five-car pile-up in which Andretti flipped upside down.

Eighteen drivers in the 500 field have won at least one race in IndyCar or the old Champ Car/CART competition.

It is the second year in a row there have been four women entered.

Last year all four qualified for the race and finished: Patrick in sixth, De Silvestro 13th, Beatriz 21st and American Sarah Fisher 26th.

If Fisher is a late entry this year it will be her 10th start in the 500. When she first drove in the event in 2000 she was the youngest woman starter at 19.

Her team has entered only Ed Carpenter, stepson of former Brickyard chief Tony George, for next month at this stage.

Patrick is easily the best performed woman driver at The Brickyard -- she led briefly and finished fourth in her rookie year, 2005, and was third in 2009. She won the 2008 IndyCar round in Japan and is easily the most popular driving in the series, but there are indications she may quit open-wheeler racing for a full-time NASCAR career after this year.

De Silvestro was last year's rookie of the year at Indianapolis, and was fourth in this year's season-opening race at St Petersburg and is ninth in the championship -- two spots ahead of Patrick.

Beatriz was the first woman to win in Indy Lights.

Andretti Autosport, headed by Michael Andretti, has the most entries for the 500. Four are in its own name -- for Patrick, Marco Andretti, Ryan Hunter-Reay and Mike Conway, the Brit who was the surprise winner at Long Beach recently. The fifth is in association with Richard Petty Motorsports for John Andretti, winner of the first Gold Coast Indy race in 1991 and who will be making his 12th start in the Indy 500.

The youngest driver entered is 20-year-old Colombian Sebastian Saavedra, who is having his second start and will be Pippa Mann's Conquest teammate.

The oldest driver is 48-year-old Davey Hamilton -- who is one of four Dreyer & Reinbold entries, along with Beatriz, Justin Wilson and Canadian veteran, Paul Tracy.

Pole Day is on Saturday, May 21, and Bump Day -- to decide the last of the 33 starters -- on Sunday, May 22.

Saturday, May 28, will be A.J. Foyt Day, marking the 50th anniversary of the legendary Texan's first Indianapolis victory in 1961. Foyt also won as a driver in 1964, '67 and '77 and as a team owner in 1999 with Kenny Brack driving.

Foyt has participated in the Indy 500 as a driver or owner for 54 consecutive years and made a record 35 consecutive starts as a driver from 1958-92.

This year he is fielding two cars -- for Brazilians Vitor Meira and Bruno Junqueira.

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