Petite female teen tough enough for Indy

INDIANAPOLIS - Sarah Fisher is determined not to let anyone push her around. All 5-foot-2 of her.

The 19-year-old Indy-car driver is trying to qualify for her first Indianapolis 500 and just her third start in the Indy Race League.

While most drivers are rooting for Fisher, the rookie has at least one critic.

Last month in Las Vegas, she spun in front of Eliseo Salazar, causing both to crash out of an IRL event. The 44-year-old Chilean was livid.

"This is serious stuff," he said after leaving the infield care center, where his biggest injury might have been to his pride. "This is not for her."

Fisher says it is, and the tough teen is not alone.

"I think she's very talented and extremely brave," said Eddie Cheever, the 1998 Indianapolis 500 champion.

Fisher shrugged off Salazar's angry words. "I think he was just upset," she said.

What bothered Salazar most, he says, was that she didn't respond when he tried to talk to her.

"To me, it's not a gender deal," he said.

Fisher was in front when she lost traction on the 126th lap of 200 laps. She spun, Salazar hit her and both went into the wall.

This wasn't a case of an old man and a kid racing for pride several laps down. She was third, he was fourth.

"It's a positive that he's complaining, because we're doing good," Fisher said.

She doesn't know exactly why the rear of the car came around, but says there's nothing she could have done about it.

It's the kind of spin every driver experiences, from a teen-ager like Fisher to a veteran like Salazar, who began racing before she was born and later said he regretted his remarks about her. He's seen many spins, but not from someone a year removed from high school in Asheville, Ohio.

Criticism is not new to Fisher, who started in go-karts at age 5 and progressed through midgets and sprint cars.

"I've always had controversy," she said as her crew worked nearby on the Dallara-Oldsmobile she hopes to drive at Indy on May 28.

Asked what produced such controversy, Fisher laughed.

"Little things where people don't think I belong," she said. "But it's only the one or two, never the whole crowd.

"Ninety-nine percent of these guys are very positive."

Among them is IRL ace Mark Dismore, who once raced go-karts against Sarah's father, Dave, a former part-time racer who now owns a company that makes industrial machinery.

"I think Sarah Fisher is one hell of a race driver," said Dismore, who insists that with proper backing she'll prove it.

To Cheever, she already has.

"I don't look at her as a female racing competitor," he said. "I look at her as a very dedicated, hungry, aggressive competitor."

Fisher doesn't feel like she's carrying the burden of being a woman breaking into a sport dominated by men.

"I've always looked at that entire issue throughout my whole career as just being there," she said.

But what about being a 120-pound race driver in a 500-mile event that saps energy from even the strongest?

Her answer is a personal trainer and cardiovascular work.

"I'm at the same level as all the other guys," she said. "I work out just as hard."

Fisher isn't awed by massive Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and hasn't even watched the 500 on TV. She's trying to treat it like just another race.

"Otherwise, it's going to get to my head and I don't need that my first year," Fisher said.

If she can qualify Saturday or Sunday, she'll join Lyn St. James and Janet Guthrie as the only women to make the race. By midweek, Fisher was turning 220 mph laps, fast enough to give her a decent shot at making the 33-car field.

St. James, trying to make it for the seventh time, says Fisher's age is most significant.

"It's not history repeating itself," said St. James, at 53 the oldest driver entered. "Janet came here at the back end of her career. I came here at what would be considered the back end of most drivers' careers.

"There are some other young women, 19, 20 years old, that are on their way, too. This, to me, is progress, a breakthrough."

Fisher, who had been driving for a team backed by her parents, got a big break when team owner Derrick Walker decided to take a chance on her.

Part of the deal was that she move to Indianapolis, home of Walker's race shop. She left her father and mother, a school teacher, for the first time.

"Not only did they lose their only kid, their little girl, but they lost their driver as well," Fisher said.

Dave Fisher smiles when he thinks back 10 years, when she was in a go-kart and he in a sprint car.

"I was coming home every night after getting beat and she was coming home every night after winning," he said. "I thought, 'We've got to switch our efforts here.'

"It sure has turned out good."

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On the Net:

Sarah Fisher: http://www.sarahfisher.com/

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