Duno's Crew Member Ready to Make Indy History

[garyshell]

By MICHAEL MAROT

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -Anna Chatten has spent her entire life working toward race day.

So she'd rather stay in the background than make a fuss about going over the wall during Sunday's Indianapolis 500.

Chatten, who calls herself the gear box girl, will be in charge of the air jack for Milka Duno's No. 23 Citgo car.

"It's about time," Chatten said with her trademark pigtails flapping in the wind. "It's been 10 years of hard work, and it's been well worth it."

Women weren't allowed on pit crews at Indy until 1971, and longtime track historian Donald Davidson said that although there have been other female crew members, he does not believe any made it over the pit wall.

The track does not keep any such official records.

The 29-year-old Peoria, Ill., native attended mechanics school in California at age 18 and worked for Derrick Walker's Champ Car team for several seasons before staying on with Walker's Atlantics team last season. Chatten then hooked up with Dreyer & Reinbold this month, working on a team with four cars in the race - matching Andretti Green Racing - for the most in this year's 33-car field.

Dreyer & Reinbold also fields full-time driver Mike Conway, longtime IndyCar driver Davey Hamilton and John Andretti, whose car is co-owned by Richard Petty.

Chatten said she was not picked specifically for Duno's team, just assigned to it. "This is all I've ever done, this is all I want to do," she said. "I couldn't not do it. Racing is just kind of like that."

[elis]

Good for Anna. If you can do the job then gender is irrelevent. Champ Car had several female mechanics, including over the wall tire changers. Same with some European open wheel series. ALMS does too. I wish Anna & her team all the best on Sunday :)

Bless her, but she really shouldn't be worrying her pretty little head with this kind of thing.

Feminism and equality of the sexes is all well and good, but it doesn't get the ironing done.

[elis]

Bless her, but she really shouldn't be worrying her pretty little head with this kind of thing.

Feminism and equality of the sexes is all well and good, but it doesn't get the ironing done.

Bahaha, Anna would laugh you off the planet!

Ahh, must be awful for your machismo though, to realise a young woman can adeptly do all that racing stuff AND have the ability to handle a simple domestic appliance.. whereas your abilities apparantly start & end with making silly comments on a forum. Aw, bless you for your personal challenges. lol

[byen00]

Here is video of Anna @Walker Racing (Tagliani & Power, drivers) in 2005:

http://walkerracing.blogspot.com
[ click on upper-right icon for "Walker Racing" iTunes video-podcast, i.e. download video to iPod ]

I talked with Derrick Walker who referred to her as "Anna the gearbox girl". She was constantly busy, working w/o break.

It figures there was auto-racing in her ancestry, with her dad being a motorcycle racer. I alway wondered about her, if she was a Mechanical Eng major in college (like Purdue), turns out she skipped college & trained as a mechanic.

Here's picture of her in 2006 @Walker Racing:

http://www.jumplive.com/TA/longbeachgp/longbeachgp.textamerica.com/index3eff.html?_ctgry=23186

You can see another girl mechanic (CTE Racing), who got written up for breaking the sex barrier. In 2006, I heard Katherine Legge (PKV Racing) had issues, when a team-member was being problematic (who ended up fired as the result). Sexism still exists. I think it contributed to KL's poor transition to Champcar in 2006.

[ShiftingGears]

Bahaha, Anna would laugh you off the planet!

Ahh, must be awful for your machismo though, to realise a young woman can adeptly do all that racing stuff AND have the ability to handle a simple domestic appliance.. whereas your abilities apparantly start & end with making silly comments on a forum. Aw, bless you for your personal challenges. lol

Interpreting irony is also best left to males.

[Hoop-98]

2007 @ Houston

http://i43.tinypic.com/2ahtw05.jpg

rh

[garyshell]

Bless her, but she really shouldn't be worrying her pretty little head with this kind of thing.

Feminism and equality of the sexes is all well and good, but it doesn't get the ironing done.

Tamburello, my friend, I keep trying to tell you you just can't be subtle with your humor 'round these parts. To many folks just won't get it.

Gary

[garyshell]

Bahaha, Anna would laugh you off the planet!

Ahh, must be awful for your machismo though, to realise a young woman can adeptly do all that racing stuff AND have the ability to handle a simple domestic appliance.. whereas your abilities apparantly start & end with making silly comments on a forum. Aw, bless you for your personal challenges. lol


ellis,

Sorry to break the news to you, but I think you've been had. Ya took the bait hook line and sinker.

Gary

[elis]

ellis,

Sorry to break the news to you, but I think you've been had. Ya took the bait hook line and sinker.

Gary

Actually having seen some of his 'work' before I think myself & some others take everything he posts with a huge pinch of salt... hence the use of 'LOL' at the end of my post, the tongue in cheek mode, & my aping his sarcastic use of the word bless, meaning "yeah whatever little dude" :rolleyes: Give as good as we get ;)

I've not been 'had' at all, I'm all to aware of his character/style from past encounters & I don't doubt there is some personal truth to his feelings behind this last effort. But hey, I mean c'mon anyone that thinks wheeling out & dusting off the old 'ironing' chestnut is humorous, are really the ones that have been 'had', for sucumbing to such an epic fail by someone trying to be a funny (I wont say ironic as there was clearly no irony) ;)

Anyway, why not get YOUR thread back on track, since lil'Tamby took it off on a negative tangent... unless of course the reason you posted it was to provoke that effect?

I stand by my stance, good on Anna. :D

[elis]

You can see another girl mechanic (CTE Racing), who got written up for breaking the sex barrier.

That's Tess. I met her in 2000 when we worked in Indy Lights, she was a mechanic for Brian Stewart Racing. she's also worked with Doricott, American Spirit, then HVM for a number of years before heading off to ALMS. :)

[garyshell]

Actually having seen some of his 'work' before I think myself & some others take everything he posts with a huge pinch of salt... hence the use of 'LOL' at the end of my post, the tongue in cheek mode, & my aping his sarcastic use of the word bless, meaning "yeah whatever little dude" :rolleyes: Give as good as we get ;)

I've not been 'had' at all, I'm all to aware of his character/style from past encounters & I don't doubt there is some personal truth to his feelings behind this last effort. But hey, I mean c'mon anyone that thinks wheeling out & dusting off the old 'ironing' chestnut is humorous, are really the ones that have been 'had', for sucumbing to such an epic fail by someone trying to be a funny (I wont say ironic as there was clearly no irony) ;)

Anyway, why not get YOUR thread back on track, since lil'Tamby took it off on a negative tangent... unless of course the reason you posted it was to provoke that effect?

I stand by my stance, good on Anna. :D

I looks like it was ME who has been had! I totally missed your "lol" at the end of your reply. Mea culpa. Mea maxima culpa.

I, must say though, I really don't think there was any personal truth in Tambs response just very dry British humor. (On the order of magnitude of Bonneville Salt flats dry!)

Please believe me when I say that my sole intent in this was to give kudos to Anna and the milestone she will reach an hour and fifteen minutes from now.

Gary

[Mad_Hatter]

Edit: Didn't bother to read earlier posts...

[Mark in Oshawa]

You don't see many women in the pits, but good on this one. Just this reporter should be paying attention, as it has been pointed out Anna was in Champ car for a few years.

As long as you can do the job when you go over the wall, the sex means little. The key though is doing the job. No employment equity commission is of any use if you start muffing up tire changes.

I will also note that you wont likely see a woman over the wall in NASCAR. I think the tire changing routine there is a little more physical and I just cannot see many women being able to have that brute force to do it, but hey, let em have a go at that too....

[garyshell]

Mark,

Why is the tire change any more physical in nascar than IRL? I don't think it is significantly heavier, is it? It has more lug nuts, but I can't see much else that makes it different.

Gary

[Mark in Oshawa]

Mark,

Why is the tire change any more physical in nascar than IRL? I don't think it is significantly heavier, is it? It has more lug nuts, but I can't see much else that makes it different.

Gary
two tires Gary. you have to luck the tire out there at full speed. Right side tire and left. In the IRL, you stand there with the gun and the tire is out there at your feet. Also, most NASCAR races have about 3 times the amount of pitstops and race every week. If regular crew guys who are ex football players are getting hurt or blowing out knee's, and living in the weight room, tell me how much LESS chance a woman has of making the grade as a tire changer. The jackman in NASCAR is always a large specimen too, that one pump jack needs a big guy on the handle, and the only fuel position I think a woman wouldn't be at a disadvantage at would be the vent man. Gas Cans are heavy.

Hey, I would love a woman to prove me wrong, and I know there are some women working in the NASCAR garage. But over the wall? If that woman makes the grade there (and I am all for her giving it a shot if she has the size), she would have to be one hell of an athlete because most men don't last long in that job. It always comes down to being fast and not making mistakes tho. If Jack Roush thought 6 women could do the job faster, he would have them, but the fact is it is a much different pit experience that is a lot tougher physically. Women who can do it I am all for, I just don't see it happening.