Thursday
Milka Duno applies talents to stock cars
Caught in the Catchfence™
She was the first Hispanic woman to qualify and race in the Indianapolis 500. She’s won races in the American Le Mans Series and the Grand Am Rolex Sports Car series and finished second in the 24 Hours of Daytona in 2007, the highest finish by a female driver.
But here she was at Kansas Speedway this week testing an ARCA series stock car in advance of the upcoming Kansas Lottery 98.9 race scheduled for Oct. 7.
“I have a good memory for this place, because this is where I did my rookie test when I was going to Indy,” said Duno, who finished 14th in a much-ballyhooed IndyCar series debut in 2007 at Kansas Speedway. “It was very special at that time.”
Duno, a one-time model from Caracas, Venezuela, has yet to replicate her sports-car success in IndyCar or ARCA. But she doesn’t consider the ARCA series a comedown for someone who has graced the covers of Vogue, Esquire and other magazines as South America’s Danica Patrick.
“I like to drive everything,” said Duno, 39. “Everything I was doing before was helping me to the next step. I was learning from the engineers, from other drivers … I never stopped the process to learn. Every day you’re learning something new. And everything you learn now is for the future.”
Article Tags: American Le Mans Series, ARCA Racing Series, ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards, Danica Patrick, Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series, IICS, IZOD IndyCar® Series, Kansas Speedway, Milka Duno
