t has been dubbed the "The Greatest Spectacle in Racing" and is one of the oldest and richest motor sport events in existence. The Indianapolis 500 (or simply, the Indy 500) held its first race on May 30, 1911 to an attendance of 80,200 spectators. But on May 27, 2007, the 91st installment of this famous race will be seen and heard by millions around the country and the world. And for the first time, there will be three women pushing speeds of more than 200mph -- and one of them will be a Latina.

Yesterday, Milka Duno, a 35-year-old Venezuelan, posted an average 219.228 mph in a 4-lap qualification run. While such speeds would put most of us behind bars, Ms. Duno’s speeding ticket placed her 29th in a 33-car grid of men, women and machines that will compete in next week’s race.

One look at Milka Duno out of her racing outfit and you can easily say, ‘Wow, look at that model,’ or ask, ‘What novela does she star in?’ However, her profession has little to do with her looks or charm.

Instead, the Caracas native uses her hand-eye coordination and voracious appetite for speed to earn a living -- even though any one of her four master’s degrees would have helped in bringing home the bacon and staying away from 200mph traffic congestion. But somehow naval engineering just didn’t make the cut in Ms. Duno’s life itinerary.

She taught herself how to drive by taking her mother’s car without permission (Hmm, although this sounds familiar, you young people should not try this at home). In the 1996-1997 club racing season in Venezuela, Ms. Duno threw her hat in and finished 2nd in the GT Championship. From then on, she began to earn her fifth master’s degree in estrogen-powered auto dynamics (not a real program), becoming the first Latin American woman driver to be classified “expert.”

Education and determination are vital ingredients in Ms. Duno’s modus operandi. Eventually, she realized that in order to evolve, she needed to marry her instincts to knowledge, training and experience. So she took some racecar driving lessons in Miami. By 2000, Ms. Duno was already in the door of the male-dominated auto racing world, but she wasn’t just making a statement -- she was kicking butt and taking names. She became the first woman to win a Ferrari Challenge race in the United States (second in the world). Later, she took 3rd place in the American Le Mans Series. From then on, Ms. Duno collected a series of ‘first woman to race here, finish there and win this’ all over the world. If Ms. Duno was an activist, she  would use the scream and howl of her engine to make her statement: ‘¡Aqui vengo!’ (‘Here I come!’)
 
“When you talk about a profession, it doesn't matter if you are a woman or a man. The importance is how good you are in the same activity," she told IndyStar.com yesterday.

Brazilian Tony Kanaan, a strong veteran in the Indy 500 series who finished 5th place last year, does not pay attention to the sex issue on the track. “When they have their helmet on, they drive," and that’s pretty much all that matters.

...it is Milka Duno’s Latina feminine mystique (as blind to sex as we should be in this context) that will take the legendary American race deeper into the Latino consciousness.

But if sex is not an issue, experience can surely factor in. Even with all the professional racing under her belt, Ms. Duno will be one of two rookies in this year’s Indy 500 field. And getting there was not easy.

During a practice run on Friday, May 11, the 35-year-old Duno “came in too high off the first turn and lost the rear end of her SAMAX Motorsport car #23 into the wall,” according to IndyStar. The car suffered serious damage but Ms. Duno was not injured (check out the ESPN video on this page). Her hunger to compete alleviated whatever bruises her spirit had suffered. She was looking forward to qualifying the following weekend, since the team’s only car would be under repair.

WORK IT, GIRL! Ms. Duno struts her stuff (Simpson helmet and other equipment) in the Homestead-Miami Speedway. Photo: MilkaDuno.com

Immediately, the SAMAX team went to work, as Ms. Duno retraced her moves and planned for the next run. On the following weekend, she was tucked into the Honda-powered racecar, screaming down the legendary track at over 219mph -- enough to place her in the 29th starting position in Sunday’s race. After everything she had gone through, this was a “good, good moment" for her and the team.

In this day and age of oil politics, it is difficult to ignore the big “Citgo” brand painted across Ms. Duno’s #23 car. The Venezuelan-owned oil company (which has been a name brand in the United States since 1965) has been struggling to buffer the political turbulence between Caracas and Washington lately. However, there is little room for politics inside the 1,500lb Dallara Honda racing car Ms. Duno will be whipping around the legendary oval. Also, 100% ethanol fuel --not petroleum -- will be burning through Ms. Duno’s Honda engine. The environmental friendliness is actually a mandate of the Indy 500 franchise for all the cars. However, fuel efficiency is certainly not part of the program. These monster motors burn more than a gallon of fuel to get you around the track just once (that’s 2 1/2 miles per gallon and change)!

Politics aside, the Indy 500 is not like the World Series -- it's more of a ‘world cup’ type of event, very international, very representative of the world’s finest drivers and hardware. However open to the world the sport may be, it continues to be male-dominated. While Ms. Duno will not be the first woman in the Indy 500 (that was Janet Guthrie back in 1977), she will be the first Latina. Two other women will make their way through the field of open wheel racers: Danica Patrick, the Beloit, Wisconsin native has qualified for the May 27 race. Last year, Ms. Patrick came in a very respectable 8th place, beating out racing legends Eddie Cheever and Al Unser, Jr. Also, Sarah Fisher, who qualified with a space-time-bending 221mph run, will be part of the 33-car pack.

Brazilian Hélio Castroneves (Team Penske car #3), a two-time Indy 500 winner, will be in the front of that pack, accompanied by 3 other fellow Brazilians throughout the grid (Tony Kanaan, Vitor Meira and Roberto Moreno). However, at the risk of backlash from my feminist friends, it is Milka Duno’s Latina feminine mystique (as blind to sex as we should be in this context) that will take the legendary American race deeper into the Latino consciousness.