Sarah Fisher

Sarah Fisher
Sarah Fisher was born October 4, 1980, in the small town of Commercial Point, Ohio, to parents David and Reba Fisher. David, already a go-kart enthusiast, began taking Fisher to the local track early in her life, where she enjoyed a first-hand look at the competition and mechanics of racing. She began competing in quarter-midget race cars, a similiar, smaller version of the go-kart, when she was only five years old, learning the basic skills and talents over a decade before she could legally drive a car.

When Fisher was eight years old, she graduated from the midget-racers to go-karts like her father raced, and from there, early success soon followed. Fisher took several wins over her six years in go-kart racing, and won the World Karting Associatio n Grand National Championship two years in a row, in 1991 and 1992, and the Points Champion in the WKA in 1993. She also won the Circleville Raceway Park Championship in 1994. It was during this time that her real love for racing developed, and she began to look elsewhere for new challanges. Growing up racing on the loosely-packed dirt tracks in Southern Ohio spurred the young Fisher, now 14, to establish her career in other dirt tracks, wanting the challanges she couldn't get from a smooth, asphalt-paved circuit.

In 1995, Fisher entered the Winged Sprint Car World of Outlaws League and for the next three years blazed another new trail of success, winning the 1995 Dirt Track Racing Round-Up Rookie of the Year Award, and a 1997 nomination for the National Spri nt Car Hall of Fame Rookie of the Year Award. Also in 1997, she received one of the highest sprint car honors, a chance to compete in the 62-race series, the All-Stars Circuit of Champions, finishing as high as second place at Eldora Speedway along the wa y. However, the lure and challenges of dirt-track racing had now faded, and Fisher knew she had to move onwards and upwards.

In 1998, Fisher raced in three different types of racing cars for asphalt circuits, the ARCA Sprint cars, the NAMARS Silver Crowns and the USAC Midgets, collecting five feature wins and two track speed records in 23 starts. In August of the followin g year, she became the youngest person to pass the requirements for the Indy Racing League Rookie test at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

On October 17, 1999 she competed in her first IRL event, the youngest driver in the over-50 years of the league to do so. On the Texas Motor Speedway, Fisher qualified in the 17th position and ran a strong race throughout, before mechanical difficul ties with a timing chain forced her out on lap 66, finishing 25th overall. Still, the experience and her skills were enough for Fisher to land a driving position with team owner Derrick Walker, driving for the 2000 IRL season. It also led to her greatest moment; a shot at the most prestigious event in auto racing, the Indianapolis 500, where she qualified 19th in the field as the youngest woman, to compete in the event. An accident early in the race sidelined her and she finished 31st.

A little over a year after getting her IRL license, Fisher made history again, becoming the first woman to place in an IRL sporting event, on August 27, 2000, at the Indy 300 at Kentucky Speedway. After starting fourth from the pole, she finished in third place and led nine laps, the first of her career, and becoming the youngest driver to lead. At the Las Vegas Speedway, Fisher was running a strong third half-way through the race before an accident finished her in 17th position. Despite a few disap pointments, Fisher started eight of the nine races she qualified for, and placed third in the Bombardier Rookie of the Year standings at the end of the season.

The year 2001 was a new beginning for everyone, and Fisher was hungry for more success after a little less than a year on the IndyCar circuit. On April 8th, she was off and running, taking a second-place finish home from the first race of the season , in Miami-Homestead.

The following month, she qualified again for the Indianapolis 500, starting 15th from the pole, but was taken out in the seventh lap after an accident. She collected one other top-ten finish that year, at Pikes Peak International Raceway in Colorado , but her performance in all 13 races, with a combined 1,675 laps run, netted her more than $700,000 that year, making her a millionaire in only two short seasons.

At the start of the 2002 Indy season, troubles with her sponsors, and the inability to find others left Fisher without car. But on April 21st, at Nazareth Speedway she substituted for injured driver Robbie Buhl in a Dreyer & Reinbold Racing entr y. On the starting grid, Fisher was 19th, and proved a strong contender all through the race, finishing an amazing fourth place, the best finish of the season.

The next month, at Indianapolis, she teamed with Buhl again, in a second Dreyer & Reinbold Racing entry, and broke a record with the fastest qualifying speeds ever by a woman, at 229.439 miles per hour. Those speeds were good enough to secure ni nth position on the pole, an incredible achievement. In her third consecutive appearance in the Indianapolis 500, Fisher finished the race four laps down, in 23rd, giving her $163,315 in winnings. These remarkable races were enough for the owners of the D reyer & Reinhold cars; Fisher was kept on-board as Robbie Buhl's replacement to run the last eight races of the season.