By Jan Shaffer and Al Stilley
indy500.com
Wednesday, May 25, 2005
Once upon a time, there were two girls in Roscoe, Ill., population 6,332. One had a focus and a dream that started in childhood. The other would pursue a different career path.
Both were cheerleaders at Hononegah High School in Rockton, a regional school incorporating the communities of Rockton, Roscoe, Prairie Hill and Shirland. At the time, one was a junior, the other a freshman.
This week in Indianapolis, Danica Patrick, the former freshman, will race in her first Indianapolis 500. Nicole Manske, the former junior, will talk to her about it.
Danica will start on the inside of the second row for the 89th running of the classic auto race. Nicole will serve as a pit reporter for the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Radio Network for the first time. Their roots are in Roscoe, where their families still reside.
"I've been racing 100 percent since I was 16," Patrick said earlier this month. "I left school, and I left everything. I was a cheerleader for a little in high school, left school and moved to England. I had to get halfway through my junior year before I could leave."
Meanwhile, Manske, after graduating in a class of 200 in 1998 from Hononegah, was en route to a television career, doing news and weather for a station in Rockford, then on to a news assignment in Fort Wayne, Ind. On April 12, 2004, she came to WISH-TV in Indianapolis for her first sports job, and one of her first assignments was the Indianapolis 500.
Patrick and Manske knew each other at Hononegah, but not well.
"Everyone knew what she wanted to do," Manske said of Patrick. "I remember her talking about go-kart races and going with her dad to them. Back then, I didn't have a clue to what she was really doing. When you look at a little girl from Roscoe and she wanted to run the Indianapolis 500, it's not that we understood how go-kart races were going to get her there."
But it got Danica there.
"I've been racing since I was 10 and wanted to be in the Indy 500 since I was 12," Patrick said. "I just had to have faith that it was going to happen."
When Patrick went to England to pursue her racing career, it was a lifestyle change.
"Europe wasn't difficult for the family to accept," she said. "It's what needed to happen. It was sad in that I wasn't close to family and friends. At the airport, they (family) were getting choked up, but my Dad said that he couldn't imagine me not having this opportunity."
Meanwhile, Manske was pursuing her career.
"I had known what she was doing," Manske said. "Last year, during pre-race, I saw her in the Rahal pits. I talked to Bobby during the pit stop contest, and he told me then that she'd be here this year. Since I graduated from high school, I hadn't seen her."
So both women from Roscoe will have their missions Sunday at the world's largest single-day sporting event.
"Naturally, I'm supposed to be objective and treat all drivers equal, but I watch the speeds, and when I saw hers going 225, 226, 227, yeah, I cheer," Manske said. "I told her, 'Great job.' It's just really cool because she's the real deal. How can you not be proud of her? She's gone further in her career than I have in mine."
Manske has now been bitten by the racing bug, which bit Patrick long ago.
"Last year's '500' was my first sports job," she said. "Looking back, I was in complete awe of this place. The stories people tell. Look at a guy like Tom Carnegie (the Speedway's P.A. announcer), who's been here 60 years, all the changes he's seen. I'm so proud to be a part of it. I fell in love with it. I didn't know anything about racing last year, not a clue. I'm still learning every day."
And Sunday will be special for two women from a small community who took very different routes to a small-world situation in a big-world scenario.
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Tickets: Tickets are available for the 2005 Indianapolis 500 on May 29. For information, log on to www.indianapolismotorspeedway.com, or call the IMS ticket office at (800) 822-INDY or (317) 492-6700.
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