Patrick flew flag for women at Daytona, so what about here? History-maker ... Danica Patrick. Along with doughnuts and really bad coffee, many Americans love a statistic. Americans tend to produce a statistic for everything in sports. Race drivers are no exception. They might pass on the doughnuts but will gobble up a stat. Danica Patrick made history at the Daytona 500 last weekend, snatching pole from the blokes, running at the pointy end for much of the race, leading a green-flag lap and finishing eighth. All are new statistical benchmarks for a woman. But Patrick doesn't think like that. While Patrick is more than ready to use her curves in a magazine colour shoot, on the track she's always insisted on being treated like anyone else. Except at Indy in 2009 when after Ryan Briscoe's car collided with hers exiting pitlane, eliminating both, she jumped from her car and stamped down pitlane looking to confront Briscoe. We'll forgive her that little tanty. Patrick was even more proud of another achievement - she is now the 13th driver to have led both the big American classics, the Indy 500 and Daytona 500. That's impressive. She's not losing sight of her target in NASCAR. I'm on the quest to be the best driver, run up-front, get to Victory Lane. The television audience for Daytona was huge after Patrick's accomplishments garnered so much airtime prior to the race. Oh, Jimmie Johnson won the Daytona 500 ... He's a male. Which brings us to this topic: why there are no female drivers in the V8 Supercar ranks? Physically, there are no good reasons why a woman can't compete at the highest level in Australian and international motor sport. Cars today more often than not have power steering and it's not necessary to have biceps of steel. It can be said that women, generally shorter and lighter, have an advantage. Robby Gordon once declared that Patrick enjoyed an advantage in Indy cars because the combined mass (driver plus car) equals a higher terminal velocity. Bernie Ecclestone would welcome a good woman driver to formula one. There have been five women racers in F1, though only one, Lella Lombardi, has scored points (well, half a point in truth). She took sixth in a (crash-curtailed) 1975 Spanish Grand Prix. Williams test driver Susie Wolff senses Patrick's success will help the cause for women in F1. I fully believe that it is possible but it's just going to take time for it to happen. Michelle Mouton finished runner-up in the 1982 World Rally Championship. She won four events in the WRC and also won the Pikes Peak Hillclimb in 1985. Australia has produced some very competitive women. Christine Cole (now Gibson), Sue Ransom and Robyn Hamilton were great all-rounders in the 1970s and '80s. Cole made nine Bathurst 500/1000 starts; Ransom five. Both were also excellent rally drivers. In 1969, all of six females drove in The Great Race. Hamiliton, who once notably changed her name to Charlie (her perfume sponsor at the time) was the first woman to win a Formula Ford race in Australia. She also raced a V8 Torana at Bathurst. Petite, but also aggressive and fast, she simply disappeared ... into the beauty business. More recently, Melinda Price, Kerryn Brewer and Leanne Tander blazed a trail for women in high levels of local motor sport. An effort to encourage women in V8 Supercars via a squad called the Castrol Cougars in the late 1990s brought opportunities. Price and Brewer drove Commodores prepped by Larry Perkins to 12th and 11th respectively in the 1997 and 1998 Bathurst enduros. Tander made a big impact in racing too, becoming the first woman to win (in 2007) a Formula Three race, and twice almost winning the Australian Drivers' Championship. A decision to become a mother curtailed her career. The biological clock, rather than the stopwatch. Twitter - @PeterMcKayWords