NNS: Milka Duno Following Heart, Not Danica

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NNS: Milka Duno Following Heart, Not Danica

Milka Duno's career has been full of challenges and she has been up to all of them....

Jim Pedley | http://www.RacinToday.com | Posted December 26, 2009 Charlotte, NC

Milka Duno is ready to compete in the NASCAR Nationwide Series if offered the chance. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

There is a pretty-fair-sized list of reasons why Milka Duno has opted to give driving stock cars a whirl. Not on that list, she stresses, is the desire to do it simply because Danica Patrick is doing it.

In fact, it might not be wise to even bring up the subject of chasing Danica around Duno.

“Please,” Duno said during a telephone conversation this week. “Do you think I have to do that? No. It really offends me when somebody says something like that. They have no brain.”

Duno’s reasons for moving to fendered cars are quite a bit more traditional and they are all built around the concept of facing a challenge, she said.

“As a driver, I like to drive any car,” Duno said, “because a driver likes to drive anything. Yes, it’s a challenge, you know?”

Just as every other stop along the auto-racing road has been for her.

And there have been quite a few stops.

Duno, a native of Caracas, Venezuela, was working as a naval engineer in 1988 when a friend invited her to a Porsche driving clinic. She went and the hook was set.

Though not as well known as Patrick, Duno shares a similar background. Both worked their way up through the lesser ranks to get to where they are. And both have had their successes along the way; successes they can wave like flags when people accuse them of being unqualified – or worse.

To wit: In 1999, Duno won her first series championship. It came in the Panoz GT Series. In 2001 she was vice-champion in the LMP 675 Class of the American Le Mans Series.

Duno also scored a 2nd-place overall finish in the legendary 24 Hours of Daytona.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jim Pedley

RacinToday.com

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