Oh, yeah? I think my driver could beat your driver

Our friend Keith is absolutely correct. It's time for a new topic. So why don't we revisit the tried and true Who's The Better Driver Debate? But let's leave out the usual suspects and talk about women.

Danica-mania is, of course, still gripping sports departments nationwide. ESPN, The Associated Press and others scrambled like nobody's business last weekend to report thoroughly and breathlessly that Ms. Patrick had spun and wrecked mid-race at Milwaukee. Which, I suppose, is understandable. The Formula One media did the same thing - up until this season anyway - when Michael Schumacher so much as smoked his tires. (Bridgestones, not the Indy-offending Michelins.)

Sarah Fisher, too, has been getting some ink and bears responsibility for the burning of much videotape. Kathrine Legge, a Brit with a big right foot, has won a couple of Toyota Atlantic races, too. Allison Duncan is another good one.

Ashley Force, John's daughter, is making waves in the NHRA. Angelle Sampey has been doing so for years.

And there's Eric Crocker, the former World of Outlaws winner that Ray Evernham has taken under the same wing many credit with a degree of Jeff Gordon's success.

There are likely others, current and past, that ought to be mentioned and/or brought into the discussion.

There's no doubt that Danica Patrick has gotten the most press of the current crop. That's gonna happen when you lead the Indianapolis 500 late in the day and have David Letterman as one of your team owners. And I don't doubt for a second that she knows what she's doing. She's learning, too, every time out.

But I think Erin Crocker could beat her in a match race in just about any kind of car, just so long as it's on an oval. Otherwise, my money would be on Patrick.

But you know who I think could give any of them a good run for their money?

Louise Smith, Sara Christian and Ethel Flock Mobley.

Those three showed up for "'Big Bill" France's second Strictly Stock race in Daytona, about a month after the first one that was ever held, in Charlotte in 1949. They went door-to-door with the Red Byrons, the Flock brothers and the rest of the stars of stock car racing's early days.

Ehtel Flock Mobley, in fact, beat two of her three better-known brothers in the race.

Those, of course, were the days well before driver-development programs, developmental racing series and diversity programs. If you wanted to race, fine. Just don't ask for or give any quarter if you wanted to hold your own. And they held their own just fine, coming out ahead of many a man.

Know what else? I'll bet you a horse collar any of the three of them could hold their own in the contests that often followed races of that colorful - and sadly, bygone - era.