A late starter from Venezuela whose record includes the best Daytona 24 Hours finish by a woman, Rolex Sports Car wins and IndyCar starts in the Indianapolis 500.
Milka Duno is a Venezuelan former driver whose second place overall at the 2007 Daytona 24 Hours is the best result by a woman in that race. She also raced in IndyCar, ARCA and the NASCAR Nationwide Series, and she won three Rolex Sports Car Series overall races.
Milka Duno is a former Venezuelan race car driver and real estate agent. She is best known for the highest result by a woman in the 24 Hours of Daytona, a second place overall in 2007, and she also competed in the IndyCar Series, the ARCA Racing Series and NASCAR.
How did Duno come to racing?
Duno came to driving late and by an indirect path. An invitation to a driving clinic, arranged by a car club in Venezuela, first introduced her to the sport, and she was 24 before she raced seriously. Before that, her training was mostly academic, with several master's degrees and experience as a naval engineer.
Her competitive driving began in Venezuela in 1996, with second place in the Venezuelan GT Championship. Fourth in the Venezuelan Porsche Supercup followed in 1998, and in 1999 she relocated to the United States, where she enrolled at advanced driving schools.
A late start in racing led to record-setting results in sports cars and a career that reached the Indianapolis 500 and NASCAR.
What did Duno achieve in her early American years?
In 2000 she competed in the Barber Dodge Pro Series. That year she also became the first woman to take a Ferrari Challenge win in America, and she earned her first series title, the Panoz GT Series.
Later in 2000 she made her American Le Mans Series debut and became the first woman to finish on a class podium in that championship. The following year she made her Daytona 24 Hours debut, and a year after that she started at Le Mans.
How did Duno perform in the American Le Mans Series?
The 2001 American Le Mans Series campaign ended with Duno as runner-up in the LMP 675 class. She took four class wins in that category, the most notable at the 10 Hours of Petit Le Mans, where she became the first woman to win a class at that major race. She added another LMP 675 class win at Petit Le Mans in 2004.
She also raced in the World Series by Nissan open-wheel championship in Europe in 2001 and 2003, and she was the first woman to score points in that series.
What was Duno's Grand-Am and Rolex record?
From 2004 Duno raced full-time in the Rolex Grand-Am series in a Pontiac-Riley Daytona Prototype for Howard-Boss Motorsports. She joined SAMAX Motorsport in 2006.
At the 2007 Daytona 24 Hours she shared with Ryan Dalziel, Darren Manning and Patrick Carpentier, and the car finished second. That result made her the highest-finishing woman in the race's history and the highest-placing Venezuelan driver, passing the fifth place Ernesto Soto had taken in 1982.
Across the Rolex Sports Car Series she took three overall victories: two at Homestead-Miami Speedway and one at Mont-Tremblant in Quebec. The Miami result was a milestone, making her the first woman to take an overall victory in a major international sports car event in North America, and she was also the first woman to drive the series' fastest machine, the Daytona Prototype. Her totals were seven podiums, ten top-five finishes and eighteen top-ten finishes.
How did Duno's 2007 IndyCar season begin?
On 23 March 2007 SAMAX Motorsport, sponsored by CITGO, announced that it had acquired the equipment to run a ten-race IndyCar schedule that year, including the Indianapolis 500. Duno would no longer run a full Grand-Am programme.
On 26 April 2007 she cleared the rookie test for the IRL at Kansas Speedway. Three days later, at the Kansas Lottery Indy 300, she was one of three women in the field, alongside Danica Patrick and Sarah Fisher, a first in North American open-wheel racing. She started at the back of the 21-car field and finished fourteenth.
How did Duno do at the 2007 Indianapolis 500?
Her Indianapolis 500 rookie test was completed on 6 May 2007. The race that year was the 91st running, and it was the first with three women in its 33-car field. She qualified on 19 May and kept her speed through Bump Day, and she was one of two rookies in the race.
She crashed out on lap 65 and finished 31st.
What happened in IndyCar in 2008 and 2009?
SAMAX did not return to IndyCar in 2008, so Duno signed with Dreyer and Reinbold Racing for a partial schedule of eleven races, also sponsored by CITGO. Her teammate was Buddy Rice, a former Indianapolis 500 winner, and Townsend Bell drove the No. 23 car during seven races she did not contest.
The 2008 Indianapolis 500 was her second start, and she came home nineteenth, the top finish among the women. Patrick and Fisher finished 22nd and 24th. Caught up in an incident, she rejoined after her car was taken to the pits and was the sole woman still on track at the finish.
In 2009 she drove another part-time schedule of nine races for Dreyer and Reinbold. Her best finish that year was sixteenth, and she ended the season 24th in points. In December 2009 she was one of nine women to take part in ARCA testing at Daytona.
Why did Duno's 2010 IndyCar season stand out?
On 4 March 2010 it was announced that Duno would race full-time for Dale Coyne Racing. She failed to qualify for the Indianapolis 500 that year, a result that was the only failure to qualify across 43 IndyCar starts in her career.
The 28 August 2010 IndyCar race was notable for a field that included five women. Duno shared it with Sarah Fisher, Ana Beatriz, Simona de Silvestro and Danica Patrick, and she qualified 26th to finish nineteenth.
How did Duno's ARCA career begin?
Her stock car debut came in 2010, in the ARCA season opener at Daytona, where she drove the No. 90 Stringer Motorsports Toyota. Starting 41st, she gained ten places before a fourteen-car accident on lap six ended her afternoon.
For 2011 she signed with Sheltra Motorsports for the season opener, in the No. 63 Dodge. She was seventh fastest on the first morning of winter testing, and at the Lucas Oil Slick Mist 200 she qualified 23rd before a nine-car crash relegated her to 31st.
What was the 2011 ARCA season like?
On 14 April 2011 it was announced that she would run the whole ARCA season for Sheltra Motorsports. Across the first five races her best start was eighth at Talladega and her best finish was fifteenth at Toledo, with two retirements.
The season was cut short when Sheltra ceased operations, and her car was removed from the entry list before the June 3 practice session at Chicagoland Speedway. She returned at Iowa Speedway on 16 July, having missed seven races, and finished eighteenth in driver points.
What did Duno achieve in ARCA in 2012 and 2013?
In 2012 she raced for Eddie Sharp Racing before moving to a team set up by her former crew chief. Her first race with it was at New Jersey Motorsports Park, where a tenth-place finish gave her the first ARCA top-ten result of her career, a CGS Imaging Hard Charger award and the highest placing by a Venezuelan driver in the series.
In 2013 she ran her first full ARCA season and finished seventh in the driver standings. That made her the second-highest finishing woman in the series' 61-year history. She won the pole at Talladega Superspeedway, one of only four women to earn an ARCA pole, and she led the first eleven laps at Daytona.
In 2013, over 21 races, she recorded two top-ten and thirteen top-fifteen finishes, with a career-best eighth at Salem Speedway and tenth at Winchester. Her laps total of 2423 also placed her third in the series' laps-completed points, and she was third in the CGS Imaging Hard Charger standings.
How did Duno's NASCAR outings go?
The NASCAR entry was announced in August 2014, when RAB Racing signed her for limited Nationwide starts in its No. 29 Toyota. Her two races were at Kansas Speedway, where she crashed out, and Homestead-Miami Speedway, where she finished. The Kansas start made her the first Hispanic woman to race in a NASCAR national series.
She also made one Camping World Truck Series start that year, for MAKE Motorsports at Talladega Superspeedway, where she led two laps.
What has Duno done away from the track?
Duno founded the Milka Way Foundation in 2004. Through it she visits schools in many of the cities where she races, encouraging young people of all backgrounds to achieve academically.
By 2008 she had added film and publishing to her activities. She took the part of Kellie 'Gearbox', a racing character, in the Speed Racer film, and her bilingual children's book, Go, Milka, Go!, shows her as an animated figure teaching the value of school. The book received an award in the sports and recreation category for 2009 from the 11th Annual International Latino Book Awards.
How was Duno's IndyCar career received?
Her IndyCar career was controversial. She was criticised at times for running too slowly and for blocking other drivers. In 2007 the actress Ashley Judd publicly argued that a rookie running well off the pace should not be on track, and she said that person's racing put others at risk.
Danica Patrick confronted her in 2008 after a slow practice session at Mid-Ohio. Officials parked her at Toronto's Grand Prix and then at Iowa Speedway in 2010, citing her pace, and IndyCar then put her on probation for poor performance over the season.
What are the key results in one table?
| Year | Series or event | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 1996 | Venezuelan GT Championship | Second |
| 2000 | Panoz GT Series | First series championship |
| 2001 | American Le Mans Series, LMP 675 | Vice-champion driver; four class wins in the class |
| 2004 | Petit Le Mans, LMP 675 | Class win |
| 2007 | 24 Hours of Daytona | Second overall, highest-finishing woman in the race's history |
| 2007 | Indianapolis 500 | 31st after a lap 65 crash |
| 2008 | Indianapolis 500 | 19th, highest-finishing woman |
| 2010 | IndyCar, Dale Coyne Racing | Failed to qualify at Indianapolis; 19th at the 28 August race |
| 2011 | ARCA, Sheltra Motorsports | Season cut short; 18th in driver points |
| 2013 | ARCA Racing Series | Seventh in driver standings |
| 2014 | NASCAR Nationwide Series, RAB Racing | Two starts; first Hispanic woman to race in a NASCAR national series |
What is Duno's legacy?
Duno is remembered for her record at Daytona and for several firsts among women in sports car racing, including her Miami Rolex win and her class wins at Petit Le Mans. Her story also shows how an unusual route into racing can lead to a long career across several series.
Her IndyCar years remain a debated part of her record, given the criticism of her pace and on-track conduct described above.
