Milka Duno

Milka Duno

Milka Duno (born April 22, 1972 in Caracas , Venezuela ) is a Venezuelan racing driver . She has been in the IndyCar Series since 2007 and is under contract with Dale Coyne Racing in 2010 .

Career

Beginnings in motorsport

Duno started her racing career in 1998. She finished fourth in the Venezuelan Porsche Cup. In 1999 she switched to the Women's Global GT Series and finished third in 1999 and fourth in 2000. She also drove in both seasons in the US Ferrari Challenge and took part in the Barber Dodge Pro Series in 2000 . In addition, she won the Panoz GT winter championship in 2000 .

In 2001 she took part in some races of the American Le Mans Series (ALMS) and the Le Mans Series and made her debut at the 24 Hours of Le Mans . She also gained further experience in formula racing at the Open Telefónica by Nissan . Starting for Vergani Racing , she finished 24th overall with one point, while her teammate Tomas Scheckter was runner-up. In 2002 she started again in the 24-hour race of Le Mans and again took part in races of the ALMS. In formula racing, Duno competed in three races in the World Series by Nissan , the former Open Telefónica by Nissan. She also started in the Formula Nissan 2000 , which was considered the springboard to the World Series by Nissan. While her team-mate Matteo Bobbi achieved the runner-up title, the Venezuelan only gained one point and finished the season in 18th place overall. In both series she started for Vergani Racing. In 2003 she stayed with Vergani and started in the World Series Light , the successor to Formula Nissan 2000. This time, Duno was able to score several points and finished eleventh in the overall standings at the end of the season. She also competed in a Porsche Supercup race .

In 2004 she returned to America and competed in two ALMS races. She won the LMP2 class once. In the overall ranking of the LMP2, she took eighth place. In 2005 she switched to the Grand-Am Sports Car Series and was eighth in the DP standings with a win. She also took part in a total of eight formula races in regional Skip Barber series. 2006 Duno stayed in this championship and finished 23rd overall in the DP ranking. In 2007, she only appeared in three races in the Grand-Am Sports Car Series. At 24 Hours of Daytona she finished second, which is the best finish of a woman in the history of this race.

IndyCar Series

In 2007 Duno also made her debut in the IndyCar Series . She competed in seven races for SAMAX Motorsport , including the Indianapolis 500 . At the race in Fort Worth , she achieved her best result of the season with an eleventh place. She finished the season in 20th place overall and second in the rookie classification . In 2008 she moved to Dreyer & Reinbold Racing and shared a cockpit with Townsend Bell . Duno contested eleven races, Bell six. Her best result was a 14th place in Joliet . In the overall standings she was 25th. In 2009 she stayed with Dreyer & Reinbold Racing and was used in nine races. With a 16th place as the best result, she finished 24th overall.

In 2010 Duno switched to Dale Coyne Racing and for the first time competed in a full season in the IndyCar Series. She could not qualify for the Indianapolis 500. Since she was particularly noticeable on the circuits with indisputable performances and sometimes lost up to 8 seconds per lap on the penultimate one and did not pay attention to the faster pilots when being lapped, she drove on parole since July 25th. At the end of the season she finished 23rd overall.

Personal

Duno has four Masters degrees (Organizational Development, Marine Engineering, Aquaculture and Marine Biology). She is also involved in programs to advance Hispanic youth into academic careers.

statistics

Career stations

• 1998: Venezuelan Porsche Cup (4th place)
• 1999: Womens Global GT Series (3rd place)
• 2000: Womens Global GT Series (4th place); Panoz GT Winter Championship (Champion)
• 2001: Open Telefónica by Nissan (24th place); American Le Mans Series
• 2002: American Le Mans Series, LMP900 (12th place); World Series by Nissan; Formula Nissan 2000 (18th place)
• 2003: World Series Light (11th place)
• 2004: American Le Mans Series, LMP2 (8th place)
• 2005: Grand-Am Sports Car Series , DP (8th place)
• 2006: Grand-Am Sports Car Series, DP (23rd place)
• 2007 : IndyCar Series (20th place); Grand-Am Sports Car Series, DP (38th place)
• 2008 : IndyCar Series (25th place)
• 2009 : IndyCar Series (24th place)
• 2010 : IndyCar Series (23rd place)

Individual results in the IndyCar Series

season	team	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9	10	11	12	13	14th	15th	16	17th	18th	19th	Points	rank
2007	SAMAX motorsport	HMS	STP	MOT	KAN 14	INDY 31	Mil	TXS 11	IOW 18	RIR 19	WGL	NSH	MDO	MIS 19	KTY	SNM	DET	CHI 15			96	20th
2008	Dreyer & Reinbold Racing	HMS 20	STP	MOT 1	LBH 1	CAN 16	INDY 19th	Mil	TXS 17	IOW 24	RIR	WGL 20	NSH 17	MDO 23	EDM	KTY 21	SNM	DET 23	CHI 14	SRF 2	140	25th
2009	Dreyer & Reinbold Racing	STP	LBH	CAN 16	INDY 20th	Mil	TXS 23	IOW	RIR	WGL 17	GOAL	EDM	KTY 20	MDO 21	SNM 17	CHI 21	MOT	HMS 17			113	24.
2010	Dale Coyne Racing	SAO 21	STP 24	ALA 24	LBH 25	KAN 26	INDY DNQ	TXS 23	IOW 23	WGL 23	GATE 26	EDM 25	MDO 23	SNM 22	CHI 19th	KTY 19	MOT 19	HMS 24			184	23.

( Legend )

¹ The races took place on the same day.

² No points were awarded.

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
2001	Dick Barbour Racing	Reynard 01Q-LM	John Graham	David Murry	failure	accident
2002	MBD Sportscar Team	Panoz LMP07	John Graham	Didier de Radiguès	failure	Electrics

Sebring results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
2002	MBD sports car	Panoz LMP07	Scott Maxwell	John Graham	failure	Electrics
2004	Taurus Racing	Lola B2K / 10	Phil Andrews	Justin Wilson	failure	Power transmission

Web links

Commons : Milka Duno  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Official website of Milka Duno

Individual evidence

1. ↑ “profile” (milkaduno.com; accessed September 29, 2010)
2. ↑ "Milka Duno signs with Dale Coyne" (Motorsport-Total.com on March 4, 2010)
3. ↑ "Duno disaster: IndyCars finally react" (Motorsport-Total.com on July 25, 2010)