Are motorsports fans ready to see a car screaming down the racetrack with a Tampax logo plastered across its hood? Better yet, is a company like Tampax ready to enter an arena long believed reserved for a male-dominated audience?

	Sarah Fisher is fast making a name for herself on the Indy Racing League circuit.

In an era of changing attitudes and changing demographics, race teams have found room on their vehicles for corporate sponsorships that range from beer and battery advertising to plugs for movies premieres and cures for erectile dysfunction, all products geared toward the male consumer. Seemingly taboo have been sponsorships by companies targeting a growing female audience.

No Tampax. No Revlon. No Guess jeans.

At least not yet anyway.

Women are fast finding a place in the racing world, both on the track and in the stands. Drivers like Shawna Robinson, Sarah Fisher and Angelle Savoie are trail blazers of a new era in auto racing, one that has helped to attract more and more women to auto and motorcycle races. Soon, it is believed, will come corporate sponsorships of products geared to a female crowd.

Forty percent of NASCAR fans are women. And in a recent exit interviews of fans at Indy Racing League events, the number of women who consider themselves fans is approaching 40 percent, Fisher's marketing agent, Eric DeBord, said. "Soon motorsports are going to be like the ball-and-stick sports, where's there's a 50-50 split."

With that changing demographic will come marketing opportunities for prominent female drivers like Fisher, Robinson and Savoie.

While Fisher and Robinson might have a tougher time attracting support from traditional sponsors of auto racing like battery and tire companies, Fisher said she realizes that her success might bring interest from companies that have never thought of motorsports as an advertising venue before.

"(IRL teammate) Robby Buhl would have a harder time than I would approaching a makeup or cosmetics company," Fisher said. "But his demographic appeal would suit an oil company better."

Savoie, the two-time defending NHRA motorcycle champion, said 37 to 40 percent of NHRA fans are now women, but none of her 12 sponsors are promoting female products or appear to be attempting to influence the buying behavior of women.

Case in point: her main sponsor, CVEC, makes exhaust systems for radio-controlled cars.

"You couldn't describe that as female-oriented and I don't believe the idea is for me to change who is buying their products," Savoie said.

Luckily, Fisher doesn't have to worry about getting creative in attracting main sponsorships right now. For the first time since Kroger dropped its support at the end of the season, Fisher has a corporate sponsor -- at least for one race.

In April, Fisher substituted for Buhl in the IRL's Firestone 500 at Nazareth Speedway in Pennsylvania. Her fourth-place finish convinced Buhl's sponsors Aventis, which makes allergy medication Allegra, and Dial, which makes laundry detergent Purex, to put Fisher behind the wheel of a second car in the Indianapolis 500.

One company that already believes in Fisher is Brake Parts, which signed the 21-year-old driver Wednesday to a four-year deal to endorse the company's Raybestos brakes. Raybestos will appear on Fisher's car, helmet and uniform and she will be featured on in-store advertising and on television commercials that will debut later this year.

"She's young, she handles herself very well and she comes across very sincere," said Larry Hoofnagle, director of marketing for Brake Parts Inc., which has been involved in motorsports sponsorship since 1957. "We also like her because 60 percent of brake repair choices are made by females."

On the contrary, Aventis spokeswoman Melissa Feltmann said her company's support of Fisher for the Indianapolis 500 "isn't about a man or woman thing."

Fisher, who is one of the most popular drivers in the Indy Racing League, says that one good race gave good value to the companies that were on her car.

"It's very interesting to see how many e-mails I've received from fans who say they have switched to Purex from another brand of laundry detergent due to watching me substitute for Robbie Buhl at Nazareth," Fisher said.

Even though Robinson hasn't raced well this year -- her best finish was 24th at the Daytona 500 -- by virtue of her gender alone she is an interesting story for the media.

"There's no question that I'm marketable," said Robinson, a 37-year-old mother of two. "Here I am sitting at 42nd or 43rd in points. We just finished 42nd in our last race and I'm still doing five interviews a week."

Although Fisher didn't race this year without a main sponsor, Robinson has been in six races and plans to run in another 18, even without corporate support.

"You have to run well to get a sponsor, but you need a sponsor to run well," Robinson said.

	“	Winning is the great shortcut to acceptance, popularity and endorsement potential. But if Anna Kournikova makes as much as she does without winning, someone like Sarah Fisher who blows Anna away on an accomplishment level should be able to hold her own in the business world. ”
		— Max Muhleman, president of IMG/Muhleman Marketing

For Fisher, the pressure is to perform well at the Indy 500, a race in which she has crashed and finished 31st the past two seasons. With three sponsors, including Air Trans Airlines, signed on for just the one race, she said she needs an impressive performance top attract sponsorship support for future races.

Driving well is important, but some say getting her first checkered flag down the road shouldn't be all that important to keeping sponsors.

"Winning is the great shortcut to acceptance, popularity and endorsement potential," said Max Muhleman, president of IMG/Muhleman Marketing. "But if Anna Kournikova makes as much as she does without winning, someone like Sarah Fisher who blows Anna away on an accomplishment level should be able to hold her own in the business world.

"You don't have to be called a four-time Daytona 500 winner or a nine-time points champion for you to be an important spokesperson."

Darren Rovell, who covers sports business for ESPN.com, can be reached at darren.rovell@espn.com.