<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"Evolution can produce odd, if not unexpected results, which seems to describe one of the phenomena found in IndyCar racing. Based on my highly exhaustive research (a good five minutes on the innernets), it appears that between seven and 10 percent of the world&amp;#039;s population is left handed. As a member of that distinguished club, I&amp;#039;ve found that other lefties tend to gravitate towards each other\u2014if for no other reason than to simply acknowledge a fellow statistical anomaly\u2014and the same practice has gone on in the world of open-wheel racing for more than a decade. The most recent IndyCar race held in Brazil featured 25 drivers, which, based on the percentages, should have yielded one to two lefties in the field. But the actual figure was seven\u2014nearly a third of the field and well beyond the global norm.  Is there a link between the type of character who fits the demands of driving in the IndyCar Series, which boasts the most diverse circuits and the greatest speeds of any major championship, and the left-handed/right-brained drivers that compose such a large portion of the field? Between lefty Dario Franchitti, a four-time IndyCar Series champion and three-time Indy 500 winner, and fellow lefty Tony Kanaan, the 2004 IndyCar Series champion, plenty of success has been achieved. Add race-winning lefties like Oriol Servia, Ryan Briscoe and Marco Andretti to the list, along with up-and-comers JR Hildebrand and Ana Beatriz, and IndyCar has found yet another distinguishing trait within its ranks. &amp;quot;I know, it&amp;#039;s kind of crazy, isn&amp;#039;t it,&amp;quot; Servia told Road&amp;amp;amp;Track.com. &amp;quot;And it goes deeper than that. There was one year I was competing in Champ Car where like half the field, and I&amp;#039;m not kidding, was left handed. Half the field. It was just remarkable.&amp;quot; Servia, a native of Spain&amp;#039;s Catalonia region, is a proud lefty. He also has possibly the greatest artistic flair of any IndyCar driver, if not all top-tier professional drivers. His deep appreciation for fellow Catalan Salvador Dali is obvious\u2014take one look at his helmet\u2014and he credits his right-brained tendencies for how he conducts his life.  &amp;quot;There&amp;#039;s just something that goes along with being left handed,&amp;quot; he continued. &amp;quot;We clearly excel at driving race cars. Most of the lefties I know are very expressive and have their own style. And I don&amp;#039;t know; we are unique in the world; there aren&amp;#039;t many of us, but many of us have congregated in open-wheel racing. I&amp;#039;d hope somebody someday does a study to learn why you can find so many of us here in this sport, and this sport specifically. I&amp;#039;m intrigued to know why.&amp;quot; The Road Ahead is an ongoing series of reports on where we&amp;#039;ve been, where we are, and where we&amp;#039;re headed as it pertains to cars, motorsports, and the culture surrounding it all. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.roadandtrack.com/car-culture/a4518/the-road-ahead-lefties-in-indycar/?src=global_footer>