Briefs | Motor sports: Driver Danica Patrick settles speeding ticket

Motor sports

Court records show Patrick has

received several speeding tickets: High-profile driver Danica Patrick paid a $196 fine to settle a speeding ticket after she was caught going 54 mph in a 35 mph zone last month in Scottsdale, Ariz.

Patrick, who in April became the first woman to win an IRL IndyCar Series race, was due in traffic court next week but paid the fine Wednesday, a Scottsdale City Court clerk said.

Patrick, 26, was pulled over by Scottsdale police Dec. 9 in her hometown while driving a 2007 Mercedes. A year ago, she was ticketed for driving 57 mph in a 40 mph zone in Scottsdale and was ordered to attend traffic school.

Scottsdale court records show the recent tickets are among several she has received in the past three years.

Popular attraction: Hundreds of thousands of people turned out in Buenos Aires, Argentina, to see the vehicles that will be used in the first Dakar Rally in South America.

Rally organizers expected 500,000 to cram the parade route. The 5,950 rally officially begins today, with a 456-mile stage south to Santa Rosa, Argentina. It is the 30th Dakar Rally — and the first outside Africa.

Hockey

U.S. loses despite outshooting Slovakia 47-19: Jaroslav Janus led Slovakia to a surprising quarterfinal victory over the United States in the IIHF world junior championship, making 44 saves in a 5-3 victory in Ottawa.

The U.S. team outshot Slovakia 47-19.

"We just kept trying to throw pucks at him," said American forward Jim O'Brien, who plays for the Seattle Thunderbirds of the Western Hockey League. "The dam just wouldn't break. We kept piling it on."

Slovakia will face Sweden in the semifinals today in the tournament for players under 20 years old. In the other semifinal, four-time defending champion Canada will play Russia.

NHL standout Gaborik to have hip surgery: Forward Marian Gaborik, 26, of the Minnesota Wild is to have surgery on his left hip Monday and will miss a minimum of 10 weeks.

Wild general manager Doug Risebrough has been considering trading him this season, but Gaborik has missed 30 of the team's 36 games — lowering his trade value.

Atlanta beats Canucks in shootout: Erik Christensen scored the deciding goal in a shootout to give the host Atlanta Thrashers a 4-3 victory over the Vancouver Canucks. The Canucks are two points behind Northwest Division-leading Calgary.

Ratings rise: Detroit's 6-4 win over the Chicago Blackhawks on Thursday at Wrigley Field, home of baseball's Chicago Cubs, beat last year's NHL outdoor game in Orchard Park, N.Y., by 12 percent in preliminary TV ratings.

NBC's telecast of the game in Chicago got an overnight rating of 2.9, according to Nielsen Media Research, up from last year's 2.6 rating for Pittsburgh's 2-1 shootout victory over Buffalo that attracted the biggest TV audience for an NHL game since 1996.

Tennis

Murray has Federer's number: Andy Murray of Scotland defeated Roger Federer of Switzerland again, beating the world's second-ranked player 4-6, 6-2, 7-6 (8-6) in the semifinals of the Capitala World Tennis Championship, an exhibition tournament in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

Murray will play top-ranked Rafael Nadal of Spain today for the winner-take-all prize of $250,000. Nadal beat Nikolay Davydenko of Russia 6-2, 6-3 in the other semifinal.

Murray entered the match with a 4-2 record over Federer.

Swimming

Gold medalist Saari dies: Roy Saari, who won a gold medal in the 800 relay at the 1964 Olympics, died Tuesday of heart failure at his Mammoth Lakes, Calif., home. He was 63.

Power viewing

Couch-potato champ repeats: Defending champion Stan Friedman, 47, a research librarian from New York, needed 18 hours, 48 minutes, 17 seconds of sports-watching time to outlast the competition at the second annual ESPN Zone Ultimate Couch Potato Competition in New York.

The participants, sitting in recliners in front of numerous televisions, weren't allowed to sleep or leave their recliners, except for restroom breaks once every eight hours.

Seattle Times news services