Katherine Legge

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Katherine Legge

Image:No image.png
Nationality Flag of the United Kingdom British
Champ Car # 11
Current team Dale Coyne Racing
Race starts 28
Series Championships 0
Wins 0
Podium finishes 0
Pole positions 0
First Champ Car race 2006 Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach
Last Champ Car race 2007 Gran Premio Tecate edit

Katherine Legge (pronounced /ˈlɛg/ "leg") (born 12 July 1980 in Guildford, Surrey, UK) is a British auto racing driver, currently racing in the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters.

In 2005, Legge competed in the Toyota Atlantic Championship. She won the series opener at Long Beach in her first career Toyota Atlantic start. In doing so, she became the first woman to win a major open-wheel race in North America. Legge went on to win her second and third races of the season at Edmonton and San Jose. She finished the season 3rd in the championship with three wins and five podiums. She also received the Toyota Atlantic BBS Rising Star 2005 Award.

Prior to joining the Toyota Atlantic series, she raced in several developmental open-wheel series in Britain, including Formula 3, Formula Renault and Formula Ford. In 2000 she was the first woman to achieve a pole in a Zetec race. In 2001 she beat Kimi Räikkönen's lap record and achieved a pole, and she was the first woman to receive the BRDC's "Rising Star" accolade. She received the 2005 RACER Magazine "Most Promising Road Racer of The Year" award, a title that had been awarded every year since 2002 to A. J. Allmendinger. Other drivers that have won the award include Räikkönen, Jenson Button, Cristiano Da Matta, Alex Barron, Giancarlo Fisichella, Greg Moore, and Gil de Ferran.

Legge made history in November 2005 when she became the first woman to test a Formula One car since 2002 (Sarah Fisher) [1] on the second and third days (22 and 23 November) of the Minardi team's final testing session at the Autodromo Vallelunga near Rome. After she crashed after 2 laps on her first run on the track, it was decided to postpone the test until the following day, on which she completed 27 laps with a best lap time of 1 min 21.176 sec.[2] She was also the first woman to test an A1 Grand Prix car, on December 9-11 2005 with A1 Team Great Britain.[3]

In the off-season, Legge tested a Champ Car once for the Rocketsports Racing and twice for PKV Racing. In February 2006, it was announced that she would drive for PKV Racing in the 2006 Champ Car season. In June, she became the first woman to lead a lap in series history. She finished 6th at Milwaukee and 8th at Cleveland. She lies 3rd in the Rookie of the Year honours, and has helped England to 2nd in the Nations Cup.

Legge suffered a violent accident at the 2006 Champ Car race at Road America when the rear wing of her car broke[4]. She was able to walk away from the car unharmed despite the high speed and violent nature of the crash, doing a candid TV interview shortly afterward[5].

Legge drove for Dale Coyne Racing in 2007, and a her best result in the series has been 6th place, twice.

For the 2008 season she is racing in the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters for Audi with the Futurecom TME Team.

Contents

[edit] Motorsports Career Results

[edit] American Open Wheel

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position)

[edit] Toyota Atlantic

Year Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Team Rank Points
2005 Polestar LBH
1
MOT
5
POR 1
9
POR 2
3
CLE 1
Ret
CLE 2
5
TOR
6
EDM
1
SAN
1
DEN
17
ROA
2
MON
4
Polestar 3rd 267

[edit] Champ Car

Yr Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Team Rank Points
2006 PKV LBH
8
HOU
14
MTY
14
MIL
6
POR
13
CLE
8
TOR
Ret
EDM
13
SAN
12
DEN
9
MTL
13
ROA
Ret
SUR
Ret
MEX
16
PKV 16th 133
2007 Dale Coyne LVG
6
LBH
10
HOU
Ret
POR
Ret
CLE
Ret
MTT
11
TOR
Ret
EDM
Ret
SAN
Ret
ROA
Ret
ZOL
11
ASS
12
SUR
Ret
MEX
Ret
Dale Coyne 15th 108

[edit] Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters

Yr Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Team Rank Points
2008 Futurecom TME HOC
18
OSC
17
MUG
18
EUR
15
NOR
ZAN
NUR
BRA
CAT
FRA
HOC
Futurecom TME 18th 0

[edit] References

  1. ^ X, X. "X", 2005. Retrieved on 12 Sept. 2007. 
  2. ^ staff writer, -. "Katherine Legge impressively quick at Vallelunga", GPUpdate.net, 23 November 2005. Retrieved on 2007-09-12. 
  3. ^ Gulfnews: Legge first lady driver to grace AI Grand Prix
  4. ^ staff writer, -. "Allmendinger wins RA as Legge survives major crash", Crash.net, 24 September 2006. Retrieved on 2007-09-12. 
  5. ^ Associated Press, -. "Allmendinger wins crash-marred Champ Car race; Legge escapes injury", USA Today, publishing AP material, 24 September 2006. Retrieved on 2007-09-12. 

[edit] External links

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