Kathy Rude
Kathy Rude (born 1957) was an American sports car driver who was one of the first female drivers to attract international attention. Growing up in Victoria, Canada, she began competing as a teenager in karting events. By her early 20s, after competing in Formula Ford and Formula Atlantic, she attracted the attention of several top-tier car owners, and tested an IndyCar owned by Dick Simon. She was a member of the original North American Toyota factory-sponsored IMSA GT Championship sports car team in 1981. In February 1982, co-driving a factory-sponsored Mazda RX-7 with Allan Moffat and Lee Mueller, she earned a GTU class victory at the 24 Hours of Daytona—the first woman ever to win a major professional sports car event. She signed a deal to make her debut at the Indianapolis 500 in 1984, but during an IMSA sports car event at Brainerd, Minnesota in July 1983, she suffered horrific injuries in a crash which ended her racing career. Noted sports car champion Brian Redman once referred to her as the only female driver he'd encountered who posed a genuine threat to win major professional automobile races. She is now a corporate safe driving instructor and speaker.
From 1987 to 1994 she led safe driving and new car intros for Audi of America, Inc., driver clinics for Boeing employees through the Boeing Employees Automobile Club and did training for the then-new Audi Quattro Club's first instructor classes. Kathy is also a breast cancer survivor including a stem cell transplant, trial drugs and radiation. Now doing well, she is married (since 1985) to Canadian sports-car racer and three-time Indianapolis 500 veteran Ludwig Heimrath, Jr. living in western Washington State.